 |
| Entrance gate to Awash National Park |
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| Vultures eating in the rubbish that is found around the towns |
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| Awash Falls Camp |
Tuesday, May 30, 2017
Monday, May 29, 2017
25- 28. May 2017
25 – 28 May 2017
We left Awash National Park with a little bit of a sour taste, after having asked how much everything would be we were suddenly told that we have to pay $40 for the transfer from the gate to the camp and back, a total of 22km. We had met with the manager at the gate when they were collecting water. The car that they were going to transfer us back to the gate was really a sight, no back seat, cushions were placed in the back for me to sit on, four bald tyres and bellowing clouds of black smoke and disgustingly dirty, we don't mind paying for a service but really hate to be ripped off to that degree. Eventually Mohammed the manager agreed that they had not made a special trip to the gate to fetch us so would charge $20 for the transport back in the worst rattle trap that we have ever seen.
We had some great birding, walks, and some game viewing. Great to see some wild lesser kudu!!
Once we reached the main gate suddenly we were told that we had to pay Br200 for someone to guard the bikes!! White mans tax in Africa (a phrase learnt from Reynard and Katrina, German travelers that we meet in 2011).
My bike has been getting hot whenever we slow down to go through a town or village, so Larry spent some time removing the radiator protective cover. It was hot and getting hotter each minute. Our cooling vests were in a plastic bag soaking and we eventually put them on and headed for the main road. The road runs straight through the middle of the National Park and has lots of slow moving heavy trucks on it from both directions and a horrible speed hump every 500m. These eventually did get less and we were able to pick up the pace behind the big trucks.
After about an hour of slow moving traffic we came to a scene of an accident where a large truck had gone off the road and there was a crane busy removing its load, the crane was across the road and so the traffic had backed up for a fair distance. We managed to get past all the cars and get back onto the road ahead of the accident which made for much more pleasant riding as all the trucks going south were now behind us. So for the next 50km we had a good run before we got to the next town which was lined with more trucks. The road was tar all the way to Hawassa, just made unpleasant by the very heavy traffic.
We arrived in Hawassa at about 17.00 and went back to the Oasis International Hotel near the lake, we had stayed there in 2011 when they were busy building it and it has had 6 years of hard use since then, the shower was just a trickle and walls were in dire need of a coat of paint, typical of Africa where no maintenance gets done. We walked to town to try and draw some money and eventually the 4th ATM was working. Walking back to the hotel down one of the side streets we meet a local man who started to chatting to us and once he heard we are South African he asked us if he looked like Nelson Mandela and he really did! We continued to the lake were someone has spent lots of money setting up a really nice cobbled walk way the only problem is that there are taverns and pubs with loud music thumping along the length of the path.
26 May 2017
The next morning we were packed and ready to go fair early on our way out of Hawassa we decided to re-fuel. There are plenty of filling stations but not all of them have fuel and eventually we managed to find one that did. The cost of fuel in a land locked country is a lot less that in South Africa!! About R10,90 a liter. As we were leaving Hawassa the roads started deteriorating with long patches of really badly potholed gravel with little sections of tar. We hoped that this would be for a very short section just going out of town but it got worse the further we went, the road just about disappeared at some stages with small single lane tracks. There clearly had been rain in sections as the road was wet and muddy at times which made for interesting riding. The dust at other times made visibility very bad. Riding through the Ethiopian villages is crazy, cattle, goats, dogs, chickens, donkeys, camels and people throng the main road, none of them looking for traffic. People herd their stock down the main road and the traffic just winds its way around everything. The villages can be seen ahead by the vultures that circle them waiting for something to be hit by a truck. The going was really slow, it took us just over 4 hours to cover 160km. I needed a spot to stop for a call of nature and there was no-where that we could do this without a crowd gathering around the bikes.
Suddenly we got to a new section of road, Larry said that he thought we were out of the dis-integrating road and just before each village we would go back to the dusty muddy tracks. Eventually we got to the real new Chinese built road and we picked up the pace. We were heading to Yabelo National Park, where we had thought of staying. I had a tumble off my bike when trying to overtake a truck that was loaded with poles, with one particularly long pole sticking out the back, as I came to overtake him he swerved for something ahead and the long pole hit my right pannier. The bike must have just about come to a stand still and I was knocked off to the left. Larry was about 500m ahead and heard me give a little scream. The piki piki drivers helped pick me and the bike up and started getting very aggressive with the truck driver and his very illegal load of poles. One bruised elbow and sore left side but all fine.
We eventually arrived at our marked position on the GPS but found nothing that looked like a camping site so continued to the town of Yebella. We rode through the town, but found no accommodation establishment that looked like we would be able to stay in, eventually at the filling station we found the Yebella Motel which I went in to find out a price. The woman at reception was decidedly unfriendly and said for foreigners it would be $75 per night. The place looked really suspect so we decided to continue a further 200km to Moyale. While I was trying to find accommodation Larry was trying to get the bikes re-fueled but there was none in town, one local told us that there would be fuel 70km down the road so we decided to take the chance. We have been getting about 25km/l on the bikes, at the slow speeds we have been forced to ride.
