Dec. 27 Said goodbye to Ryan & Lance and will send some info on Ugandan community based tourism to Baye. They seem to have people stay more in villages than in Ethiopia > more $ for the villages. After Ryan & Lance left we had a short stiff walk. steep downhill with some exposure & quite rocky. Got to the guesthouse and found the part of the sole of my boot was coming off. I taped it back on with Duct tape. Not sure it will last. Tomorrow it is downhill then up 700 m then flat - an early start. When we stopped for coffee this AM wood that was burning on the little burner was frankinsence. Smelled nice. The broken shoe seems somehow part of the whole African experience. Hope it holds together.
So here I am relaxing on a bed high in the Ethiopian highlands relaxing. 4 more days of trekking before Lalibela and my boot is held togetethr with duct tape.the same boot I will need for trekking in the Rwenzori mtns. I don't know how long the boot will last or where I will get a replacement. I stink & have no clean clothes. A shower tomorrow - a bucket of water and a pitcher - and laundry, hopefully, when I get to Lalibela. All is good. My mattress is 3 - 4 inches thick pad on a concrete slab & I am sleeping fine. Maybe an expensive mattress has less to do with a good night's sleep than I have been told.
Sitting on a bench in the dusk overlooking rural Ethiopian farms. Baye says there is a place in lalibela where I can get replacement shoes which I am sure I will need. Something will work out and I hope the Rwenzori will work out.
Lalibela - shower, internet, laundry, shoes, organize Q E Park tour? Ethiopian Air change?
Hyenas in the night.
Dec. 29 - gained about 700 m. I'm slow and wondering about the Rwenzori. At the top of a plateau we took a break and I saw a group of baboons including some young ones. took some pics without getting too close.
Passed thru some more farming activity along the way to our lunch spot. Children not as outgoing & saw some toddlers with flies in their eyes. Baye says we will get to the guesthouse early and have time to relax. Young guys on the hillside & teen guys with us scamper about the hillside. I PLOD. Baye says I am definitely not the worst & by my performance he ages me at 42. Young children (8 yrs old?) herding animals. I now better understand clothes for Africa though I am curious about the process. Most of the day to day wear is tattered & crudely repaired with old guys wearing old suit jackets and a variety of inadequate footwear. Most men about my height and totally lean.
At the lunch stop I saw a guy loudly jumping down a steep hillside. I wondered why and wandered to the edge of the escarpment. Turns out he was scaring a group of baboons who had been eating the locals chickpeas crop. Baboons here - deer in Canada.
Watching the goats reminded me how much goats & farmyard scenes were included in cartoons of my youth but probably no longer part of popular culture. 3 more days of trekking.
? - Next day - Easy 17 k although at first the young guys had problems w/donkey that had a mind of its own. It threw my pack to the ground
but the only thing breakable was my tablet which I don't care about so it is fine I am sure. Easy walk over relatively flat & open farmland. Saw more baboons- a group of about 20 all ages plus two adult males. I am relaxing this afternoon & Baye has gone to town to charge his phone. I have been gently educated at several points that it is not for me to carry my own daypack or jacket or water bottle. That it is someone's job and they are happily willing to do it. Two more days and I hope my boots make it.
I saw lamagarands (quite large birds). Baye is reorganizing so we go into Lalibela a day earlier than planned which will work better for both of us.
From ___________ village guesthouse. After dinner several of us (I was the only guest) sat around camp fire in the guest house shoulder dancing - me included - to Baye's singing & a beat kept on an empty plastic water container. Later a selection of music was played on a cell phone. I went to bed with lots of blankets as there is a wind & my hut is drafty & high - 3,400 m. Plans change and all is good.
Next Day - Last night we heard hyenas & imitated them & Baye was careful to show me how to bolt my door from the inside so I went to bed thinking that hyenas roamed the camp during the night. I woke up during the night sure that I heard them. I woke up in the morning and found I was quite wrong. I woke up quite warm though as took all the blankets from the double bed and put them on my bed. Program for today is light. The people at my guest house will do my laundry. There is evidently limited laundry facilities in Lalibela & this will be more convenient. We are going to walk over & see an elementary & secondary school. Baye has been talking to his girlfriend & we will have dinner with her and she will come with us to a monastery.
Also we are going to lalibela a day early which is fine with me as there are several things I would like to do in addition to seeing the stone churches. Wandered around this AM before everyone got going thinking of things/changes to do after I get home. Set up for student renter, fix roof, fix window etc etc Think about changes to my life!
