HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Having beef for lunch for the first time in weeks
BUMMER OF THE DAY: The Ras Hotel was quite dodgy
WORD OF THE DAY: Hyena-man
DISTANCE TRAVELLED: 345KM
We head to Harar this morning and we only have measly 345KM to drive today after yesterday’s tough drive Z is feeling a little tired, so we don’t have much planned once we get there today except the Hyena-man tonight.
We had to cross back across the iron bridge and the same troop of baboons was back waiting patiently for some food. We pulled off the road and stopped to take some photos of them, as there were a lot of baby and young baboons. I hate to say that the baboons seem to be well fed by the truck drivers, as we sat there for around 10 minutes they got fed around 4 times with trucks throwing out what they didn’t eat for breakfast. It’s a double edged sword why waste the food when someone or something can eat it, but then it is teaching the baboons bad habits.
The drive was still passing through the Afar tribes and they just don’t seem as friendly. It seems more dangerous on this section and Z has really enforced the no photos along this section today as well. They just look mean and when they are gun carrying tribes you don’t want to make them mad that is for sure. It is also Khat country. The best Khat of the country is grown in these parts and it is more acceptable to ‘chew’ here than back in Addis. A lot of the hotels don’t permit you to ‘chew’ in their rooms with it being a mild narcotic. Khat is a flowering plant native to the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Amongst communities from these areas, khat chewing has a long history as a social custom dating back thousands of years. Khat contains the alkaloid called cathinone, an amphetamine-like stimulant, which is said to cause excitement, loss of appetite and euphoria. In 1980, the World Health Organization (WHO) classified it as a drug of abuse that can produce mild to moderate psychological dependence (less than tobacco or alcohol), although the WHO does not consider khat to be seriously addictive. The plant has been targeted by anti-drug organizations like the DEA. It is a controlled or illegal substance in some countries, but is legal for sale and production in others. I have tried it a few times now and I think I am doing something wrong as I really haven’t felt any difference in my own behavior after ‘chewing’ for a few hours.
It was a beautiful drive again today and very mountainous with windy roads and great views. We arrived into Harar at 1.30pm and it reminded me a little of Havana in Cuba. They have the traditional blue and white taxis but also mixed in with the Lada brand of cars they also have the 1950’s Peugeot cars. It is quite funny to see these cars driving around in the middle of Ethiopia. After checking with 2 hotels we decided to stay at the Ras Hotel. I am a bit dubious about the Ras chain as the Ras Hotel in Addis Ababa was a little dodgy and I was wondering if this hotel was going to be along the same theme. Well when we got to our room I think this was worse than its sister property. There was no power or water. They had set times that both of these utilities would be switched on, which for the night time period was going to be at 6pm. So to flush the toilet there was a large bucket of water in the bathroom and you used a jug to ‘flush’ your business down the loo. The bathroom itself was in a desperate need of a good clean and our double bed, which we paid more for were 2 twin beds pushed together, not even a double mattress on top; they were just 2 beds together. We paid extra for that? With all that said we only paid 20AUD for the night and that includes breakfast, so the saying that you get what you pay for rings true and you’re not going to get the Hilton for 20 bucks.
Harar is an eastern city in Ethiopia, and the city is located on a hilltop, in the eastern extension of the Ethiopian highlands about five hundred kilometers from Addis Ababa with an elevation of 1885 meters. For centuries, Harar has been a major commercial center, linked by the trade routes with the rest of Ethiopia, the entire Horn of Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and, through its ports, the outside world. Harar Jugol has been included in the World Heritage List in 2006 by UNESCO in recognition of its cultural heritage. According to UNESCO, it is "considered 'the fourth holy city' of Islam" with 82 mosques, three of which date from the 10th century, and 102 shrines. Harar is also famous for its distinctive, natural processed coffees which bear the same name. Called Gey ("the City") by its inhabitants, Harar was founded between the 7th and the 11th century (according to different sources) and emerged as the center of Islamic culture and religion in the Horn of Africa.