We arrived in Moyale at about 18.00 and decided to look for a hotel, after we rode the length of the town we decided to try to the same hotel that we stayed in during our 2011 trip, The Koket Hotel, the same has taken place as the previous hotel, 6 years later not much cleaning and we were shown a similar “beehive” type room that had a terrible stink and then a huge room with a double bed and the sales pitch for this room was it doesn't stink! Being late and no other hotels in sight we decided to spend the night, but neither of us were brave enough to attempt a shower!
We had supper at the hotel which was a hamburger sandwich which consisted of a huge roll with a kofta on the roll covered with an omelette which was covered with spaghetti and then lots of tomato slices served on a bed of spicy rice and French fries, enough to feed a small army. I battle with the local food so a colony of cats got a lot of mine!
The next morning, after having slept in the mosquito infested room, we were up nice and early to get through the border posts nice and quickly. Larry did a bit of remodeling of my right pannier and we packed and headed to the filling station, petrol now for us is Br25 a liter! But apparently the piki-piki’s also pay this.
No where is the customs and immigration buildings marked, so we arrived basically at the Kenya side before turning back and eventually found the immigration building off the main road behind a pile of rubble, we were quickly through immigration and then went looking for the customs which we eventually found down a small little alley way. I handed in the Carnet de Passages and was asked for the permit, I told them I didn't have a permit. Problem, he called his boss who was out and about and we waited, I went back to tell Larry that there was a problem and by this stage he had been invited to have coffee at one of the local stalls. To cut a long story short the customs official eventually went and fetched his boss, who arrived extremely aggressive but we landed up having a friendly chat about African politics. He admitted that it was not my fault and phoned the border post at Wajale to find out if they had the first portion of the Carnet then he phoned his boss in Addis, who never phoned back and just as before suddenly decided that he would make a note of all out details and stamped the Carnet and came and checked the VIN number on the bikes and our electronic equipment and we could go, about 2,5 hours later.
We arrived at the Kenya side for all the officials to tell me how poorly equipped and slow their Ethiopian counterparts are flew through immigrations and then to customs. Their system was down so after three attempts they told me to go with this piece of paper to the bank but I must be very quick as the bank closes in 5 minutes, I rushed outside and gave the paper to Larry and he managed to get a lift to the bank, 5 minutes later the doors closed and he was 27th in the queue! Nearly two hours later I managed to find a young guy on a pikkie-pikkie and asked him to find Larry (one of us always stays with the bikes). Larry was just coming out of the bank when the young guy called him and Larry handed him some money and asked him to buy some bread a two Cokes for us, he came back with these few items and the change and Larry packed these into the cool box on the bike while I went into the customs office to collect our Carnets. Over 5 hours hours at the border post, I think a record for us.
We headed off on the beautiful tar road, when we rode this section of road in 2011 it was the toughest section of road for us, approximately 360km and it took us three days. We rode along side the old gravel road and we were pleased that the road was tarred. We arrived in the small town of Marsabit after 3 hours with a lunch stop using the bread bought at the border post and the salami that was bought in Dubai.
We decided that we wanted to try and stay in National Parks and so headed to the Abdul Gate for the Marsabit Park. We spoke to the guard at the gate and he showed us the camping sites, these looked ok but there were no facilities and a huge troop of baboons were all over the camp site. We decided to have a look at Marsabit Lodge. We had to leave out bikes at the top gate and a local taxi came to fetch us. We drove through the most amazing lush forest into the crater where the lodge was situated. The lodge was built in 1974 and unfortunately nothing has been modernized or even maintained, having said that it is one of the most beautiful places that we have been to on our travels, the lake at the bottom of the crater is unbelievably tranquil and the surrounding forest teaming with bird life and as we arrived a huge herd of buffalo emerged from the forest. The bedrooms are clean and the linen sparkling white, a generator is run at times that are convenient to us. This runs the lights and two small power points for charging and a direct heater for showering. There is an armed guard at the lodge at all times. The staff is small but always friendly and helpful. The food is basic but plentiful, lots of starch and some very tough goat meat but ok.
27 May 2017
We have had a wonderful rest and enjoyed the beauty of this place. Larry did lots of birding and we went for a walk around the lake and met a friendly buffalo bull, he was very gracious and moved back into the forest. Tomorrow we will pack up here and head towards Nairobi, we would like to have our bikes serviced and generally catch up.
29 May 2017
We left Marsabit National Park in very wet and misty conditions. We were told that the mist would clear up with 50km of Marsabit. As we arrived in town to fill the bikes up it started raining, we decided not to worry with rain gear as we could see the sky's clearing in the direction we were heading. This was the right decision as the rain gear makes riding very uncomfortable and we managed to skirt most of the showers of rain.
We had a very pleasant ride, seeing a number of different animals alongside the road, reticulated giraffe, beisa oryx, grants gazelle and one lone ellie. Nice to see some game. The road is new and a pleasure to ride on with very little traffic either way.
We were heading to Nanyuki and with about 30km to still go we could see that we were not going to be so lucky with the rain and we were heading into a big storm, we stopped and put on our rain gear and headed into the storm. It was really bucketting down and got really cold, 11 degrees was the coldest I saw on my bike, the traffic moves slowly but with no lights on in very bad visibility. We slowed down and rode like drowned rats, crossing some strong flowing water which was washing across the road.
We arrived at a large set of gates just before town, Kongoni Lodge. We were immediately made to feel very welcome and although a bit out or our budget we decided to spend the night. A nice hot shower and a clean change of clothes made us look almost respectable.