An easy day and a good one. The women here
did my laundry & it is drying here on the woodpile. Baye and I walked into town. He put his phone to charge & we went to Helen's birthday party at her home. helen is now 2 years old & her friends and family were stopping in to celebrate. I had a glass of homemade beer - barley & hops only - and after showing helen her picture
I stepped back across to where I was sitting and stepped on my glasses and broke them. I don't like my spare pair but am glad that I have them. A good afternoon. Tomorrow Lalibela and some errands & old churches. Cold & windy tonight. I am under 4 blankets & liking it. Neither the door or window are at all draftproof & the candle flickers and may go out. Talk after dinner of Sweden & ethiopia w/Baye & Klaus the IT entrepreneur/Mountain runner.
Dec. 31 - so far an interesting day. Chatted with Klaus this AM before he ran off. Interesting guy.
A researcher in IT who got his PhD & started a software company15 years ago. Sucessful and now less in the operating side and looks for long distance mountain runs for holidays. We talked of Ethiopia and he was thinking of what he might do to help Ethiopian tourism. Afterwards we walked into town to catch our ride to lalibela but first we went to market to buy Baye's mom a sheep for Christmas. Several hundred people, at least,
on a hillside & I follow Baye and someone else going from farmer to farmer squeezing and lifting sheep which should be around 800 birr ($40) but because of the coming Christmas season are around 1,100 birr ($55). Baye settles on one and the other guy hoists it on to his shoulders
and we walk back up to the highway where I buy the sheep carrier a beer. Our ride comes and we toss our packs in the back as well as the trussed up sheep in the back of the Land Rover. Driving to Lalibela we drop off the sheep at Baye's mom's place to the delight of his sister and niece.
Driving here is interesting as the road is shared with large numbers of pedestrians of all ages, some carrying heavy burdens, shiny Toyota Land Cruisers with tourists, small very full buses, trucks, goats, sheep, donkeys and cattle. The horn is in frequent use, not to express irritation or frustration, but to warn people of our approach. So I get to Lalibela and check into my hotel and have lunch and we are off to a monastery church 42 k out if Lalibela. On the way out of town I see the Ben Abeba restaurant looking incredible on a hillside.
Ben Abeba restaurant is in the background. I' with Baye (behind me), Linnea (to my left) and fellow travellers met in Lalibela.
Ben Abeba is run by an older scottish woman and her business partner an Ethiopian.
42k to the monastery of, at times, quite hairy mtn driving. Monastery was old, in some ways powerful & unlike anything I have seen before. Forgot to mention that Linnea, Baye's swedish fiance was with us. She is very nice, smart & attractive & is working hard to learn Amharic. Problems with the hotel over a quote on rates they don't want to live up to so we all move on the next day.
Baye and Linnea above
When we were talking to town this morning we overtook about 15 men taking turns carrying an improvised litter with someone who was ill or injured on it. I have no idea whether they will be able to get the help they need in the village on the highway.
I have flea bites from the bed in the last guesthouse and on the drive to lalibela I saw a tree bent on the riverside and a goat in the tree.
So here I am relaxing on a bed high in the Ethiopian highlands relaxing. 4 more days of trekking before Lalibela and my boot is held togetethr with duct tape.the same boot I will need for trekking in the Rwenzori mtns. I don't know how long the boot will last or where I will get a replacement. I stink & have no clean clothes. A shower tomorrow - a bucket of water and a pitcher - and laundry, hopefully, when I get to Lalibela. All is good. My mattress is 3 - 4 inches thick pad on a concrete slab & I am sleeping fine. Maybe an expensive mattress has less to do with a good night's sleep than I have been told.
Sitting on a bench in the dusk overlooking rural Ethiopian farms. Baye says there is a place in lalibela where I can get replacement shoes which I am sure I will need. Something will work out and I hope the Rwenzori will work out.
Lalibela - shower, internet, laundry, shoes, organize Q E Park tour? Ethiopian Air change?
Hyenas in the night.
Dec. 29 - gained about 700 m. I'm slow and wondering about the Rwenzori. At the top of a plateau we took a break and I saw a group of baboons including some young ones. took some pics without getting too close.
Passed thru some more farming activity along the way to our lunch spot. Children not as outgoing & saw some toddlers with flies in their eyes. Baye says we will get to the guesthouse early and have time to relax. Young guys on the hillside & teen guys with us scamper about the hillside. I PLOD. Baye says I am definitely not the worst & by my performance he ages me at 42. Young children (8 yrs old?) herding animals. I now better understand clothes for Africa though I am curious about the process. Most of the day to day wear is tattered & crudely repaired with old guys wearing old suit jackets and a variety of inadequate footwear. Most men about my height and totally lean.
At the lunch stop I saw a guy loudly jumping down a steep hillside. I wondered why and wandered to the edge of the escarpment. Turns out he was scaring a group of baboons who had been eating the locals chickpeas crop. Baboons here - deer in Canada.
