Just a short one today. After a long dusty ride since Nekempte we are now in Addis Ababa. The big lively capital of Ethiopia.
To get here from Nekempte our map showed us a big fat red line, representing a sealed major road. Reality presented us with a 200km construction site. Featuring some of the worst sections of road we have done so far in Ethiopia. Rough, rocky and unbelievably dusty. Often the surface was covered in deep layers of superfine dust. The bikes just dived in and somehow floated across. With big clouds behind them. But when a bus just flies through this with some 80km/h the resulting dust clouds are just spectacular. There are no words for it. It's huge. It's like the perfect dust storm. For many hundred metres you see nothing. You ride blindly through an impenetrable curtain of orangeness.
However rough the road was though, our bikes did an excellent job through it. Here in Addis I just got the airfilter out again. Just two days after I cleaned it it was again completely covered in a thick brownish layer of hardened dust. It's good to have some hot water here. Apart from that the bikes are still happy.
Also, after half a year of daily use, the Pacsafe meshes around my side panniers start showing some signs of fatigue. Little bits of steel wire start to brake and then stick out as sharp little needles. One such worn area already ripped a few minor holes into the canvas of the panniers. So I decided to take the Pacsafes off. They are a real pain anyway if you need to quickly access stuff inside your panniers. After all these months in Africa I believe we can trust people enough and even without Pacsafe protection nothing will be stolen from the panniers. We shall see.

Addis Ababa is a surprisingly nice city for it's size. I guess again it is the fact that most people cannot afford a private car which keeps the traffic flowing nicely and the air relatively clean. The mix of old russian cars and east german trucks in perfect condition and also the many communist style concrete buildings can make you think you are some years back somewhere in eastern Europe. If it wasn't for the Ethiopian locals. Even in the city they are more than friendly, often just shouting a 'Welcome' towards us or simply wishing us a 'Good journey'.
We plan to stay here for a couple of days. Undusting ourselves. And deciding which countries to go to next. Depending on paperwork. Eritrea currently is really hard to travel through. Of what we heard you are very restricted, need hard to get travel permits for every little area outside the capital. And an exit permit if you want to leave the country. Which takes some time to get. And then our preferred exit point, the border to Sudan, is mostly closed. So we consider visiting Djibouti and instead of continuing to Eritrea we would come back to Ethiopia. Issue here is that we need a new Ethiopia visa. For our current visa we had so send our passports to our home countries to get it. It's expensive and we don't want to do that again. So if we are lucky, Ethiopia Immigration might change our single entry visa to a multiple entry visa and we will go to Djibouti. If they don't then our next country will be Sudan. We shall see.

Not to forget, today is our national holiday back in Australia. So to everyone who follows us from back home, have a Happy Australia Day!!!

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no risk - no fun

Long distance public transport in Ethiopia - these Isuzu buses are the workhorse of it


In Nekempte town centre


Typical scene for rural Ethiopia.


Dust is everywhere.


Private transport is mostly done using these donkey carts or horse carts. Private vehicles are very rare in Ethiopia. Often the streets in towns are clogged with these donkey driven carts instead.

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no risk - no fun

One of the kids of a family where we camped next door to.


Dog watching the cattle


Similar to the Masai in Tanzania big herds of cattle are often only controlled by one or two kids.


Farmer proudly showing off his cows


Again, whenever we stop a big crowd forms instantly around us. Martin once counted more than a hundret people. They might be hard to see but our motorbikes are in the centre of all this.


Look down at the camera!

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no risk - no fun

Marvelous report Marco! Wonderful style you have. I look forward to following along after just now catching up on all your adventures.