Now to try to catch up on the blog, pics, friends and family etc. its hard work, this traveling!!!!!
Tomorrow we'll head for Nairoberry.
Once we reach Nairobi we will have travelled 1200km by dhow over fives and 3700km by bike.
S
We left Awash National Park with a little bit of a sour taste, after having asked how much everything would be we were suddenly told that we have to pay $40 for the transfer from the gate to the camp and back, a total of 22km. We had met with the manager at the gate when they were collecting water. The car that they were going to transfer us back to the gate was really a sight, no back seat, cushions were placed in the back for me to sit on, four bald tyres and bellowing clouds of black smoke and disgustingly dirty, we don't mind paying for a service but really hate to be ripped off to that degree. Eventually Mohammed the manager agreed that they had not made a special trip to the gate to fetch us so would charge $20 for the transport back in the worst rattle trap that we have ever seen.
We had some great birding, walks, and some game viewing. Great to see some wild lesser kudu!!
Once we reached the main gate suddenly we were told that we had to pay Br200 for someone to guard the bikes!! White mans tax in Africa (a phrase learnt from Reynard and Katrina, German travelers that we meet in 2011).
My bike has been getting hot whenever we slow down to go through a town or village, so Larry spent some time removing the radiator protective cover. It was hot and getting hotter each minute. Our cooling vests were in a plastic bag soaking and we eventually put them on and headed for the main road. The road runs straight through the middle of the National Park and has lots of slow moving heavy trucks on it from both directions and a horrible speed hump every 500m. These eventually did get less and we were able to pick up the pace behind the big trucks.
After about an hour of slow moving traffic we came to a scene of an accident where a large truck had gone off the road and there was a crane busy removing its load, the crane was across the road and so the traffic had backed up for a fair distance. We managed to get past all the cars and get back onto the road ahead of the accident which made for much more pleasant riding as all the trucks going south were now behind us. So for the next 50km we had a good run before we got to the next town which was lined with more trucks. The road was tar all the way to Hawassa, just made unpleasant by the very heavy traffic.
We arrived in Hawassa at about 17.00 and went back to the Oasis International Hotel near the lake, we had stayed there in 2011 when they were busy building it and it has had 6 years of hard use since then, the shower was just a trickle and walls were in dire need of a coat of paint, typical of Africa where no maintenance gets done. We walked to town to try and draw some money and eventually the 4th ATM was working. Walking back to the hotel down one of the side streets we meet a local man who started to chatting to us and once he heard we are South African he asked us if he looked like Nelson Mandela and he really did! We continued to the lake were someone has spent lots of money setting up a really nice cobbled walk way the only problem is that there are taverns and pubs with loud music thumping along the length of the path.
26 May 2017
The next morning we were packed and ready to go fair early on our way out of Hawassa we decided to re-fuel. There are plenty of filling stations but not all of them have fuel and eventually we managed to find one that did. The cost of fuel in a land locked country is a lot less that in South Africa!! About R10,90 a liter. As we were leaving Hawassa the roads started deteriorating with long patches of really badly potholed gravel with little sections of tar. We hoped that this would be for a very short section just going out of town but it got worse the further we went, the road just about disappeared at some stages with small single lane tracks. There clearly had been rain in sections as the road was wet and muddy at times which made for interesting riding. The dust at other times made visibility very bad. Riding through the Ethiopian villages is crazy, cattle, goats, dogs, chickens, donkeys, camels and people throng the main road, none of them looking for traffic. People herd their stock down the main road and the traffic just winds its way around everything. The villages can be seen ahead by the vultures that circle them waiting for something to be hit by a truck. The going was really slow, it took us just over 4 hours to cover 160km. I needed a spot to stop for a call of nature and there was no-where that we could do this without a crowd gathering around the bikes.
Suddenly we got to a new section of road, Larry said that he thought we were out of the dis-integrating road and just before each village we would go back to the dusty muddy tracks. Eventually we got to the real new Chinese built road and we picked up the pace. We were heading to Yabelo National Park, where we had thought of staying. I had a tumble off my bike when trying to overtake a truck that was loaded with poles, with one particularly long pole sticking out the back, as I came to overtake him he swerved for something ahead and the long pole hit my right pannier. The bike must have just about come to a stand still and I was knocked off to the left. Larry was about 500m ahead and heard me give a little scream. The piki piki drivers helped pick me and the bike up and started getting very aggressive with the truck driver and his very illegal load of poles. One bruised elbow and sore left side but all fine.
We eventually arrived at our marked position on the GPS but found nothing that looked like a camping site so continued to the town of Yebella. We rode through the town, but found no accommodation establishment that looked like we would be able to stay in, eventually at the filling station we found the Yebella Motel which I went in to find out a price. The woman at reception was decidedly unfriendly and said for foreigners it would be $75 per night. The place looked really suspect so we decided to continue a further 200km to Moyale. While I was trying to find accommodation Larry was trying to get the bikes re-fueled but there was none in town, one local told us that there would be fuel 70km down the road so we decided to take the chance. We have been getting about 25km/l on the bikes, at the slow speeds we have been forced to ride.
We arrived in Moyale at about 18.00 and decided to look for a hotel, after we rode the length of the town we decided to try to the same hotel that we stayed in during our 2011 trip, The Koket Hotel, the same has taken place as the previous hotel, 6 years later not much cleaning and we were shown a similar “beehive” type room that had a terrible stink and then a huge room with a double bed and the sales pitch for this room was it doesn't stink! Being late and no other hotels in sight we decided to spend the night, but neither of us were brave enough to attempt a shower!