During the period of Egyptian rule (1875-1884), Arthur Rimbaud lived in the city as the local factor of several different commercial companies based in Aden; he returned in 1888 to resume trading in coffee, musk and skins until illness forced him to return to France. A house said to have been his residence is now a museum. Ten years later, Harar regained its independence, but this lasted only two years until 6 January 1887 when the Battle of Chelenqo led to Harar's incorporation into the Emperor Menelik II of Ethiopia's growing Empire based in Shewa. Harar lost some of its commercial importance with the creation of the Addis Ababa - Djibouti Railway, initially intended to run via the city but diverted north of the mountains between Harar and the Awash River to save money. As a result of this, Dire Dawa was founded in 1902 as New Harar.
We had lunch at the hotel and this was its saving grace. It was nice to be given a menu, order something and not have them come back and tell us it wasn’t available. We have been eating a lot of chicken and lamb, so when I saw the beef steak on the menu I couldn’t pass up having some red meat for the first time in weeks. I do have to say it was one of the best meals I have had since arriving in Ethiopia and it was that good I had the same thing again for dinner after we got back from the Hyena-man!
So at 6.30pm we hopped into the car to see what all the fuss was about with the Hyena-man. As darkness fell over the ancient walled city of Harar, local people and tourists make their way to the outskirts of the city to see the bizarre spectacle. I am not sure what I imagined it to be, but I had some bleaches in mind, a controlled area where you could watch from a safe distance, so you could imagine my surprise and horror when we turned up behind some of the homes not far from the hotel and the hyena’s were just walking around wild, waiting to be fed. It is a long-standing tradition of feeding meat to spotted hyenas which evolved during the 1960s into an impressive night show for tourists. The story goes, a local hyena man began feeding scraps to the hyenas to stop them entering the village and attacking people. He calls the hyenas by name and one by one they make their way.
With only the headlights of a car to illuminate the night's events, a small group of curious spectators gathers a few feet from the hyena man of Harar. He then calls out to the 30 or 40 wild hyenas which inhabit the forests surrounding the city. Within minutes, seven or eight pairs of luminous eyes appear in the dark. In short bursts, he loudly makes sounds in a combination of his own "hyena dialect," English and the local language of Afaan Oromo.
When we arrived, some of the hyenas were already there, lazing around. They are obviously well fed; one in particular was very large. While we were waiting for the hyena man, one very large hyena, who was very confident came right up to us looking for his dinner. They are quite strange looking, cute in their own way but their laugh sends a shiver down the spine!
Hyenas have the strongest jaws in the animal kingdom and it was both terrifying and exciting to be so close to them. We had the chance to feed them ourselves, I was terrified, so Zeme was keen as mustard to get in there and feed them, so he popped the stick in his mouth and the Hyena-man looped a piece of meat around the stick and a hyena comes up and takes the meat off the stick. Yeah I will NOT be doing that. After watching a few other people do it and not get eaten alive, I was happy to go and feed them from a woven basket. I couldn’t go all that way and not give it a go, so that was the closest I got and it really was a thrill. At the end of the day they are wild animals and really anything could happen. The hyena man was great; he would hold the meat near us so that they would have to come up close. Zeme even had one of them jump for the meat from behind him and nearly knocked him off balance.
Hyenas have the strongest jaws in the animal kingdom and it was both terrifying and exciting to be so close to them. We had the chance to feed them ourselves, I was terrified, so Zeme was keen as mustard to get in there and feed them, so he popped the stick in his mouth and the Hyena-man looped a piece of meat around the stick and a hyena comes up and takes the meat off the stick. Yeah I will NOT be doing that. After watching a few other people do it and not get eaten alive, I was happy to go and feed them from a woven basket. I couldn’t go all that way and not give it a go, so that was the closest I got and it really was a thrill. At the end of the day they are wild animals and really anything could happen. The hyena man was great; he would hold the meat near us so that they would have to come up close. Zeme even had one of them jump for the meat from behind him and nearly knocked him off balance.
So it was weird, adrenalin packed and wacky way to finish off a long day. I got 16 pictures and I would have taken more, but I forgot to put my memory card back in my camera and only had my internal memory to take the pictures. We paid the Hyena-man 50birr (which is like 2.50AUD) and this was a good and fair price apparently. What a welcome to Harar!!!!
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