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http://ridefar.typepad.com

Hi again from Ethiopia. Since the last update we have left Addis Ababa and are now back in counry Ethiopia. Heading North towards Gondar.
We spent three nights in Addis Ababa, enjoying city life and trying to organise things. Enjoying city life is easy. There is loads of good food available in Addis. Not just the typical Ingera (something like a sourdough pancake). In Addis there is also pizza, pasta, salads... There is fresh stuff like youghurt. And fruit. Bananas, mangoes, pawpaws, even cherries. And they sell fantastic fresh fruit juices. So yeah, we really enjoyed city life in Addis.
Organising things is not that easy though. I don't even know where to start here. But seemingly easy things are being made so so incredibly complicated. It's unbelievable.
I thought it might be a good idea to have some more cash US$ for when we go to Sudan. What I had in mind was an easy transaction - withdrawing Ethiopian currency from the ATM, take it to the bank and exchange it for US$.
Well, I soon learned that there is a procedure to follow. Some banks simply do not hand out hard currency to non citizens. Full stop. However, the 'Commercial Bank Of Ethiopia', which I understand is government owned opened up a chance if I would go to their head office. There, at the foreign exchange counter I was friendly told that I can only receive dollars if I have a visa and a flight ticket to a country which uses dollars. Well, I had a visa to Sudan but obviously no flight ticket. So motorbike riders will never get Dollars? The poor guy at the counter never had to deal with such an unusual case. So I was promptly sent behind the counters to talk to the supervisor. Within the office section of the bank. I could just walk in. The administration section of the head office of the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, a huge room with many desks and people working hard on them. No one seemed to have a problem with me walking around there aimlessly trying to find some 'Abraham'. No security, no questions, nothing. Once I found Abraham he listened carefully to my story, asked to see my passport and as so often, said 'no problem but I have to ask my boss'. Of course the boss was not around right then. Might be back in one hour. Maybe. So one hour and I was back too. Walking straight into the bank's back rooms as if it was the normal thing to do. No one seemed to be unhappy with me walking around there. And now the big boss was there too. So I could file an 'application to exchange Ethiopian Birr to US$'. It looked like a form for a visa application. Complete with passport number, visa number, full address, purpose of journey etc. And a field for 'ticket number'. Which I left blank. Big boss filled in that I was travelling by motorbike. The completed application had now to be handed in to be approved, signed and stamped by someone important somewhere else. Which took a while. But it was approved! So happily I received my copy of the stamped form. To take it with me out to the counter. To be able to exchange my money. And soon I was the proud owner of some fresh US$ notes and a declaration to explain the origin of my foreign currency. Which I am supposed to keep till I leave Ethiopia. Just as a matter of comparison: changing Dollars to Birr takes 5 minutes. Changing Birr to Dollars 3 hours.
Patience is certainly a commodity of great use in Africa. Sometimes we can't help it but there is not enough patience in us for the procedures here. Just one more example: we wanted to visit Djibouti. Sounds easy. Visa for Djibouti is also easy to get, no problem. However, since Eritrea is closed for overland travellers from Djibouti we would need to come back to Ethiopia. If you remember, to get our Ethiopia visa we needed to send our passports to our home countries so that the local Ethiopian Embassy could stamp a visa in it. Which is expensive and a lot of trouble. Entering Djibouti would void our current single entry visa for Ethiopia and we would then need to send the passports to our home country again to receive a new visa to return to Ethiopia. We did not like that idea. Alternatively, since we were already in Addis Ababa, we could (maybe) change our single entry visa into a multiple entry visa. Not sure if that was possible, opinions about that vary a lot. But we could ask at Immigration. So we thought. Go there, ask them, change visa - all good. Maybe one hour? So we went there. Immigration in Addis Ababa is a compound of multiple huge buildings. And there's a million people in there. Once we made it through the metal detector at the main gate we could read a huge signboard telling you where to go for which purpose. We narrowed our choices down to an office for 'foreigner reception', a 'visa office' and a 'general information'. The 'visa office' sounds good, right? Arriving there we found a queue all along the aisle and back. Lots of patient people. We waited for 15 minutes, there was no movement whatsoever. We tried to jump the queue just to ask if this visa change is possible. Or if this would be the right office for our inquiry. But we got pushed out of the room again without reply.
Befor we wait here forever for nothing, let's ask at the 'foreigner reception'! Over there, in a queue of probably a hundred people there were no more than five foreigners. Instead Ethiopians extended their ID card or did all sorts of other domestic stuff. Why was it called 'Foreigner Reception' again? The queue was just huge. Should we really wait here for hours just to find out if or if not our visas can be changed? No thanks. So we started our walk across the compound to the 'General Information'. Which was a big hall in a separate building near the main entrance. In there again, a hundred people formed a big impenetrable crowd around the information desk. There was one (!) lady, all by herself, working on that desk. Well, that was one busy job. She however did not seem to be too stressed. We could see it would take hours before we would get anywhere near that desk. Just to ask for information? By now both, Martin and me, were beyond the limits of our patience. I admire people who can sit there in a chaos like this, sit there with patience beaming from their face. Sitting there watching a non-moving queue for hours. But for us, there and then, we just couldn't do it. We just couldn't. I though we are patient people. I guess we're not. We would have waited if we knew they would change our visa. But what a gamble! Waiting many hours just to ask and then waiting many more hours to get it done?
So, consequently, we will not be able to visit Djibouti. But at least we keep our wits together. And keep enjoying Ethiopia.
I am mow sitting in my tent, hidden behind a Eucalypt plantation some 500km north west of Addis Ababa. Close to a little dirt road just west of Lake Tana. There is clear sky with millions of stars above us. Martin is writing his diary in his tent while I am typing this report. It's cold, really cold here at night. Our elevation is close to 2500m and we have winter. From the distance the wind carries the howling of dogs and the voices of people across to us. From a village somewhere north of here. The half moon is illuminating the landscape outside the tent to a degree that contours of our surroundings remain visible. Mostly Eucalypt trees, stockpiles of straw and lots of rocks. Some cold black shadows of mountains in the distance.
Since Addis Ababa we mainly travelled on tarmac roads. In Addis I installed the cheap Vee Rubber knobbly rear tyre. I wonder for how long it will last. But right now I am very happy with it. The old Pirelli Scorpion was completely bold after the 18000 exciting km it carried the bike around. All the way from Perth to Addis Ababa.