We had supper at the hotel which was a hamburger sandwich which consisted of a huge roll with a kofta on the roll covered with an omelette which was covered with spaghetti and then lots of tomato slices served on a bed of spicy rice and French fries, enough to feed a small army. I battle with the local food so a colony of cats got a lot of mine!
The next morning, after having slept in the mosquito infested room, we were up nice and early to get through the border posts nice and quickly. Larry did a bit of remodeling of my right pannier and we packed and headed to the filling station, petrol now for us is Br25 a liter! But apparently the piki-piki’s also pay this.
No where is the customs and immigration buildings marked, so we arrived basically at the Kenya side before turning back and eventually found the immigration building off the main road behind a pile of rubble, we were quickly through immigration and then went looking for the customs which we eventually found down a small little alley way. I handed in the Carnet de Passages and was asked for the permit, I told them I didn't have a permit. Problem, he called his boss who was out and about and we waited, I went back to tell Larry that there was a problem and by this stage he had been invited to have coffee at one of the local stalls. To cut a long story short the customs official eventually went and fetched his boss, who arrived extremely aggressive but we landed up having a friendly chat about African politics. He admitted that it was not my fault and phoned the border post at Wajale to find out if they had the first portion of the Carnet then he phoned his boss in Addis, who never phoned back and just as before suddenly decided that he would make a note of all out details and stamped the Carnet and came and checked the VIN number on the bikes and our electronic equipment and we could go, about 2,5 hours later.
We arrived at the Kenya side for all the officials to tell me how poorly equipped and slow their Ethiopian counterparts are flew through immigrations and then to customs. Their system was down so after three attempts they told me to go with this piece of paper to the bank but I must be very quick as the bank closes in 5 minutes, I rushed outside and gave the paper to Larry and he managed to get a lift to the bank, 5 minutes later the doors closed and he was 27th in the queue! Nearly two hours later I managed to find a young guy on a pikkie-pikkie and asked him to find Larry (one of us always stays with the bikes). Larry was just coming out of the bank when the young guy called him and Larry handed him some money and asked him to buy some bread a two Cokes for us, he came back with these few items and the change and Larry packed these into the cool box on the bike while I went into the customs office to collect our Carnets. Over 5 hours hours at the border post, I think a record for us.
We headed off on the beautiful tar road, when we rode this section of road in 2011 it was the toughest section of road for us, approximately 360km and it took us three days. We rode along side the old gravel road and we were pleased that the road was tarred. We arrived in the small town of Marsabit after 3 hours with a lunch stop using the bread bought at the border post and the salami that was bought in Dubai.
We decided that we wanted to try and stay in National Parks and so headed to the Abdul Gate for the Marsabit Park. We spoke to the guard at the gate and he showed us the camping sites, these looked ok but there were no facilities and a huge troop of baboons were all over the camp site. We decided to have a look at Marsabit Lodge. We had to leave out bikes at the top gate and a local taxi came to fetch us. We drove through the most amazing lush forest into the crater where the lodge was situated. The lodge was built in 1974 and unfortunately nothing has been modernized or even maintained, having said that it is one of the most beautiful places that we have been to on our travels, the lake at the bottom of the crater is unbelievably tranquil and the surrounding forest teaming with bird life and as we arrived a huge herd of buffalo emerged from the forest. The bedrooms are clean and the linen sparkling white, a generator is run at times that are convenient to us. This runs the lights and two small power points for charging and a direct heater for showering. There is an armed guard at the lodge at all times. The staff is small but always friendly and helpful. The food is basic but plentiful, lots of starch and some very tough goat meat but ok.
27 May 2017
We have had a wonderful rest and enjoyed the beauty of this place. Larry did lots of birding and we went for a walk around the lake and met a friendly buffalo bull, he was very gracious and moved back into the forest. Tomorrow we will pack up here and head towards Nairobi, we would like to have our bikes serviced and generally catch up.
29 May 2017
We left Marsabit National Park in very wet and misty conditions. We were told that the mist would clear up with 50km of Marsabit. As we arrived in town to fill the bikes up it started raining, we decided not to worry with rain gear as we could see the sky's clearing in the direction we were heading. This was the right decision as the rain gear makes riding very uncomfortable and we managed to skirt most of the showers of rain.
We had a very pleasant ride, seeing a number of different animals alongside the road, reticulated giraffe, beisa oryx, grants gazelle and one lone ellie. Nice to see some game. The road is new and a pleasure to ride on with very little traffic either way.
We were heading to Nanyuki and with about 30km to still go we could see that we were not going to be so lucky with the rain and we were heading into a big storm, we stopped and put on our rain gear and headed into the storm. It was really bucketting down and got really cold, 11 degrees was the coldest I saw on my bike, the traffic moves slowly but with no lights on in very bad visibility. We slowed down and rode like drowned rats, crossing some strong flowing water which was washing across the road.
We arrived at a large set of gates just before town, Kongoni Lodge. We were immediately made to feel very welcome and although a bit out or our budget we decided to spend the night. A nice hot shower and a clean change of clothes made us look almost respectable.
Now to try to catch up on the blog, pics, friends and family etc. its hard work, this traveling!!!!!
