Addis exodus

Leaving Addis today, heading north, we took the wrong road out onto the Ring Road.

It was a long day of driving. A few observations from the window:

There are donkeys everywhere, carrying cement blocks, wood, buckets, people, everything.

We had bad roads until after Debre Berha, where then we passed through a one-lane tunnel cut into the mountain. You must make sure nobody is coming in the other direction, especially a car with missing headlights.

Our highest point passed today was 3800 metres!

There is plenty of deforestation. And yet Ethiopia is still quite green and fertile.

People dress differently here, many more head scarves are worn by women, men are in sarongs and turbans.

We encountered some random and strange gestures from people on the road: frantic waving, pointing, shaking sticks and charging full speed at us, hands out asking, begging, airplane motions. What do they all mean?

We slept at Harego Lodge in Kombolcha. Not because we wanted to but because it was dark and we didn't want to continue driving. There was, you guessed it, no electricity so I took a cold shower and we drank warm beers.

Matt wasn't feeling well so we took a room. But that meant spending an hour killing mosquitoes before we could go to sleep. The mattress was hard as a rock and the plastic covering was still on mine. Tomorrow we sleep in our tent.



Start: Wanza Hotel, Addis Ababa, ETH. 10:30
End: Harego Lodge, Kombolcha, ETH. 19:30
Distance Traveled: 385 km
Road Conditions: not the best
Average Speed: 46 km/hr
Max Speed: 91.7 km/hr
Temperature: Rainy cold and dry and hot in valley