at peace

I'm in Jinka sitting in the Jinka Resort ('resort' is a relative term around here) restaurant with a Dutch family in front of me and some Ethiopian music in the background.

I am at peace now, especially having had a bit of time to just sit and think and write. I am clean after a few days of intense heat, dust and sun. It is a nice feeling, to be clean and well-fed.

The lovely manager here did everything to make us feel at home, the most appreciated thing being the use of one of the free chalet rooms to have a hot shower (campers are normally only allowed the cold showers in the back).

Today we passed some remote tribe members along our route. Just in this region alone, there are about a dozen different tribes, all very different and all very proud, so much so that some tribes are still warring against each other.

When we stopped for a quick lunch en route, three Hamer tribe adolescents came up to us, at first they were very shy but they didn't take long to warm up to us and pretty soon they were posing for our cameras.

The women have intricate hairstyles, using the red mud to twist their hair into amazing dreads. Almost all the men here carry Kalashnikovs (aka: AK47); I've seen so many now I'm no longer shocked.

It has been an interesting journey being with Thomas, Chiho and Christoph. It has almost been a week we've all been traveling together. It is fortunate that we all get along, that we're of similar age and that we all can speak one common language.

This Lake Turkana section of our big Africa trip is special and will definitely stick in my mind as a highlight for years to come. The desolate landscape, the people we've come across (both kind and deceitful), the meals we've shared, all of it adds up to the great Turkana experience.

~ It's Dad's EMBA convocation today, and I hope it all goes well. I am truly sorry I cannot be there to support him in the audience. I hope he knows how proud I am of him, and how he has always been such a good role model for me. Congrats to you and your class!



Start: Bush Camp near Omorate, ETH. 09:30 (3:30 local time)
End: Jinka Resort, Jinka, ETH. 15:00 (9 o'clock local time)
Distance Traveled: 180 km
Road Conditions: Omorate to Turmi rough dirt tracks, Turmi to Jinka pretty smooth alongside road that's being constructed.
Overall Average: 34.01 km/hr
Max Speed: 75.4 km/hr (but that didn't last long)
Temperature: hot, dry and dusty in the morning becoming cool and comfortable in evening.