WEATHER: Wet in Konso – grey skies and then sun in Yabelo
HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: The children and colour of the Surrupo Markets
BUMMER OF THE DAY: Should have got a Bernstar jump with the camels
BUYS OF THE DAY: Besides food nothing was bought today
WORD OF THE DAY: You you you you you you
Well it appeared the cars were in a lot worse condition than first thought. They worked on them as much as they could last night with the rain and then early this morning they were back at it to get them back on the road. So our departure time was a little hazy till we got word at 8.30am that they were all fixed and we could get going. The mud situation hadn’t improved with all the rain form last night, so it was quite slippery in places and even the grass cuttings couldn’t keep up with all the mud and we were all climbing into the cars with the mud clinging to our feet. Everyone was trying as hard as they could to scrape it all off, from using the car tires, rocks, branches and at one point old duck fell over trying to get mud off her boots. And get this we are travelling out of the rainy season! Can you imagine what all the towns and roads look like when it is the rainy season? That would be one very important word of advice – don’t come to Ethiopia in the wet season. I think it would just be terrible!
This was probably the shortest travel day we have had with only 2 hours on the road we arrived into town for the night – Yabelo. We actually arrived into somewhere before lunch time! And just to have a cherry on top, the accommodation is actually okay. As I was on a single room that I hadn’t paid for, I was in a different section of the motel, the other guys had newer rooms, but all in all I had a bed and a toilet that flushed, this people is heaven for me and I was quite happy. I did have to put a call in for a towel and toilet paper, I had no TV, no safe and my outside light turned my inside lights on and off, but like I said as long as I had a bed and toilet I was happy and the shower had hot water – heaven!!! The weather had cleared in this part of the world, so we were able to sit out under this massive shady tree that had table and chairs and waiters running around getting food and drinks and there was a small TV on the CNN channel that we were able to grasp bits and pieces of what has been happening in the world while were un-contactable. I tried to blog another day, but with the weather so good, it was a busy place and I was people watching and then Massimo and Josephine came over I was just not getting a word written.
When we went to move for lunch I had a mad minute that I thought my bag had been stolen. Josephine had already gone and it was just Bobby and I. I told Bobby my bag was gone, and being the voice of reason said maybe I had left it in my room. But I didn’t have my room key, which I was sure was in my missing bag, but you know when you just cling to the small fact that you could be wrong and maybe the bag is in my room, but you know that it’s not. So I peered through my window and low and behold NO bag. So my brain is now working overtime on what I had in the bag. Passport, camera, 200USD, credit cards the usual deal. Bobs was waiting for me and with a shake of my head I was just about in full panic alert when Josephine came back for her drink and saw my panicked expression and when I told her, she had picked up my bag for me as I had my hands full with my laptop and hard drive. OMG – thank you travel god!!!! I haven’t had a feeling like that all trip and I touch wood that it doesn’t happen again but isn’t that feeling the pits – the pits.
After lunch we drove 15 minutes to Yabelo National Park. Yabelo Wildlife Sanctuary is a protected area and wildlife sanctuary in southern Ethiopia. Having an area of 2,500 square kilometers and elevations ranging from 1430 to 2000 meters above sea level. Endemic species of birds found in this protected area include Stresemann's Bush Crow and White-tailed Swallow. Yabelo reportedly suffers from a great deal of deforestation, and illegal hunting of the spotted cats and ostrich is common. We were going into the park to try out luck at finding zebra’s and the 2 endemic birds, but after only driving around the park for 30 minutes, we got word that there had been no animal sightings, so we ditched the effort all together and went straight to our next stop the Surrupo Camel and People Market.
On our way we passed a camel farm and there were trucks driving out with camels loaded in the back of the lorries. They looked hilarious as we drove past them with them sitting down and their heads all looking the same way, like they were watching a tennis match. They are pretty funny looking animals and just to see their head over the top of the bars was super funny. It was only a 15 minute drive to the markets where we got dropped off and we then proceeded to enter the camel market that was located on a large open space oval that would have had at least 300+ camels. We were able to just walk around and take photos as we wished and no one was hassling us for money. It was strange here, the second we arrived into the market, I was, let’s say an attraction. This is just not me trumpeting my own horn or anything, you ask Minaloo and Josephine, I was a man magnet the second I stepped onto the field. Josephine was the first one to notice and we started making a joke that I was a VIP for the day. We even had a motor bike stop right in front of us with 2 guys on it to check us out. Josephine called to Massimo as my protector / husband and as Massimo does he asked them how much they would pay for me in camels for my hand in marriage! They offered 10 camels and when you look at the cost for a single camel is approx. 1000AUD a pop; they just offered a dowry of 10,000AUD for me. I’m telling ya I was the bee’s knees. As we walked around the camel herds (do camels come in herds) we were picking up more and more admiring men. Josephine couldn’t stop laughing and I was upgraded from Lady Bernie to Queen Bernie.
From the camels we walked across the rest of the oval and then entered the Peoples market. By this time the men had stayed with their camels and we had now picked up about a dozen children. I was back to getting touched and poked and this time round my bottom was the object of their touching. I also have little bruises on my arms from where I have been poked for the last week. These kids were pretty great and they weren’t asking for money for photos and were happy just to walk around with us. The market was a wash of colour, noise and people. The People’s Market is literally all things that people need, like clothes, toiletries, shoes, more clothes, clothes and more clothes. So after walking around for 30 minutes and getting same more snaps we headed back to the cars that were parked on the other side of a gully. The kids were so receptive to photos, they just wanted them taken so they could see them played back on the screen and too look at themselves. It made a really nice change. It was a pretty cool afternoon, even if I was the object of people’s attention, who would ever have thought I would be so popular in Africa. Once again it comes down to the ‘larger’ size of moi and how they just aren’t used to seeing people of my ‘size’. The kids loved saying you you you you you when asking for a photo or asking for pens or money you you you you you you – it got a little tiring – you you you you you you you….
Driving back to the motel look8ing at the local people, the Oromo are an ethnic group with 30 million members; they constitute the single largest ethnic group in Ethiopia and approximately 34.49% of the population according to the 2007 census. They wore longer dresses with head scarves which fall in line with 90% of the Oromo being of Muslim faith. No.2 car is still blowing smoke, which I am not sure if that is a good thing or not, but thank goodness I was in car no.3 today is all I can say!
So after only travelling 165km today, getting offered 10 camels for my hand in marriage, getting treated like some freaky VIP in a camel market, it was time to hit the hay in my 2 star grandiose motel room for the night.
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