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Through the Ethiopian Highlands back to Addis Ababa
Mist and ColdThe first part from Lalibela we descend on the paved road we took on our way in. But then, we dive into the dust, and head up again. It gets colder and colder, and all of a sudden, we disappear into the mist. We hardly believe we are still in Africa, but some time later we descend again and the temperature gets better.We make camp at a piece of land surrounded by thorn bushes. Our overland truck just crushes over those. Again, we have to keep the locals at a distance, but appoint one of them as our guard and fire maker. We celebrate the birthday of one of the group, and dance into the late evening, despite the showers of rain that hit us. Life on the road can be great fun, despite the circumstances. Horse and carriage The following day we enjoy the views over the Ethiopian highlands again. At a larger town we stop, and are surrounded again by all the locals. We notice that people use horse and carriage here for transport, something we didn’t see earlier. When we start driving again, we go up to the highest pass in Ethiopia: 3500 meters high. It gets very cold on the truck, and we disappear in the fog again. On top of the pass, we enter a long tunnel. It is still named after Mussolini, who occupied Ethiopia between 1936 and 1941.After the tunnel we descend again. We try to descend as much as possible, so it gets less cold. But after a while, the road doesn’t descend any further, so we make camp on a windy, cold field. We have a cold night, and some of us even have headaches from the high altitude. RicherThe last part to Addis Ababa doesn’t get much warmer. Addis Ababa is still located in the Ethiopian highlands, and having a few showers doesn’t make things warmer. We do notice that people are richer, or less poor than in the North. People are better dressed, there is some industry and a number of signs indicate sponsored projects. A pity that apparently most development money remains close to the capital.
The route back to Addis through the Ethiopian highlands was a tough one. High mountain passes are nice, but not on an open truck. The people here are poor, and different from those we met on the route along the Blue Nile gorge. But we didn’t take much time to explore that any further. We long to go south, to warmer regions. Follow our World Journey!! Next Stop: Lake Langano Return from Ethiopian Highlands to Travel Africa Return from Ethiopian Highlands to Adventure Travel Tales and Tips
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We reach the outskirts of Addis Ababa. As we approach the city center, the loam huts are more and more replaced by brick houses and higher buildings. Addis is in fact a nice city, although there are a lot of beggars in the center. We stop at the supermarket, and as soon as we leave the truck, we are surrounded by a few of them. So after changing money, accessing the Internet, and having a drink we decide to follow the truck to the hotel where we make camp.
