Addis Ababa - Dubai - London

27 May 2016

I am down to my last birr. I have exactly 50 birr left, which is about $2.50. After much wandering and feeling sorry for myself 'cos I can't afford anything, I found a place within my budget and ordered pasta & sauce and a coke. A man then comes up to me and asks why I am not eating injera. In all honesty I just can't eat the stuff anymore. I can't take it. I am on injera strike.

Pasta and sauce

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I now have an epic 20 hr journey ahead of me. No idea why I didn't just get a direct flight. 6 hour layover in Dubai is not my idea of fun.

Dubai
As-salamu alaykum. They take credit card!! Yay! I can eat and drink again! Beer o'clock.

Harar - Addis Ababa

My trip is drawing to a close.....

26 May 2016

My last day in Harar and the camel market is on. So hired the clapped out old taxi from yesterday to drive us to the camel market.
On the way, our car was stopped by police. Some police are corrupt and find faults with the vehicles to extort money from the owners. The policeman then saw me and backed off, so no bribe was paid.

I, as normal, drew lots of attention at the camel market. That is normal. People wanting money from me, staring at me, the norm. I was given the reins of one camel and I was allowed to herd it. It was pretty cool.

Camels

Camels #2

Who's a pretty boy?

Hey big fella. How's the weather up there?

Highlight was the taxi guy allowing me to drive his clapped out taxi. This thing is ancient- about 70 years old. I struggled to put enough weight onto the clutch as I could hardly reach the pedals and I struggled reversing on a hill. I almost had to ask for help but thankfully didn't. I drove the beast without stalling it. It was REALLY REALLY fun!

They actually let me drive this thing. It was awesome!

My last night
I am down to the last of my money, knickers, phone credit/data, finished my book. I have nothing. I saw a chinese restaurant that I wanted to go to sooo badly by my guesthouse in Addis but it was stupid expensive ($10-15 a dish, which is crazy expensive for this country).  So I had no choice but to eat local food as its so cheap. (I am really done with injera and tibs and want chinese food sooo badly!) I had enough for a beer as well. At least I know my priorities :-) I do wish I had tried an Ethiopian Chinese. 

Harar

25 May 2016

My new room mate and I hired a guide. We got the oldest taxi ever and drove to a few villages out of town.

Oldest taxi ever. A tank.

All along the drive we saw villagers and kids yelling faranji and some kids even running after the taxi shouting for sweeties. Its obvious previous faranjis have handed out sweets and even though it seems like they are being nice this is what happens. The kids now beg. Also, sweeties are bad for their teeth and its not like they have good dental care or floride toothpaste. Dental care doesn't exist for these people! It just really pisses me off just thinking about it.

Kids running after the taxi shouting for sweets

As soon as we arrived  into one if the villages some kids basically accosted us. I had some hair bands on my wrist and in my hair and the little girls literally attacked me trying to get a hair band. The girls totally kicked my arse and won. I didn't stand a chance. I lost all my hair bands.

They certainly are not shy

Tribal girls love getting their photo taken as they don't ever get to see themselves on camera otherwise.

Harar is like the motherland of khat. If you want the best khat, this is the place. These villages grow tonnes of khat and there are fields and fields and fields and etc.. of the stuff. They are really serious about khat and you can find it literally everywhere. They sell it in massive bags and baskets for dirt cheap. I think as it is majority Muslims here, people don't drink so use khat instead, hence why they take it so seriously. You can see everyone basically comatosed on khat.

I was taken to a khat house. It is basically a house where you can chew khat. A drug den of sorts, but not illegal. I guess its their equivalent of a 'chill out bar'.
Literally someone's livingroom, the toilets were the nastiest toilets I had ever had to use. Think of the worst toiliets you have ever used and then multiply it by 10 and then think about squating over it. I'm so useless at squat toilets. I always end up peeing on myself. And washing your hands?! Yeah right. I'm so past the hygiene thing now. I don't even care anymore. I'm probably going to die.