We travelled through the Blue Nile Gorge, a big canyon carved by the Blue Nile, overshadowed by two big bridges. The Blue Nile will now be our companion for many km, we will meet it again and again. Until it flows together with the White Nile in Karthoum, forming the Nile river. Which will stay our companion for many thousand more km through Sudan and Egypt. As for now, it was the first meeting with any of the Niles. And we met an already impressive river.
The same Blue Nile Gorge was the scene of a horrific accident less than a week ago. An overland bus overshot one of the many bents down towards the gorge. And rolled down the steep embankment. Until a tree stopped it in it's path many meters below the road where it caught fire. 42 people died here. Less than a week ago. The burnt out wreckage was still there. As was the gap in the concrete barrier. Not far from the wreck in a clearing next to the road we found dozens of used rubber gloves and wrappings for emergency medication on the ground. A very sobering sight.

The landscape here appears much dryer than down in Etiopia's south. Everything now shines with a golden touch, a reflection from the neverending fields of cut straw. During the day it gets very hot. It was probably that heat which has molten the tarmac. The road is filled with deep ruts, molten into the bitumen. Often there are subsidences, the tarmac not broken but continuing smoothly into a hole. Or forming wave patterns. In many sections the white centre line forms a snakeline, weirdly offsetting to the left and to the right.

People here look among fhe poorest people we have met anywhere on this journey. Clothes are dirty and ripped. Most walk barefeet, dusty black feet on the hot rocky ground. People are very thin, skin and bones really. They are of a different kind up here in Amhara region. Still greeting us friendly along the roadside, they no longer crowd us or our bikes when we stop. Nor did they come to our tents tonight or last night. Just watching us from the distance for a while and then continueing their things.

Similar to other areas in Ethiopia people stick closely together. We often see men holding hands. Or walking along with their hands on each others shoulder. There's always groups of people. Groups of men, groups of women. And groups lf kids. Who greet us the loudest.
For us, the petrol problem has re-occured since leaving Addis Ababa. In average only one out of ten petrol stations has any petrol for sale. At the moment we survive thanks to my big long range tank and Martin's two 10 litre jerry cans. But we don't know what the situation further North will be like, even further away from the capital. We heard even on the Sudan side of the border there will be no petrol for some hundred km. A southbound overlander told us that the closest petrol stations to either side of the border who sell petrol are still some 750km away from each other. We might have a real problem there and might need to fill some Coke bottles to take with us.

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no risk - no fun

Snapshot from Addis Ababa


St George's church in Addis Ababa


My freshly installed cheap VeeRubber tyre. How long might it last for? I will get a proper rear tyre in around two weeks. The VeeRubber should hopefully make it that long.


