2020 Ethiopia Boris and Yammy

Some guy told us those branches and sticks stuck on the back of trucks was to keep the tarp from flapping. Not so. It is to keep children  and others from riding on the back bumpers of the trucks. Of course I forgot to take a picture. Flying or driving around Ethiopia you quickly realize that every square foot of land is being used for something. Cultivation, grazing and wood gathering have transformed the landscape. Of course the large numbers of goats and camels have grazed everything down to the ground leaving thorny trees and bushes and cactus. Of course there are a zillion people trying to eke out a living from the land ,the same way they have been doing it for the last couple thousand years. I don"t think they would appreciate any advice I would give them on their farming practices. Today we took the public minibus from Harar to Dire Dawa. As soon as we arrived at the bus station we were grabbed and pushed into a pretty new bus, it soon became apparent they wante...

It was a pleasant enough drive . The thirty kilometers out to the camel market were mostly paved and the scenery was interesting. There were many checkpoints and at the last one we were told to pay a fee as we were entering the Somalia region of Ethiopia. As we neared the camel market the big surprise was an enormous refugee camp composed of hundreds of makeshift tents covered with pieces of plastic. There must have been thousands of people there, displaced from Somalialand. We were told strictly not to take any pictures. REFUGEE CAMP IN THE DISTANCE The camel selling ground was nothing special except for the hundreds of camels sellers and buyers milling around. All the camels had been herded here some from as far as 20 kilometers away. A lot were being sold for meat. We were told that a young attractive virgin bride could bring a price of a hundred camels. So yes women are valued in this country. Her virginity is guaranteed b...

I really started feeling sorry for the tourists driving around in their brand new Toyota mini Van's with a/c and windows and doors that worked. What their vehicles lacked was character.  Now our 60 year old Pugeot 404 had character to spare. Most doors and windows were missing handles and the seat springs were very close to our derrieres. Our driver Yamana had hung a very attractive bunch of plastic grapes from the rear view mirror. It was a stick shift on the steering column and it had a very attractive snow globe knob on the end. Once we got going we noticed an alarming shimmy if we got over 40kph. That with the squealing of the brakes and a plethora of metal against metal grinding noises kept us entertained and alert. That is until the over whelming cloud of gasoline fumes started to intrude on our consciousness.   We were enroute to he camel market ,30 km from Harar. Yamana well aware of our ancient vehicles age and failings, coaxed...

So we walked through the old city didn't see much of anything. We retreated to an upstairs restaurant had three machiattos and consulted the guide book. Decided we could knock off a museum. Museum was quite good and covered a little bit of everything. I was fascinated by the old Moslem texts. The calligraphy and illustrations were not only a few hundred years old but also incredible in the perfection and detail  Here we met Sharif who offered to take us to the spice market and a few places enroute. Now he is going to be our guide tomorrow as well. Of course we took a few pics along the way.

Lalibela is all about rock hewn churches. Near the downtown center there are about seven or eight churches cut into the stone hillside.it is a hefty 50 US entrance fee which is good for four days. Of course just about everyone you meet wants to be your guide. We decided to forgo a guide and wander around by ourselves . There were lots of tours and we absorbed some information from them and from our guide book. We took lots of pictures but it was difficult to capture the grandeur of this UNESCO world heritage site.

Both the Canadian and US governments recommend giving the Danakil Depression a pass. Tourists have been killed here in the past. It is a politically unstable region due to its proximity to the Eritrean border. There are also ongoing disputes with the indigenous people that reside here. A long drive from Mekele brought us to the first big salt lake.  We arrived in the late afternoon and it was starting to cool down. Out in the middle there was a rock outcropping and a small pool of very salty water. Some of the tourists hopped in.  Nearby was a area where salt miners cut salt blocks and then transported them by mule or camel seven days into the interior. We had dinner then out to the salt flat for sunset. We slept that night on crude woven beds under the stars.  The next morning we were up at 0430 for breakfast and an early start. We arrived at the Martian like landscape of Dalal just as the sun was coming up....