We left Gonder on Tues 7th June and made the day long drive to Lalibela arriving at our campsite / hotel early evening. This past week, we have camping at hotels, with the option to upgrade to a room if you wish. Considering the upgrade costs little more than three english pounds per night, it seems foolish not to take the chance of a bed and a bathroom. It rains most afternoons and evenings in Ethiopia so camping is not so much fun. That said, with Ethiopian hotels you never quite know what facilities may be available. Power and water are intermittent at best. We have learnt that when there is water, you should take a shower and do your laundry. Never think, I'll have a shower later or tomorrow morning - you run the risk of there being no water available!
Lalibela is famed for its eleven rock hewn churches. Basically, churches that were cut out of the rock around 800 years ago. They are pretty impressive given the amount of work it must have taken to create them. After a morning tour of the churches, I had a lazy afternoon at the hotel, then some of us headed out to sample the tej, which is the local drink of honey wine (not recommended) and shoulder dancing (don't ask!).
From Lalibela, we drove on to the town of Bahir Dar which is set on the edge of Lake Tana. Spent another fairly laid back day chilling out by the lake. Then yesterday, we made the marathon journey to Addis Ababa, the capital city. This was our longest driving day yet in Africa. We set off at 5am and arrived around 9pm, although two hours of this was spent stuck in a traffic jam in Addis. We have enjoyed some spectacular scenery on our drives, in particular, the Blue Nile Gorge which is 1000m deep. You find that whenever we make roadside stops in Ethiopia (toilet or lunch breaks), within minutes the truck is surrounded by at least 20 children. Even when you think you have stopped in a remote area, they appear as if by magic - fascinated by the faranjis (foreigners). The ongoing requests for pens, money, sweets, etc continue but they will also point at any item of jewellery that you might be wearing to indicate that they want it! They love having their photos taken and for you to show them the picture. This amuses them greatly, as do games of frisbee. The whistles that Di handed out were also a big hit, although I'm sure their parents were less delighted when they returned home with them!
So tomorrow, we have another early start and continue through Southern Ethiopia. In less than a week's time, we will be in Kenya and at our first game park. Looking forward to seeing some big animals!!
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