Our first glimpse at the Blue Nile


The road West of Lake Tana is pretty rocky.


We camped here in the backyard of a local Police station for one night. The Police building is made of timber, mud and dried cow droppings. Helped with some corrugated iron sheets.

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no risk - no fun

Another 'Hello' from Ethiopia. I am sitting here by myself just outside my tent halfway between Gondar and Axum in Ethiopia's North. The moon reached it's three quaters full stage and is brightly illuminating the landscape around me. Down South the grey walls of the mighty Simian Mountains are visible as a dark shade in the moonlight. Somewhere up there, looking down, is Martin.
Two day ago we left Gondar, one of the old capitals of an ancient Ethiopian empire. Back then, in the 15th century, it was emperor Fasilada who transformed Gondor into a beautiful wealthy city, an envy of it's time. With mighty castles, beautiful churches, and big baths. Most of it is still visible today, some in ruins, others still in use. For it's contribution to the history of Ethopia Gondar even achieved Unesco World Heritage listing. We spent three days there, exploring all the treasures and enjoying city life once more.
Unfortunately Martin's motorbike is in some trouble. Has been for some time but it is now escalating. The old typical problem with Africa Twin bikes struck him when his petrol pump stopped working. Well, that happened some weeks back. Back then he was still able to get 300km out of a tank by force of gravity alone, without petrol pump. For some reason the range decreased dramatically over time though and is now only less then 200km, sometimes the bike already stops after just over 100km. There is still a lot more petrol in the tank but gravity alone is not enough make it flow to the carburator. Combined with the problems in sourcing petrol in Ethiopia this is not good. For our next stage in this trip, the 'historic circuit' from Gondar to the Simian Mountains, Axum and Lalibela, our route leads us through very remote areas with reputedly bad roads and an uncertain fuel situation. So Martin better left his bike in Gondar for the time being and is travelling by bus. Whereas I don't like buses (I mean old dirty slow overcrowded Isuzus without aircon for days on end) and keep travelling with my little Suzuki. Along the way we will catch up every now and then until we complete our circuit back in Gondar. Currently there is a parcel somewhere on it's way to us from Germany. Containing the new fuel pump, some fuel hose and other spare parts for the Honda. And a new front tyre for Martin and a new rear tyre for me. Until the parcel's arrival I will travel on my cheap Thai made Vee Rubber tyre. Which, I must admit, is surprisingly good. Particularly for the gravel and dust roads around here. My little Suzuki is handling that stuff perfectly thanks to the new tyre. It's a big improvement from my worn out to boldness old Pirelli tyre. You don't read too many positive opionions in the HUBB concerning Vee Rubber tyres. But I really can't complain.