Tomorrow we'll head for Nairoberry.
Once we reach Nairobi we will have travelled 1200km by dhow over fives and 3700km by bike.
S
Saturday, May 27, 2017
27 May 2017
We are currently in Moyale, the border town between Ethiopia and Kenya. Wifi has been shocking, we will get the next report -typed up and posted as soon as we get decent wifi. Hope to spend the next night at the Marsabit National Park, not sure if staying in the lodge or camping so won't have any comms there. We spent one night at Hawassa and then we were heading to Yabela National Park, couldn't find any accommodation so headed for Moyale. First 160km took us 4 hours.
Want to get through the border post so chat again from Kenya.
Sharon
Want to get through the border post so chat again from Kenya.
Sharon
20 - 24 May 2017
20 May 2017
We arrived at Berbera Port, Somiland on 20 May slap bang in
the middle of the Independence Day weekend, 3 days of celebrations!! Somiland is an autonomous region of Somalia,
not recognized by the international community, but has its own government,
police force, parliament, etc. The
Somiland passport is issued but not accepted by the rest of the world. They are currently celebrating 26 years of
independence and the country is working, but hey let’s keep them basically
excluded from the rest of the world.
Once the bikes had been unloaded we thought that we would be
able to start with clearing them from customs, but customs was closed because
of the public holidays, so with a fond farewell to all the crew from all three
boats parked at the quay Nafaar took us to our hotel, a place on the beach just
outside Berbera called Maan Soor Hotel, clean rooms very basic with a functioning
bathroom. Larry and I had a wonderful
cold shower, the heat and humidity was unbearable.
The following morning Nafaar collected us from the hotel and
the clearing process started, backwards and forwards from one official to the
next. Apparently because our bikes were
not commercial cargo they were not on the ships manifest so they could not give
us a DOD (Document of Delivery) eventually out of the port back to Berbera and
the manager of the shipping office made a plan and we had our custom stamp,
back to security, they weren’t interested in letting the bikes out of the port,
back to the safety office and eventually we seemed to be making headway. We rode through two of the three controlled
check points and at the last one we were told to park over there and we needed
another piece of paper, Nafaar started getting hot under the collar and next
thing we knew the bikes were clear and we exited the port and headed for the
hotel.
21 May 2017
We re-packed the bikes and soaked our cooling vests, had
something to eat and we were ready to head for Hargesia. Our biggest problem has been with our
Ethiopian visa, we had to apply for it in Dubai while we both still had
residency there and so the visa expires on 29 May. We had hoped to visit Djibouti but believe
that the road is really bad with a section of deep sand! We set off behind our security escort, Nafaar
in his Land Cruiser with an armed security person. There are approximately 16 security check
points between Berbera and Hargesia and as soon as they saw us coming wanted to
pull us over, but our escort ensured that we sailed through them all. The road is basically good, with some patches
of bad potholes.
We stopped at a local tourist spot near Las Geel, where we
were shown some very interesting rock paintings in some caves dating back about
4500 years BC (apparently). On our way
to the caves we spotted 3 different dikdik, a new species for us called Salts
Dikdik. We also spotted a tiny little
chameleon, some very colourful lizards
and a large tortoise.
The ride to Hergesia was hot and relatively un-eventful trip
with some starkly beautiful scenery. As
we arrived in the actual city a policeman on a Honda motorbike was waiting for
us and rode with us to the bottling plant for Coke where the bikes spent the
night. The policeman had a wonderful
time escorting us through the city, sirens blaring and riding next to us
chatting away. There was a large group
of people waiting to meet with us at the bottling plant which was a really
great welcome. We each took a small bag and we set off for the Hotel. We were put into a bedroom and I had an icy
cold shower and then reception phoned to say that they need to move us, as that
room was occupied, after two attempts at different rooms we eventually settled
into our room. A clean bed and a decent
en-suite with hot water, if you switched the geyser on. Osman, another contact from Gavin, collected
us from the hotel and took us to a restaurant across town. The streets in Hargesia are horrific, dusty,
potholed and collapsing, we crawled across town. We met with Jay (Gavin’s nephew) Fred and
Muhammed. We enjoyed a wonderful evening
of chatting and joking and some serious conversation.
22 May 2017
The next morning we were once again escorted to the border
between Somiland and Ethiopia, road conditions not great and lots of security
check points. The roads through the city
were horrific, we can’t even call them gravel because that has long since
disappeared and so they are a mixture of dust and animal droppings and
litter. Once we got to the border town of Wajale, and
had been stamped out of Somiland, our security escort left us and headed back
to Hargesia. The litter within the towns
was unbelievable, it was piled alongside the road in places to above head
height! We continued to the Ethiopian
immigration section and then I headed to the customs to try and get our Carnet stamped. I was lucky that I managed to find one
official there and he phoned and called the entire office back to help with the
stamping of the Carnet. Eventually there
were 6 men, all scratching their heads and sucking their gums, un-sure of what
to do with a Carnet. I had left my specs
in my tank bag and was battling to read the fine print but eventually managed
to tell them where to stamp and what to do.
Larry and I were now on our own in Ethiopia, we had been warned of some
check points further ahead.