Khat den. Getting spaced out

Although incredibly muslim, they are pretty relaxed and even brew their own beer called Harar beer for the Christians and non muslims so its not a strict muslim city.

Harar beer brewed in a muslim city. It is pretty relaxed here.

I love the way the women wear their headscarves so I had this bright idea to try to look 'local' and draw less attention to myself. It really didn't work. I REALLY don't look local and just look like a dumb faranji.

Not exactly local looking.

Gondor - Harar

24 May 2016

After umming and ahhing about what to do next - I was either going to head back to Lalibela or head to Harar in the Eastern part of the country. Harar won.

Airport

The spiritual heart of Ethiopia's Islamic community, the walled citadel of Harar is considered by some to be the fourth holiest Islamic city after Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem. But I am not here for that. Sounds a bit mental, but I'm here to feed wild hyenas.

The closest airport to Harar is Dire Dawa. It's pretty far away, about 1.5hours drive. When I arrived at the airport I spotted some faranji stood by himself and quickly introduced myself and asked what his plans were. It sounds like a chat up line, but its not. I just wanted to share the cost of transport. He told me he already booked and paid for a private car so I could just jump in. Saved me quite a bit of money and time, so cool!

I arrived at my guesthouse called Rowda Wabera, a traditional Harari style home. The interior is really unique. The open plan ground floor is dominated by a carpet-draped raised area where all social activity takes place. The walls are decorated with niches and dangling items of crockery.
I had a massive room with two double beds. I overheard a girl asking for a room and the owner saying the guesthouse was full. I came out and said 'I have a spare bed, if you don't mind sharing'. So I have a girl from Central Republic of Africa (I didn't even know that was a country) staying with me.

Inside the guesthouse. Trinkets adorn the walls

My room. So cute

I met up with the airport guy and my new room mate and we got a guided tour of the old city, which is just a maze of alleyways. It was really interesting. It reminded me of parts of India.

Colourful homes

Wandering the streets

Street life

Later we went to see the Hyena man. The man makes a living by feeding wild hyenas after dusk. People were invited to feed the hyenas as well and I of course jumped at the opportunity. There were at least 15 hyenas surrounding me. They are pretty bad ass looking I gotta admit. I'll admit I wasn't that scared. They were just like big doggies - that could rip you apart. It was pretty cool to get soooo close to them!

Pretty gruesome slaughtered cow

Getting up close and personal to the hyenas

Gondor

23 May 2016

Today was a chill out day. After 3 days hiking I decided to partake in my favourite past time - shopping!

Market stalls

I have literally no room in my rucksac so ran around the local market looking for a sac. I really struggled when a man saw me and asked if I needed help. I told him what I was after and he helped me find a sac from some grain seller. The bag stinks but works.

I was buying stuff at some local market stalls. I started talking to the market stall owner, Seni, and was  then invited to join her and her friends for coffee and lunch.

Coffee time

Traditional Coffee pot

They made injera with tibs and it was really nice eating home cooked food.
 One great thing I notice here is if there is any left over food, people give the leftovers to the homeless people. No food is ever wasted, unlike what we do at home.

Seni and her son (left) and her nephew (right)

Me and Seni

I just sat around all day with Seni and random local people who kept dropping into her shop and just gossiped, whilst chewing khat.

 I was invited round to her home later that evening where they made surprise, surprise more injera with tibs.

Injera and tibs

There was a powercut so we ate in the dark. They have a tradition here where they perform  gursha where honoured guests are fed by hand. So someone takes a morsel of food - often a very karge one - wrapped in injera and places it in the mouth of another. So it was really dark and all of a sudden someone stuffed their hand/food into my mouth without warning.  I mean don't get me wrong, I am honoured but in the dark and without warning?! Random fingers in your mouth. 
It happened a few times and it is really strange when you are not used to it. But, it is kind of nice to be honoured like that too. It was a really nice way to end my time in Gondor. 