So today was my second day riding alone. I met Martin yesterday in Debark and started from there towards Axum this morning. I was also able to source three water bottles full of dirty petrol in Debark. The only petrol available after engaging the whole town to find some for me. Leaving it for one night made most of the flakes settle and the water content accumulate at the bottom so that I had some four litres of clean good petrol to use this morning. It should take me beyond Axum and I hope somewhere along the way there would be more petrol to buy. I really hope. Petrol is currently my headache number one.
The road North of Debark today was stunning. I can honestly say it was the most scenic road I ever took my little Suzuki on. Just past Debark the road descends down from the mountains. Offering views into a huge valley of the Simian Mountain range. The world here shows all shades of brown, it is incredibly dry and apart from some scattered green Acacia trees you see only golden brown grass on dark brown soil. For the rest of the day the road continued along the edge of the mighty Simians, meandering down into the valley and up again along a cliff into of the mountains. You don't know where to look first. The Simian Mountains are basically a plateau at an elevation of around 3500 - 4500m. From the outside they appear as a huge wall of steep grey rock. When they road traverses a valley it's elevation is only around 1500m. At the edge of the Simians it looks like some little mountains did brake away. There is tall pinacles and big dome shaped mountains rising high from the valley floor. And there is one little gravel road winding it's way through this. And one little Suzuki with it's lone rider disappearing in the shear vastness of the landscape. Going up into a fresh cold breeze and going down again into a dry and hot oven. There's eagles and vultures circling above, monkeys playing on the road. There is waterfalls right next to the road. Where I could clean the dust off my visor. I really loved riding this road, absolutely loved it. Every metre of it. Even if it was slow going. It's rocky, dusty and very steep. Steep in inclines and steep in corners. But slowly and steadily my little Suzuki and me, we travelled along, climbed up, rolled down and held our breath with every new vista around the corner. Neverending smiles inside my dusty helmet.
Part of the road are still construction site. And in these we travelled litterally within the construction area. Around the working bulldozers. In between the trucks. And beside the excavators digging up dirt into the tray of a waiting truck. Some parts of this are truly hair rasing. E.g. if a bulldozer is halfway through bulldozing an area he will simply revers out and make room for you to pass. But you need to pass beyond his halfway-through mark and then climb a wall of rock to continue along soft dirt till, some fifty metres on, the road resumes. This is a particularly cool adventures when the soft ground has been soaked in water to avoid dust. But my little Suzuki made it through all this, slowly but steadily as usual. I am very happy to have an off-road capable bike like her in these circumstances. It's an awesome bike.
Dust remains our companion in Ethiopia. It is everywhere. It stopped accumulating on the bike because there is no room for more dust. Fortunately along this route there is not much traffic so the dense dust clouds from buses and trucks are not too numerous. For the many 180 degree corners though I kept catching my own dust clouds. And when these clouds hit you they do it properly. I just cleaned my airfilter sock again this evening, fully covered in thick brown dirt. And this is only half way to Axum. And the map shows the dust road continuing many more km beyond Axum.
For the beauty of the road today I made only 100km. Took me all day. Because I took a million pictures. It's hard not to. And again, when I stopped I met friendly people and time just flew by. At one stop a group of people sitting on the ground waived to me and pointed into their big metal cups. So I curiously turned around to see what they had in there. Well, they called it . But I would not call it so. It was a mustard coloured liquid which profusely smelled like vinegar. And tasted like vinegar mixed with alcohol. And they drank it out of half litre cups. In order to not ride after drinking and not to upset my poor empty stomach with stuff like this I better stayed away from it and had a Pepsi instead. But I must have been sitting there for over an hour, they played Etbiopian music for me from their little chinese mobile phones speakers, one guy even danced, we shared some tomatoes with chilli and tried to communicate without speaking each others language. A nice and welcome break during the mid day heat.
For camping I found a pretty good spot as well. I turned into a small road signposted as a Farmers Cooperative. It turned a bit bumpy and crossed a small river but after a while I found a building with some people working in the green corn fields around it. They agreed to me camping there for one night. It is really cool because here is a river to wash the dust off myself. There is a view towards the big rock walls of the Simian Mountains. And there is good company. It is almost embarassing how friendly these people are. Most went home after finishing their field work for the day. But some stayed. And they insist on sleeping here, in the field, with me. So I will sleep in my tent and three others promised to return after dinner to sleep in the open on the dirt around my tent. Even though they have a home with a bed, a wife and children. Just to keep me company. My repeated assurances that it was not necessary did not help. So I will see if they really return. Turning them back would be rude and not polite, so what can I do? I still feel bad though.

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no risk - no fun

Another day, another town. I am now in Shire (say 'Sheere'), a town that was previously known as Inda Silase. It is quite big and offers a lot of comfort for dusty travellers like me. First of all, and most importantly, the service station sells petrol! I took no chances and immediately filled up the tank of my little Suzuki until it overflowed. Also, there is a tar road! And this will continue almost all the way to Lalibela, 750km south of here. My map still shows the dusty gravel road continuing some 200km further. Which now means no more dust! To celebrate these two happy events I booked into a cheap hotel (AU$ 2.80) overlooking my new favourite OilLibya petrol station (to make sure it was not just a dream). And also let the hotel wash all my clothes. Which returned probably a kg lighter for having all their dust removed. Happy times!
From where I camped last night it was only a 85km ride along a much better quality dirt road. The construction along this section was much more advanced. So I found a perfectly smooth and nicely graded and compacted gravel surface, ready to have the tarmac put on it.
Last night, by the way, the three guys came back as promised. And slept next to my tent. Unbelievable. And people here get up so early! Just before sunset, some 6:30am they already showed signs of anxiety why I was still sleeping. So I had no chance but getting up too. But still, it was nice. One of my new friends there gave me a long tour around the irrigation area. It is quite a smart system, built by UN people three years back. Basically some water is diverted out of a river along a half meter wide concrete channel. Which ends up back in the river maybe 2km further. In it's side wall the concrete channel has some openings every few hundred metres which can be opened and closed. If they are open, some water will flow out and into little dug out channels in the soil. Where it feeds a whole network of small channels within the corn or tomato or onion fields. Where exactly the water goes is controlled by people blocking these little dirt channels with little mounds of soil. Simple but very effective. At the end of the tour I was even given a big paw paw to take with me and eat later!

