Tuesday 5 July 2011

28th - 29th June Moyale Kenya to Yebello Ethiopia

We left Kenya Wildlife camp round 9am for the Ethiopian border which was only 500m away. Entering Ethiopia was rather slow 9 - 12am, but with no hick-up's. Roger and Doug however first had to find a welding machine to fix the two KTM'S who's frames cracked on the Marsabit road. The rest of the crew had to hang around.

While waiting we discovered a placed called the Koket Hotel and Restaurant, this place is highly recommended, clean , friendly and we were subsequently introduced to authentic, Ethiopian food which included Tibs firfir, Tibs and Veg, Ngeera (Local pan cakes made from Teff that has fermented for 3days) , Kitfo etc. We all had a wonderful meal, however no utensils came with the food, so we were all trying to eat without any. What a mess that was! Obviously a few local beers have also been consumed. Roger and Doug arrived with fixed frames and joined us for lunch since they could not do the border since it closes between 12h00-14h00. For a short time they were illegal immigrants, not that something like that will faze Roger.





 Authentic lunch at Kotet hotel and restaurant
 Welcome Llush scenery after 'desert' like conditions after entering Ethiopia
 Koket Lunch
 Scenery after entering Ethiopia

 Desert Ant heaps








From Moyale we were supposed to go to Awassa, but since we had to wait for the bikes to be fixed we decided to stop in Yabello for the night. It was a short hop, 250km and what a wonderful surprise Ethiopia was. To think that the previous day took us 9-11hrs to do 250km just on the other side of the same mountain and the same distance. Ethiopia has wonderful tar roads winding through desert like scenery with birds in abundance, friendly people waving, shouting YOYOYOYO all the time. Although it was a wonderful road to travel on it was never without people on the side. It is one village after another, never ending.The scenery very desert-like with huge red and white anthills that looked like 'carved statues' for kilo's on end. On this stretch of road we saw more vultures than I have seen in my entire life. They are tame, sitting in trees and next to the road,  on roof tops or just circling in the air. Roger once again had a flat on this stretch of tar and decided that it had to be his tyre that was defective. Replaced the tyre and the backup vehicle and the last bike arrived at Yabello after 7pm.

We booked into the hotel, nice clean rooms, tried to have supper but there was a bit off a mishap, so we ate very little and had an early evening.

The next day we departed for Awassa at about 09am, another short hop on beautiful roads. The countryside changed to more fertile soil and farming was seen everywhere. As we went along the road it dawned on us about the amount of people that are in Ethiopia, the second highest population after Nigeria with 110 million. Poverty clearly to be seen everywhere. Ethiopia's population stands on 82milj people with 50% below the age of 17yrs and to be doubled within the next 10years.

Arrived in Awassa lunch time, had a wonderful 'late' lunch at Lewi Restaurant, the LebLeb dish highly recommended and booked in at Hawassa Inn for the next two night. Our rest day was dedicated to servicing vehicles and bikes.


We are planning to leave for  Debre Marko's the next day  en route to Bahir Dar via the Blue Nile Valley before we head north to Lalibelo. So excited to see the Rock Hewn Churches.....

We are pleasantly surprised on how cheap Ethiopia is. We get 2.3birr to a rand and stay at hotels for less than R200 per couple per night b/b and eat out for R20 meal...  feel like American's in the rest of the world.....

No comments:

Post a Comment