Ethiopia

We were welcomed with open arms into Ethiopia, or must I say open hands? Ethiopia is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 80million people. Ethiopia is a land of natural contrasts, with waterfalls and volcanic hot springs. Ethiopia has the lowest points below sea level in the world and some of Africa's highest mountains, as well as the largest cave in Africa. Ethiopia is also known for the hottest place year round (Dallol, Afar) and is one of the countries with the most rivers in the world.



As we entered the customs building on the Ethiopian side, we were told that we need to wait for the next day. They only have electricity every second day and they need electricity to power the photo-copy machine which should print the forms which they forgot to print for the day without electricity. So we camped in front of the Customs building. The officers were friendly and helped us with everything we needed.  We were on the road short after 9h. Ethiopia is a beautiful country with every scenery you can imagine.The Blue Nile falls can also be seen on the Ethiopian money notes. The Blue Nile Falls are known as Tis Abay in Amharic, when translated, means "smoking water". The 400m wide falls plummet 40m down and causes a large spray in the air. We saw interesting stone formations which were formed by wind erosion.

400m wide Blue Nile Falls

Rock formations in Ethiopia

There is a lot of history in Ethiopia. From the founders of coffee to having their own calender. There are many old Russian tanks scattered next to the main road. We also visited a church that has caused wars. It is in
Gondar, Amhara Region, Ethiopia, called the Debre Berham Selassie church. Inside is an illustration of the prophet Muhammad on a camel, being led to hell by a devil

Gondar, Amhara Region, Ethiopia: Debre Berham Selassie church

Every day you wake up and go to bed with the sound of kids asking for pens and sweets. I found it sad that 3/4 shops sell alcohol while the 1/4 of the shops sell food. This country has so much potential. How would you know what is important and what is real if it wasn't for tough times? And how long do you need to stay in this state of mind before you are willing to make a change? Anything unattempted remains impossible.

We could not find any European toilets. This was a problem because my dad couldn't use the Muslim toilets. We have a toilet that fix to the back of the vehicle, but where do you go to get privacy. We drove around looking for a place to hide, the crowd opening in front of the vehicle and closing at the back. Then we saw it. It looks like one of the earth's plates sunk at the one side and made a high cliff on the other side. After I had put the Landy in 4-wheel drive low range, we chased up this mountain. We got to the top, turned the vehicle around and gave my dad a view. In less than 2 minutes after we stopped, people started to appear. I then got a back-flash of when I stayed a night among the Swazi's in their huts. The next morning I crawled out my hut the same time as the witchdoctor. I don't know who got the bigger freight! My heart nearly stopped when I saw this man looking at me with red-orange hair! I then remembered that we had an orange towel in the Landy. I thought I will keep the people occupied till my dad is finished... I put the towel over my head, hunched my back, walked on all fours and made the most unearthly sounds I could.. in all my life Ive never seen people roll down a mountain like that, getting back on their feet and running further! My dad nearly fell off the toilet when he thought we are being attacked by a wild animal!


" Evil enters like a splinter and spreads like an oak tree" Ethiopian Proverb