Now, that I am here in Shire I will probably stay for a day or two and then continue to Axum, another ancient World Heritage listed former capital of a powerful Ethiopian empire. I am travelling the 'Historic Circuit' after all, so bring on the ruins!

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no risk - no fun

Gondar, Royal Enclosure


This little Suzuki did an awesome job up and down the rough serpentine road north of Debark


It easily one of the most scenic routes you can ride your motorcycle along!


The scale of the landscape is such that you feel really small. Everything is drenched in shades of brown. Partly by the light reflecting from the dry vegetation, partly by the layer of dust covering everything.


Rock domes at the edge of the Simian Mountains and small rivers down in the valleys provide a spectacular sight.


The UN sponsored irrigation project where I could camp for one night.


Just imagine the sense of freedom you have when you ride your favourite motorbike along the edge of the world. The wind at this elevation is cold which gives you goose bumps, yet the sun burns your skin. The same cold wind carries the dust and the smell of dry grass to you. Every bit of you is covered in dry dust. You hear your bike's engine as you slowly move along the dusty road while this sound combines with the sound of crickets and some donkeys and cows in the distance. Every now and then you meet people, covered in dusty blankets for warmth walking along the road, raising their hand and bowing their head to greet you. You have this for days. The only bike rider in an endless landscape. You're happy. You feel free!


Old remnants of war on the road side. I guess these parts of a tank have been resting here since the Eritrea - Ethiopia war in the nineties


The road meandering up and down. What you can't see is the rocky surface of the road or the sometimes 100mm deep dust layer hiding the sharp rocks underneath.

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no risk - no fun

The first six months of this trip are now completed. Which means we are beyond the half way mark. I thought it's time for a little half way statistic:

Countries travelled: 11

Km since leaving Sydney: 24000

Flat tyres: 1 (near Mpika, Zambia)

number of times of having the bike dropped: stopped counting long time ago

Number of oil changes: 4 (Perth, Kasane, Mwanza and Arba Minch)

Bike parts replaced: chain, sprockets, tyres, brake pads and spark plugs in Perth before leaving Australia at 5000km
left mirror and speedo light bulb after it arrived damaged in South Africa after the flight at 5000km
fuel hose in Nairobi (started to rip open alongs it's seam) at 19800km
rear tyre in Addis Ababa at 23000km
That's all!

Highest Elevation: 3500m (Dorse, Ethiopia)

Lowest elevation: sea level (Indian Ocean beaches in Western Australia, Mocambique and Tanzania)

Number of serious river crossings: 1 (Luangwa River, Zambia)

Visited capital cities: 8 (Pretoria, Mbabane, Maputo, Lusaka, Dar Es Salaam, Kigali, Nairobi and Addis Ababa)

Countries having their National holidays during our visit: 5 (Swaziland, Mocambique, Botswana, Tanzania, Ethiopia)

Photos taken: 1430


And some personal stats:

Most favorite country: Zambia

Most favourite city: Mwanza, Tanzania

Most impressive natural sight: Serengeti NP, Tanzania

Most impressive man made sight: Gikongoro Genocide Memorial, Rwanda

Most scenic road: between Debark and Maitsebri, Ethiopia

Favourite local food: chips mayai, Tanzania (omelette of chips, eggs and veggies)

Least favourite local food: some local fruit similar to custard apple, never remembered the name, giving me the worst diarreah on this trip, Ethiopia

Top three things I miss from home: 1. friends and
family
2. clean toilets
3. clean drinkable tap water

Thanks again everyone for following our adventure for this long! Your interest keeps us going even further!