The landscape changed as soon as we got out of town, there
clearly had been some rain, as the ground was wet and the grass had just
started growing. The road improved, a
long straight section of tar with just about no imperfections crossing the
plateau. We passed through two check
points where they checked out passports and then arrived at the customs check
point. We were pulled over and an
official ran off to call some-one to help check our bikes. A suspect looking character with dirty
dreadlocks and scruffy dirty part uniform, part casual clothes, came
across. He one started with Larry’s bike
and the more reasonable looking one started on mine, they were extremely
unpleasant and aggressive. They unpacked
my clothes pannier, so I had my bras and knickers lying on the road and then
they found the Sat Phone and it was with great triumph that he pulled it out
and place it on my seat. Meanwhile on
Larry’s side, they found the SD cards for our cameras and wanted to bite them
to see what they were!! He didn’t have a clue what he was looking for. They then both started on our tank bags and
pulled out our cameras and binocs, once again was clueless to what the binocs
were, looking into the wrong end, etc.
All these items where place on the seat of my bike and we were told we
were not allowed to touch them. In the
meantime we were trying to re-pack our panniers (when traveling with such
limited space everything has its place and is neatly and tidily packed in order
to get everything in) everything was shoved back in and they were trying to
pull our tank bags off the front of the bikes, by this stage we started getting
angry and told them it was no way to treat tourists!! The guy with dreadlocks went off and suddenly the other official told
us to pack our bikes and we could go.
Much grumbling we managed to squash everything into the panniers and
headed off.
The road was still good as we got into the mountains, but
the villages became more frequent, people, goats, cattle and donkeys seem to
have right of way. The villages are
small and the poverty is unreal as is the filth and litter that infests the
entire area. The natural beauty of
Ethiopia must have been amazing before the radical over-population. The main crop of the area is Chat, the green
leaves chewed by most of the male population of Somiland and Ethiopia,
apparently it is a aphrodisiac and some men eat up to 10kg of this a day. They walk around with rotten brown teeth and
green slime around their months, the other side effects must be horrific. This is one of the biggest sources of income
for this area and it is exported to Somiland and other neighboring
countries. This is a legal drug and
legally exported all over the region!
After lots of twisty and winding roads, riding slowly
because of the villages and obstacles in the road we eventually arrived in the
city of Harar and managed to find a very nice hotel called Grand Geto. We had only just settled into our room when a
vicious storm started, the wind blew over power lines and trees (luckily I had
just finished a nice hot shower, Larry decided to check his GoPro footage and
so missed out on the shower) and then the rain started, not lots but a good
downpour. The generator eventually came
on and water was restored to our room.
We had supper in the hotel restaurant which left a lot to be desired,
hamburger patties tasted like they had been made from afval (tripe). We went to bed very early and had a good 12
hour sleep!
23 May 2017
The next morning we set off in very cool conditions, which
made riding a pleasure. We had lots of mountain roads ahead of us and an
extremely populated area. Because of the
very slow riding and some birding en-route our progress was slow. We only had about 340km to ride to our next
destination of Awash. Finding fuel in
Ethiopia is also not guaranteed and when we do find a petrol station they are
normally grubby affairs and the locals swarm around the bikes. We rode through the tail end of a storm, changed
into our rain gear, rode through a lot of heavy rain and wind, this made
visibility very bad and our progress was slowed down even further. We saw evidence of a really violent storm,
trees had blown over and were lying across the road, there was a river of water
on each side of the road. My fancy Garne
Italian made leather boots which are advertised as water proof are about as water proof as a tea strainer!! As are the BMW rain gear. We soon had wet places where we would rather
be dry.
We eventually were about 15km from our turning point when we
arrived at another check point. This
time is was a bridge which is not allowed to be crossed by foot, bicycle or
motor bike. Very quickly the customs
official organizes us a truck for BR500 (about 30 USD) to take us across this bridge. Larry was having none of this and said how
are we going to pickup 400kg of bike and put into the back, we all traipsed
across the road with the truck and he backed up to a bank and said ok we must
load it onto the back. Larry would not
budge! We are not loading the
bikes!! So that driver gave us back the
money and the next vehicle was stopped and told to load us, this was a mini
bus, and the bikes much too tall to load into the back. Eventually they phoned Addis and got
permission for us to ride across, nothing wrong with the bridge and road!! This took about an hour and a half of
negotiations on Larry’s behalf, I said let’s turn around and go back and find
another way across. Same thing -
suddenly we can go. The reason for this
debacle is still unclear. All traffic
was stopped, and given slips of paper.
We initially presumed the road crossing the gorge in front of us was
damaged, but once we crossed, we realized it was highway quality. So, this is
possibly a population control, as no bicycles or foot traffic is allowed?? We never did find out the reason!!! Certainly
a load of BS, and obviously not much tourist traffic passes. The road is through the Awash National Park
and is used by heavy truck, we think from Djibouti and other ports, maybe
Sudan, every 500m there is a serious hump in the road so the traffic doesn’t
move steadily. We arrived at the gates
of the park just before 6pm and were lucky enough to find a mini bus from the
privately run Awash Falls Lodge at the gate, after paying our entrance fee we loaded
all the gear into the bus and headed for the lodge, the quoted rate for a
bedroom is $80USD and it is very basic.
We decided to camp and make use of the restaurant and ablution
facilities. There are government camping
sites which are really pretty but they have no facilities at all. The ablution blocks are all there but
completely derelict!