Simien Mountains

20 - 22 May 2016

Hiking Yapster style

Rock up into town. Get approached by some random geezer asking if I want to go hiking. Agree a price. Discreetly hand over a massive wad of cash in crisp American notes. Watch geezer walk off. Hope that you will see them again.

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DAY 1
About a two hour drive from Gondar lies Debark, the start of the Simiens. From there we collected 2 young French guys trekking with me, so I wasn't going to be alone.
My new American friend was joining me for  the day and then would return to Gondor as I continued on.

Selfie stick action. Not mine, I'd like to add.

Our guide was called Ginbie and he was a really sound guy. Before we set off we had to pick up supplies and also a scout. What is a scout? He's basically a man with a gun who just follows us around 'protecting' us. The guns they carry are ancient. I seriously doubt they have ever used their gun!

Scouts holding their guns

Scouts enjoying a break

The hike itself wasn't too difficult. It's the elevation that got me as we were over 3200m above sea level. At this height and also being close to the equator the sun is pretty strong so I just sported a very fetching headgear combo. I found it hard to catch my breath. The views were spectacular though.

That's one way to protect oneself from the sun. Who needs sunblock?

After a few hours my American friend left and we continued on to camp.
At camp we just chilled out and played cards.

We didn't see many stars as the moon was too bright.

Sleeping hut

This place is like the Hilton. The fanciest loos I have ever used!

DAY 2
I had spent the night in a communal sleeping hut with 3 other men. It was seriously dark inside but really comfortable. I was glad I had brought my head torch and silk liner to cover myself with. My silk liner sees me through everything and way better than a sleeping bag.

Hey sleeping beauty. Waking up from my wonderful slumber. I look amazing!  Yikes!

Up, up and away

Yes, those are my shoes

We hiked about 14km and it was really nice although the sun was pretty intense. There were lots of ups and downs and the altitude just killed me. We had climbed to around 3500m. Everyone was far stronger than me and it felt like they were running ahead of me. They were like mountain goats. I struggled to keep up. Luckily the scout stayed with me or else I would have lost my way.

Highlights:
- Paddling in a mountain spring
- Watching a beautiful sunset with the gelada monkeys
-drinking gin with the locals as they struggled to say my name. I told them I had the same name as Jennifer Lopez, but they had no idea who I was talking about. It's pretty fantastic that western pop culture hasn't reached here!

 Gelda monkey

Lots of gelda monkeys

Gelda monkeys at sunset

Watching the sunset. It was pretty chilly

 Lowlights:
- going through a village with no road access, to be told that the village was being forced to move to the next biggest town, Debark. In one years time, if you chose to visit the Simiens, the village will no longer exist.

Scenery #1

Scenery #2

Scenery #3 - this time with horses

DAY 3
After a really windy and rainy night, I awoke to find the sun shining. I was then called to come outside as there was a Simien wolf outside. It is incredibly rare. I think there are only 50-60 left in the area. What a sight to wake up to!

Can barely see it, but there is an Ethiopian wolf in the photo. 

We just did a short trek, climbing close to 4000m. As usual the guys were super fast and bombed off ahead of me as I huffed and puffed after them. I have no shame and will use my age as an excuse. I just can't keep up with young 20 something year olds! And my poor knees ;-)

Cattle, so much cattle

We said our goodbyes and got a ride back to Gondor. However, on the way back our driver and his mate stopped to pick up Khat and just ate the stuff all the way back and insisted we all join them in getting high as well. I'm not so sure how safe it was for our driver to drive whilst high. I think the khat made me too chilled out to really care.

Big bag of khat for the 2 hour ride back. It was all finished and a second bag of khat came out.

I packed almost nothing to go hiking - My toothbrush and, I hate to admit it, wet wipes.  (I know, I cheated.) After 3 days without a shower I probably smell pretty bad, but it's quite liberating to just 'let go'. 

Gone hiking - back in a few days