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no risk - no fun

Just wanted to say how much I have enjoyed travling with you. You have done a wonderful job of putting me in the pillion seat. By the way this is the first time I have sent a reply so if it comes across as awkword please forgive.

Wow bbarr, thank you! I feel very honored for being the receipient of your first ever HUBB post! Cheers mate!

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no risk - no fun

My last day in Shire (or Inda Silase, still unsure about that town's real name) turned out to be a pretty cool day. In a surprising turn of events I run into two fellow Aussies who were also stuck there for a day, waiting for their bus South. Lea and Andrew from Melbourne principally travel by bicycle, however, the road between Gondar and Axum is steep and rough enough for them to decide to catch a bus instead. All three of us having nothing really to do in Shire we spent a great day together having juice and coffee and dinner. The first Aussies on this trip since Zambia! It's been nice hearing the homely accent again.

Continuing the 60km to Axum I had to remind myself how awesome everything around me actually is. It's weird, after all those months in Africa you get so used to things. Really cool things. Like the line of people in traditional dress you're passing along the road. Or how you switch down to first gear to negotiate your way through a group of donkeys and cows on the road. How you park your bike next to a Camel at the petrol station. Or how you overtake an ancient colourful Isuzu bus with local music blasting from a speaker outside. Or how you compete for road space with the blue Bajaj Tuktuks in towns. Pretty cool feeling to be right in there with my little Suzuki.

The road to Axum has taken me finally to my destination, I am now comfortably camping at a nice hotel in the old royal city. And Axum is awesome. Not at first sight. To be honest, I passed through without even noticing I was there. 15km later I asked someone and promptly had to turn back. Back in the 1st century AD Axum was the centre of the universe for northern Africa, the mighty capital of a huge empire ranging from Egypt to the Middle East and covering much of modern day Ethiopia, Sudan, Eritrea, Somalia and bits of the Arabian peninsula. Apparently a flourishing rich city full of palaces and grandeur.
Today it is a small town, almost forgotten by the world. Although for orthodox Ethiopians Axum still is the centre of their world. Or better the 'Mariamtsion', a huge church which is said to house the Arc of the Covenant. For non-historians like me: the Arc of the Covenant is the box which contains the original stones which Moses received on Sinai Mountain inscribed with the ten commandments. Not surprisingly there is a constant pilgrimage going to this church, people from all over Ethiopia come here to visit and to buy their 'icons' for home. These 'icons' are really cool little things. Cheap ones are made of timber, expensive ones of brass or even silver and gold. They are small, like a matchbox or a packet of tissues. Some are shaped like a cross, some like a book and some like the legendary 'Arc of the Covenant'. What they have in common is, that they are all handmade in a monastery near Axum (so I was told). And all have one or two little 'doors' behind which colourful scenes of the orthodox belief are painted. Hand painted. Each one is unique. They sell for between AU$ 5 and 25. Like a little antique shrine to take home with you.
Whatever the legend says, no one actually knows if the Arc of the Covenant really is in Axum. The church does not let anyone near that shrine. Apparently if you come to close you go up in flames.