Apparently hyenas are common in Ethiopia and so far we have
see 4 dead ones alongside the road, one right in a city. We have also seen plenty of vultures around
each village, both eat carrion and must find this in and around the villages
and towns. There is plenty of road kill
around here.
24 May 2017
The privately owned camp is
rustic, but we have everything that we need.
Electricity is down because of the storms that we rode through and the
falls are flowing very strongly with chocolate brown water. We counted 8 large crocodiles lying in the
pool and on the rocks at the pool at the bottom of the falls.
Tomorrow we will leave here and
head for Hawassa Lake and then hopefully onto Yabela National Park, this will
take us to 28 May and we will then head for Moyale and get into Kenya.
We have zero comms or internet,
so blog reports and pics will be a bit behind.
In the meantime, we go for walks, always with camera and binocs, birding!!
And resting. And Laundry. Beautiful spot.
S & L
Sunday, May 21, 2017
18 May 2017
18 May 2017
We have been travelling on the dhow since Monday, 15 May,
nearly 3 days now, and still have nearly
450km to go. We have stopped for about
an hour while the engineer does a repair to the main diesel pipeline, the
captain came to ask if we had any tubes that could be cut up to effect the
repairs. Larry went down into the engine
room with some duc tape and between them they have got it running. Good old duc tape. We
will use the tube if we really have to but we won’t be able to find another
tube until at least Nairobi and then we may have to courier it up so that is
our last resort. While stationery a call comes over the radio, the first one
that I have heard in English : Security Security – Code Red – pirate activity
in the area of XXXXXX and co-ordinates.
Please report any suspicious activity on channel 16. Larry told the captain and the Indian flag
was un-ceremoniously raised at the back of the dhow. We have seen lots of ships on the horizon and
one military looking boat with a huge helicopter on the back, hopefully the
pirates stay down south of us! We only
started seeing ships today, before that we saw the occasional Yemeni fishing
boat.
The food is very basic and fiery hot, my lips and belly burn
for about 2 hours after eating it. It is prepared in the most basic of
conditions by a young Indian guy. Always
has a pleasant smile. The crew have all
gone out of their way to be kind and treat us like royalty. I have found the lack of ablutions to be difficult
but once again the crew have been great.
It is hot and sticky on the dhow so a good bucket bath after dark is
great. Fresh water is limited, two large
containers strapped to the deck and a cup to get it out, the level is dropping
quickly and you really have to lean in to reach the water. There is more fresh water below deck that can
be pumped into these two containers. The
captain speaks very little English and the owner slightly more, so lots of hand
signals to try and get ourselves understood. Dominoes and cards are played by the crew most
of the day and we taught them how to play spoons, Larry played while I showed
them how, lots of laughter all around.
All the crew chew beetle nut, this comes in a tin and looks like a large
nutmeg and they chop it up and mix it
with some other tinned stuff and then I think they use it like snuff, lots of
spitting overboard and badly stained rotten teeth.
There is nothing for us to do on board, so lots of reading
and playing silly games on our cellphones, Larry has done some birdwatching,
seen a few new birds. A couple of pods
of dolphins have been seen off in the distance, the first pod the dolphins
looked very small while the second pod they were huge. There has been little to no wind which has
made the sea extremely flat and it looks inky.
It is a brilliant blue and looks crystal clean. Humidity is very high but we have been lucky
with slightly overcast skys.
The crew run fishing lines behind the boat, where they
supplement daily fresh meat, with fish. In
total, 5 fish were caught, 4 large dorado, and 1 tuna. There was also a live goat on board, which
was slaughtered on day 2 of the voyage.
20 May 2017
We arrived in the port at about 4.30am, just as the sky was
turning pink. We were told that we would be tying up next to some other dhows,
when we arrived at the designated place we would have been dhow number 4, but
the captain who we were to be next to was having none of that, lots of shouting
and eventually he pulled a knife out and threatened the crew on our dhow. He started up and moved to next to a large
container ship. Good riddance to bad rubbish and lucky for us as well, the dhow
right at the wharf was a Dubai registered dhow and the one in between was a Pakistani
one. Much fascination to see two expats
on board. Now the waiting game started,
nothing could be done until our clearing agent arrived, we phoned Satish at
about 6.30am and he was at the port before 8am.
This was more of a wonderful favour that Gavin (a South African living
in Djibouti) had arranged for us. We now
had the problem of getting the bikes off dhow number three (thank goodness
rubbish had moved) to the wharf. There were cranes on both of the other dhows,
and the bikes were lifted from dhow number three to dhow number one by dhow
number two and then dhow number one lifted them onto the wharf. Lots of help from all three dhows and we had
to scramble across all these dhows.
Grannies are not made to do this and I was a lot slower than everyone
else, but had lots of encouragement and help – hold on here, pull that, put
your foot here!
Once both bikes were safely on the ground we had a group
picture with the crew that helped, port security arrived and I was shouted at
and told to get back on board, lady must be fully covered. Larry and I were called by the immigration
people and I descended the ladder with bottles of waters and my camera and was
once again told to get back on board.