Watching the goats reminded me how much goats & farmyard scenes were included in cartoons of my youth but probably no longer part of popular culture. 3 more days of trekking.
? - Next day - Easy 17 k although at first the young guys had problems w/donkey that had a mind of its own. It threw my pack to the ground
but the only thing breakable was my tablet which I don't care about so it is fine I am sure. Easy walk over relatively flat & open farmland. Saw more baboons- a group of about 20 all ages plus two adult males. I am relaxing this afternoon & Baye has gone to town to charge his phone. I have been gently educated at several points that it is not for me to carry my own daypack or jacket or water bottle. That it is someone's job and they are happily willing to do it. Two more days and I hope my boots make it.
I saw lamagarands (quite large birds). Baye is reorganizing so we go into Lalibela a day earlier than planned which will work better for both of us.
From ___________ village guesthouse. After dinner several of us (I was the only guest) sat around camp fire in the guest house shoulder dancing - me included - to Baye's singing & a beat kept on an empty plastic water container. Later a selection of music was played on a cell phone. I went to bed with lots of blankets as there is a wind & my hut is drafty & high - 3,400 m. Plans change and all is good.
Next Day - Last night we heard hyenas & imitated them & Baye was careful to show me how to bolt my door from the inside so I went to bed thinking that hyenas roamed the camp during the night. I woke up during the night sure that I heard them. I woke up in the morning and found I was quite wrong. I woke up quite warm though as took all the blankets from the double bed and put them on my bed. Program for today is light. The people at my guest house will do my laundry. There is evidently limited laundry facilities in Lalibela & this will be more convenient. We are going to walk over & see an elementary & secondary school. Baye has been talking to his girlfriend & we will have dinner with her and she will come with us to a monastery.
Also we are going to lalibela a day early which is fine with me as there are several things I would like to do in addition to seeing the stone churches. Wandered around this AM before everyone got going thinking of things/changes to do after I get home. Set up for student renter, fix roof, fix window etc etc Think about changes to my life!
An easy day and a good one. The women here
did my laundry & it is drying here on the woodpile. Baye and I walked into town. He put his phone to charge & we went to Helen's birthday party at her home. helen is now 2 years old & her friends and family were stopping in to celebrate. I had a glass of homemade beer - barley & hops only - and after showing helen her picture
I stepped back across to where I was sitting and stepped on my glasses and broke them. I don't like my spare pair but am glad that I have them. A good afternoon. Tomorrow Lalibela and some errands & old churches. Cold & windy tonight. I am under 4 blankets & liking it. Neither the door or window are at all draftproof & the candle flickers and may go out. Talk after dinner of Sweden & ethiopia w/Baye & Klaus the IT entrepreneur/Mountain runner.
Dec. 31 - so far an interesting day. Chatted with Klaus this AM before he ran off. Interesting guy.
A researcher in IT who got his PhD & started a software company15 years ago. Sucessful and now less in the operating side and looks for long distance mountain runs for holidays. We talked of Ethiopia and he was thinking of what he might do to help Ethiopian tourism. Afterwards we walked into town to catch our ride to lalibela but first we went to market to buy Baye's mom a sheep for Christmas. Several hundred people, at least,
and we walk back up to the highway where I buy the sheep carrier a beer. Our ride comes and we toss our packs in the back as well as the trussed up sheep in the back of the Land Rover. Driving to Lalibela we drop off the sheep at Baye's mom's place to the delight of his sister and niece.
Driving here is interesting as the road is shared with large numbers of pedestrians of all ages, some carrying heavy burdens, shiny Toyota Land Cruisers with tourists, small very full buses, trucks, goats, sheep, donkeys and cattle. The horn is in frequent use, not to express irritation or frustration, but to warn people of our approach. So I get to Lalibela and check into my hotel and have lunch and we are off to a monastery church 42 k out if Lalibela. On the way out of town I see the Ben Abeba restaurant looking incredible on a hillside.
Ben Abeba restaurant is in the background. I' with Baye (behind me), Linnea (to my left) and fellow travellers met in Lalibela.
Ben Abeba is run by an older scottish woman and her business partner an Ethiopian.
42k to the monastery of, at times, quite hairy mtn driving. Monastery was old, in some ways powerful & unlike anything I have seen before. Forgot to mention that Linnea, Baye's swedish fiance was with us. She is very nice, smart & attractive & is working hard to learn Amharic. Problems with the hotel over a quote on rates they don't want to live up to so we all move on the next day.
Baye and Linnea above
When we were talking to town this morning we overtook about 15 men taking turns carrying an improvised litter with someone who was ill or injured on it. I have no idea whether they will be able to get the help they need in the village on the highway.
I have flea bites from the bed in the last guesthouse and on the drive to lalibela I saw a tree bent on the riverside and a goat in the tree.
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