However, the whole pilgrimage story pushes the grand history of Axum in a far corner where it is easily forgotten. There are fields of obelisks, there are tombs to rival the ones of the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. Old palaces in ruins. But no one there. In most of the sites I was one of only a handful of visitors or completely by myself. Which makes the whole thing really awesome. Axum is Indiana Jones Central.
My personal favorite is the tomb of King Kaleb, some 2km outside the city. It's actually two tombs, maybe even more. No one bothered to check yet. On arrival I showed my ticket to the guard, an old man who spoke next to no English. Since I was the only visitor he accompanied me to show me the highlights. Tombs underground are pretty dark so he brought a candle as well. To explore an ancient tomb by candlelight is pretty special. I brought my torch but left it in my pack, candlelight has so much more flair. Like in the Indiana Jones movies my grand-dad-guard walked in front, the candlelight flickering. He held it close to a wall when there was something to see, an hieroglyphic inscription or a little cross. Only visible with the candle right next to the wall. There are pictures of animals hewn in stone. Or arrows pointing down. Pitch black around us. Only the little candle light and the white teeth of my volunteer guide visible in the darkness. When there was an old ancient arrow pointing down my guide hammered against the floor with a little rock. And it sounded hollow. What's underneath? No one knows. Again no one bothered to check yet. But it makes you feel like an explorer. You start checking the walls for inscriptions and actually find some. You knock along the walls with a rock in search of a secret doorway. In Axum you can. Nothing is shielded from you, no barriers, no ladders, no walkways. It's all really exciting. You climb and crawl and discover things along the way in the flickering light of a candle. As I've said, Indiana Jones Central.
On a completely different site, a km or so away, there was the probably most significant bit of stone for Ethiopian history. A big rock, maybe 2m high and 1m wide, inscribed with a story of victory of the old Aksumite Emperor. The cool thing is, this story is inscribed in Sabean language, in Greek and in the ancient Aksumite language. So with the help of this stone the old Aksumite language could be put up next to the known Greek language and be decoded. Significant as this stone might be, it is housed in a tiny ugly shed with corrugated iron roof, there is no signpost anywhere around this shed, nothing that even remotely makes you aware that you are at an historic site. In contrary, once you are lucky enough to identify that this is the shed you want, you need to walk around and find the guard to unlock it for you.
That's the thing that I don't get in Axum. Historic monuments which would be regarded as being sensational in the western world seem to be completely forgotten here in Ethiopia. Archeologists know there are numerous tombs underneath a field of obelisks, tombs of rulers or other wealthy Aksumites, probably unopened for two millenia and full of treasures. But no one checks them out. Outside the fenced obelisk fields you find obelisks everywhere, some standing, some leaning, some broken on the ground. Thousands of years old. Now on some private farmland with cows grazing around them. The more spectacular sites are almost impossible to find. Nothing is signposted. And the official map of the Tourist Information shows some of them in completely the wrong location. And does not show any street names anyway, so it's just useless. On a second thought - streets have actually no names here. Consequently you often rely on little street kids to show you around. Or an expensive tour guide.
Apart from the ancient monuments modern Axum is a very pleasant town. People are friendly (often shouting a 'Welcome to Axum' across the street). There are many kids who try to sell you little Amethyst rocks or icons but they are really playful and make your walk between the monuments very entertaining. Most tourists drive from site to site. So someone like me, who is walking, assures the full undivided attention of these kids. I don't know why but I really enjoyed walking with them crowding around me, they are unbelievably inventive why I would urgently need a $1 Amethyst right now. We ended up all laughing and they did not seem to mind me not buying anything.

Axum is pleasant enough to hang around for a while. So I guess I'll wait here for Martin to finish his Simian Mountains trekking and to get here by bus. There is still no news about the parcel with Martin's new fuel pump. We just hope it will get to Ethiopia soon.
Martin will continue by bus till then and me with my little Suzuki. After Axum I plan to see the Tigray Rock Churches, churches hewn into rocks not dissimilar to their famous counterparts in Lalibela. Just older. And much more low key. They are in pretty remote locations and will be hard to find. Something like stopping at the right place along the road and then go bushbashing for some km. Again, the map of the Tourist Information is pretty useless, showing neither any distances or names on it. So it's gonna be a lucky exploration again!

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no risk - no fun

Axum is an old place and the main reason for visiting the town is to see it's ancient monuments. So we have to go through a couple of pics with old stuff.


An area of obelisks in Axum. Each obelisk typically stands for a tomb underneath. Hardly any of those tombs have been explored yet.


The entrance of one of the tombs you can visit.


The famous stone with inscriptions in Sabean, Greek and Aksumite language. It's hidden in a tiny shack without any signposting. If you find the guy with the key to the shack you can visit the stone.


The 'Lioness of Gobedra'. This ancient picture of a lion is hidden in a field of big rocks halfway up a mountain. There is no chance you find it without any help. I found this friendly guy who led me there in return for a Coca Cola and a paper copy of this picture.


The 'Palace of the Queen of Sheba'. All that is known about these ruins is that they have no connection to the Queen of Sheba.


No joke, I was surprised how many people here know about Australia. When I ask them where they know all these bizarre things from, they state that movie. $0.45 from the local DVD store.


Camels are just part of the streetscape in Axum.

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no risk - no fun

Fantastic stories, love reading them . Have lots of fun, take care and keep your 'Little Suzuki' rolling ! Maybe one day I'll see you in Germany . I'm from Holland.