HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: The scrambled eggs at Sabana Lodge
BUMMER OF THE DAY: We’re back in Addis
WORD OF THE DAY: Hello-Good Morning!!!!
DISTANCE TRAVELLED: 210KM
So today the ‘official’ Zeme tour comes to an end. This is okay as Z and I have both said the sooner we part then the sooner we will be reunited. It makes sense and is what is going to get us through the next 131 days when I finally get on that plane in 2 days’ time.
We have 210KM to cover today, so we wanted to get a good start as we have a few things we need to do in Addis before my departure on Saturday night. I still stand by my call that the made to order scrambled eggs at Sabana Lodge have been the best on the trip so far. It will be sad to say goodbye to this amazing oasis in the dry landscape of Langano Lake, but it was a superb way to finish our time together and I know that when I move back we will certainly be coming back here for a weekend away from the busy city of Addis Ababa.
We were back on the road for the last time at 9am and making our way back to the city. The traffic starts to pick up and even though there are still herds of cattle and donkeys and children by the side of the road they are not as numerous as in the country. The trucks are the main vehicles on the roads again and every time I see a bright yellow truck it reminds me of Rosita and what I am going back to in South America. I have said numerous times that there is nothing worse than joining a tour that has already started. The new group joined in Rio, so there will be 21 new faces and 5 familiar faces. I think this will be my saving grace that this time I already know people and one of them is my roomy. But that in its self poses an issue as Kate has been sharing with one of the newbies Natasha and when I get back will she continue to share with her or come back to the Bernjuane? I am not too worried about it as by the time I get back to the tour, that section finishes in 12 days and 11 people leave and we pick up 6 fresh faces, so if the groups are clicky for any reason there will be a shakeup not long after I return. I am looking forward to seeing the gang again though and I feel like my batteries have been recharged for the final run through Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia and back into Ecuador.
The scenery back into Addis in the morning was mass cattle crossing the roads and then the closer we got to the city there are a lot of flower farms, mainly roses. Who would have thought that Ethiopia would be a mass market flower grower and 90% of all the flowers are exported to Holland and the USA. One of the main farms is enormous and is owned by a company called Sher, which rents them out to three large Dutch flower companies, including Herburg Roses Ethiopia. They are massive, rows of identical green plastic greenhouses, each one a kilometer in length, covering a total of 325 hectares.
Roses have boomed in Ethiopia, overtaking Kenya this year. Cut flower exports have risen tenfold over the last 3-4 years and now bring in an annual $170m in 2008 – that’s 11% of national exports.
We arrived into Addis at 2pm. It was a long drive and the traffic was manic. It took nearly 2 hours to travel 71KM. Insane I tell you. I will NOT be driving outside the city limits when I move there that is for sure. It really is pure chaos and makes the city traffic look like a Sunday drive and that is saying something. So we booked back into the Baks Hotel again mainly due to its location and they also had 2 bags of my belongings that I had left there 3 weeks ago. We are having dinner with Minalu and Chombe tonight to say goodbye and see you in 5 months, so we had to get ready for that and in the meantime Zeme had some running around to do. The car needed to be refueled as it had to be handed back in the morning. We had to put in photos to be printed as I had selected 96 of the ‘best’ shots of our trip so far, so I could show them all off back on the truck and so that Zeme had some hard copy pictures for himself. The pictures weren’t that much cheaper to print back home at 12c a photo, but that’s okay and it is always nice to have hard copies of photos to flip through when you need to. We also got a bottle of vodka for us to have a few drinks at home over the next 3 days as we both ‘love’ vodka and Zeme also had to take a trip home to collect his passport as we are off to the Australian Consulate tomorrow to see what will be required for him to obtain a visa to come and visit Australia in July. I will not be buying an airline ticket until he has his visa this time, I have learnt my lesson the hard way there, but we have plenty of time, so fingers crossed it will not be difficult like the Brazilian process. They are one tough visa to get that is for sure!
We decided to lash out and have a nice dinner with new and old friends present so we went to one of the top restaurants in Addis called Top View Restaurant and as the name suggests it had an amazing view of Addis all lit up at night time. It was busy and there were a lot of farangees there, probably the most I had seen all in one place on my entire trip so far. We really are few and far between in Ethiopia, even though they have a large expat community, we didn’t see them on our ‘touristy’ trip of the country. Before we ordered I wanted the guys to know that I would be buying dinner for them all and it was a thank you for making me feel welcome in their city. It means a lot to me to know that I will have people I know already for when I return in August and for the transition of meeting new people a little bit easier. This is another reason that it was good to come back again before the big move and it is still the best thing I could have done. The dinner was great and I have to say being one of the top restaurants in Addis we all had steak for dinner, 4 wines, 2 soft drinks and 3 desserts the total bill came to a grand total of 37AUD. Can you imagine how much a meal like that would cost back home?
So the Grand Zeme tour comes to a close and after 3400KM in 17 days, I had an amazing time for so many reasons the 2 most important being spending every waking moment with Zeme and seeing more of the country I am going to call home. Ethiopia has so much to offer for tourists and they really need to market themselves more and showcase what an incredible country they truly have. I will certainly try and become a positive ambassador for Ethiopia even after I am living here.
No comments:
Post a Comment