Nafeer, once again thanks to Gavin, took us to immigration where a fully
covered lady helped us, we were given a 30 day visa for Somialand. Nafeer then drove us to the Maansoor Hotel on
the outskirts of Berbera, very simple accommodation but clean with an en-suite
bathroom and an air-conditioner. We have
been planning on riding to Djibouti but believe that the 420km journey will
take more than 16 hours in a Land Cruiser, not sure if we want to do this on
bikes so looks like we will head to Hargeisa once we have cleared the bikes
through customs tomorrow, apparently there was a three day holiday here. (Without the amazing help from Gavin I think
that we would still be stuck on the dhow
until tomorrow). So we may skip
Djibouti and head straight for Ethiopia, about 160km to Hargeisa on a good road
and then 90km to the Ethiopian boarder.
Good internet has allowed us to catch up with family and
friends and I know that there was particular concern about out crossing of the
Gulf of Aden, so thanks for all the well wishes.
S
Saturday, May 20, 2017
 |
| Our packed luggage waiting to load the bikes to take to the port - Salalah |
 |
| Safety officer making sure everything is safe before loading, we were not allowed to ride our bikes into the port at Salalah without the safety vehicle escorting us to the vessel. |
 |
| Getting the slings onto the bikes |
 |
| Lots of help |
 |
| Up goes the 800 |
 |
| And now for the 700 |
16 May 2017
We are on a Indian made Dhow, with 17 crew members, all from
Gujarat, India, about 30 km off the coast of Yemen. These guys – crew,
captain and owner, are all from the same village, and work together as a well
oiled team, with no sign of friction or resentment. We also have 2 Somali passengers with us. Our
load is mainly flour - 1050 tons!! And about 20 boxes of the Koran. So, speed is slow, average about 12 km/h.
1230 km distance, should take us about 4 days. The dhow is 49 m
long, 11m wide, has one large1115hp Cummings diesel engine, that growls away
from the depths below us. Access to the engine room is via a few steep
sets of stairs, and is fascinating. The chief engineer is really
friendly, and seems keen to make our trip pleasant!! Our motorbikes are near the front, securely
tied, covered with a sail, after suffering the indignity of being lifted by
crane!! Our mountain of gear is scattered on the outside veranda area, and
inside our tiny walk-through cabin.
We have zero privacy - although the crew did try to put up a
screen around one of the 2 long drop toilets. These 2 masterpieces are
hung off the back of the boat, tied with rope. In each is a plastic half
bucket, with a long rope, that is lowered into the sea about 5 m below, to
fetch salty water for washing!! There are no cabins as such - just 2 rooms, all interlinked, with no doors,
directly behind the wheelhouse. It seems that the captain and engineer
vacated 2 beds for us, in the first area, so we interact with the crew and
pilot all the time, with people coming and going between our beds all the time.
There is a room at the back - about the size of a large shower cubicle,
used as a washing room - with no running water.
A short while ago, we saw a couple of fast boats - just what one
would imagine a pirate boat to look like!!!! But, apparently harmless
fishermen!! We have decided to keep a low profile, if approached by any
boats of any sort.
Food is cooked on board, primitive, but tasty. Last night we
had fresh roti (flatbread) and a spicy fish stew. Lots of bones!!
Fortunately they asked, and I explained that Sharon is not great on
spicy, so she was served a mildly spicy tomato stew, with her roti!! Bed
followed, a short while later, with crew obviously exhausted from a few days of
heavy labour, loading the boat. Today is a day of rest, as the crew alternates
duty, lots of card playing and dominoes seem very popular. Plenty of Indian Chai, so far so good!!
We had a fairly tough ride, from Dubai to Salalah, mainly due to
heat, so tried to ride a large part at night, but only managed 550 km, until
1.30 pm. We normally avoid riding at night, but in UAE and Oman, this is
pretty safe. At about 12 pm, we stopped for fuel. I stepped off the
bike, only to realize I’d forgotten to put the sidestand out!!! A first
for me!! We then realized how tired we were, and decided to stop at the
next opportunity!! It took 4 of us to lift the heavily laden bike, not
something I’d want to attempt alone at that stage!! This left us 750 km to do the next day, but
with regular stops, wetting of cooling vests etc, we eventually arrived in
Salalah at 5 pm.
We checked into a beachfront hotel, where we had previously
stayed, and ended up spending 6 nights there, so a good break and unwind from
the last few months stresses. We had plenty of swimming, resting visited
some of the local spots, and generally lazed around. Salalah is
completely different to anything else we experienced in the Middle East - more
like Zanzibar or Mozambique, very tropical.
Our next stop will be Berbera, in Somaliland, then Hargeisa,
regional capital, then Djibouti, Ethiopia etc. We have made contact with
people in Djibouti, Gavin and Lee, who have been extremely helpful, offering
support with visas, port entry, border crossings etc, so hope to visit them in
Djibouti. Gavin works in Shipping, so a
huge plus for us.
After just over 3 years, our departure from Dubai was with very mixed
emotions. Leaving friends, a good job, once more setting off into the unknown,
was rather challenging. But, friends and family a-wait at home. Our
choice of route back to Africa was limited. Saudi Arabia is out - no
visas and women can’t ride. Routing North, via Iran, Jordan etc was a
possibility, but didn't appeal. We could possibly have sent the bikes
overland, to Jordan, then met them there, then into Egypt etc, was an option,
but we wanted to avoid summer temps as much as possible, and Egypt didn't hold
much attraction, after our last ride there. Then, we could have flown the
bikes to Addis, or Nairobi, but that felt like we were cheating, taking a
shortcut, so here we are, on a dhow, in potentially pirate infested waters!!
More soon
L
What a cheerful outlook on our trip! J S
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