I have written two versions of each item so if you are in a hurry read the short version. If you like detail skip the short version and read the long version further down.
Short Version
This was a day of travelling and car problems but with stunning secenery all along the way. Waking really early, we mapped the remaining roads of Senkele Sanctuary and the carried on to the junction town of Shashmene where we filled up with Petrol. The roads varied from near-perfect tar to unbelievably bad potholes. The scenery was awesome and i can not begin to aptly describe it. We passed through villages with thousands of people literally walking along the side of the road with donkey carts and other processions also using the road. We stopped off in one town and found out a noise coming from the car was in fact our right rear shock that head bent at 75'. Since there was no shock in town we were forced to drive 105km, 20 km past our destination in the hope of finding one. The 105km turned out to be potholed, stunning and steep mountain passes and it was a challenge for me preventing the vehicle from sea-sawing. Further-more we had to do to re-drill and replace bolts to hold the fridge in place. Fortunately there was one and only one shock in the town of Robe and after making repairs we headed back to the town of Dinsho, turning off just before to Bale National Park, where we camped the night above Dinsho Lodge. Taryn and Deon who had arrive 15 minutes before went for supper at the home of a South African couple while we turned in early!
Long Version
This was a day of travelling and car problems but with stunning secenery all along the way.
My alarm went off and i ignored it before getting up at 5:15am in the dark. Getting changed, i began work fixing the holder for the gas cylinder. Simon C then got up and we packed up camp, having a nice cup of hot chocolate in the chilly morning as the cloud filled sky lightened. Unfortunately we did not pack up on time and so our guide who had graciously agreed to meet us at 6am, had to wait for half an hour. Finally we set off to finish the mapping, filling in the gaps while spotting some jackals using the dirt tracks as a giant paths. By 8:15am we were done and I felt a great sense of accomplishment having completely mapped a protected area where no maps existed before.
Leaving this beautiful part of Earth we began our long journey to Dinsho Lodge, Bale National Park; not long in km but long in time. The roads varied from near-perfect tar to unbelievably bad potholes. The scenery was awesome and i can not begin to aptly describe it. We passed through villages with thousands of peopele literally walking along the side of the road. Some appeared to be in funeral processions, others riding donkeys like one would ride a camel, most carrying fooodstuffs or water. The main form of transport (other than foot) was donkey cart, some standing on top, chariot style. 95% of people were muslim and every village had a nice mosque with a tall green and white minarret. The women all wore brightly coloured hijabs and clothing, some in full burka.
Around 11:30 am we passed through the town of Shashemene which is a big junction town at the cross roads of two major roads in Ethiopia; one head East-West the other North-South. We filled up with petrol with the petrol attendant going to painstaking lengths to show us he was not cheating us in anyway...i guess it must be a problem here and the guide book says that this is the most unfriendly town in Ethiopia for Ferengi. I was suprised to see hundreds of lttle Tuk-tuks (tricycles used as taxi's) and was reminded of my time in Guatemala where it forms the mainstain of transport around many of the larger towns.
Noticing a rattle in the car, we stopped but could not find anything. In the next town of Dododa (famouse for trekking) we had it checked out, with the mechanic pulling out our brand new right rear shock, now bent at 75'...these roads are really taking their toll on the vehicles. We seem to play tag, with each day bring some new problem to a different vehicle. As their were no shocks in town, we had two choices; either head back 75km to the town of Shashemene or drive 100km (25km past our destination ) to the town of Robe, in both cases with no right rear shock which meant the vehicle would jump worse than a landrover...not a pleasant thought. We chose the latter, driving through winding mountain passes at 40km/h, higher and higher, until we crawled over the pass at 3600m although it was not signposted. Along the way I heard more rattling at the back (our car was creating its own symphony) and found out that the screw holding a piece of metal keeping the fridge in place had sheared through! Fortunately we had some spare bolts and washers so I widened the holes, and we bolted it properly. I also found that my attempt to repair the gas cylinder holder had failed. I can now say with confidence that aluminum is not strong enough to handle rough roads!
The mountain area, filled with deep valley's and little villages of straw-clad dwellings brought back a flood of memories of my time trekking through the high mountains of Peru, and i spent the rest of day remembering that special time. The the road conditions were harsh so we had to drive slowly and with a lot of skills kept the Beast from misbehaving too much, although at one point i thought i was on a sea-saw with the way it went up in front and down at the back. I learnt to control it by breaking hard whenever a road bump threatened to send it into the dangerous sea-saw motion.So this is what driving a Landy is like :P.
The road 3 km before Robe is lovely, with green fields on either side and lots of people walking on both sides of the road just as before.Tuks-Tuks were also all over the place again. In Robe we were very lucky to find the only remaining shock in town but we were unable to replace the front two as we had wanted. Fortunately though the mechanic managed to fix a tapping noise in the engine bay, with the added bonus of fixing the air-conditioning at the same time...and all for about R32. We bought the shock ourself so he did not make any money there either...excellent value I think. We decided to eat in town and found a muslim restaurant. A young lady named Zabibea who had just complete her nursing degree acted as our translator and we ordered a meat dish and 6 meat samooses. We promptly ate one of them while we waiting for our meat dish...and what a suprise it was! It seemed to be raw sheep mince mixed with chilli, some other spices and boiling oil, which was served with bread...no vegetables in sight! I am glad we had the bread because i couldnt really stomach that amount of raw mince...still we got to taste a local dish. While we were eating they pushed through the restaurant some sheep and goats out to the slaughter area in the back. Talk about watching what you eat!
After the repairs we headed back to the town of Dinsho with Taryn phoning us along the way to tell us they had also just arrived in Bale National Park (just outside Dinsho). We couldn't understand why they had only managed to spend the day travelling when we had spent 2 hours mapping, travelled 100km extra (at 45km/h) and had our vehicle repaired!
At 5:30pm we finally entered Bale National Park which I think is set high in the mountains at over 3000m and is famous for the Ethiopian fox. Its lush and green, so very different from the Omo Valley. The campsite itself is high up overlooking the town and chinese compound (yip they are also building the road in Ethiopia). We setup our tents while we waited for Taryn and Deon to return from town, which proved to be a challenge with the sloping site. Fortunately i managed to find a lovely little spot under a big tree which provided me with warmth and prevented condensation on tent.
We found out that Taryn and Deon had been invited for supper by a local South African couple doing research in the area, and so we had the evening to ourselves. We were both very tired from the long day so we headed to bed about 8:30pm after washing some clothes ( i added to much washing powder so spent an age rinsing the stuff out), taking a "hot" shower (well more like a luke-warm dribble), and had some hot choc/milo/horlicks mix which was divine. On the way back from the showers Simon C almost wrote off a very large Warthog which was standing directly in the jeep track!
Before I headed to my tent and bed I took one last look up at the heavens, the stars incredible; with no moon and being on a high mountain helping.
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