Day 19 Mekele to Lalibele
We managed to get going at a reasonable time today and headed out of town on the tar. Unfortunately Bartholomew Dias, the Portuguese navigator made a balls up with his GPS and took us in the wrong direction! His ancestor found Africa with a compass and he couldn't get us to Maychew. So a quick back track was called for and we set of towards Lalibele.
The initial 120 km was good going on tar which included some fantastic passes with switch backs, really high and very little traffic. After that we turned onto the dirt. The map measured 40km, we estimated it at 70 and in fact it was 171! Today was quite the hardest day we’ve had. The road was treacherously slippery with some very steep grades. The best news we’ve had all day is that we don’t have to backtrack as expected and only have 64km dirt before we join the tar.
After 40km I had another overheating problem. I don’t know the reason but it’s getting a bit worrying. At one stage I had serious reservations about coming so far away form civilisation. Anyway we filled and bled the system and it all now looks ok.
We’ve in Lalibele, which has 11 churches hewn out of rock. They are reputed to be the highlight of any visit to Ethiopia. We hope so after the effort to get here.
It seems that the population of Ethiopia all walk in the road. That includes donkeys, sheep etc. We’ve had some very near misses. It becomes really tedious, we’re all hooting like the locals and nobody worries. Today was worse than normal; as all the villagers go to market in the nearest town, the quantity of people out was unbelievable.
We’re now off to look for a dstv dish to watch the rugby. We’ve been totally out of touch and don’t even know the teams.
Later.
Well we got to watch the game. It was a delayed broadcast, in a shack behind a house, with a generator going, which we had to pay for. To start off they had to tune the dish which involved much shouting down a human chain as the dish was about 30m away from the set. It was all very amusing. The atmosphere at the ground looked fantastic.
It’s now early Sunday morning and we’re off to church, that should bring a cheer from some readers back home!
Later Jim.
We managed to get going at a reasonable time today and headed out of town on the tar. Unfortunately Bartholomew Dias, the Portuguese navigator made a balls up with his GPS and took us in the wrong direction! His ancestor found Africa with a compass and he couldn't get us to Maychew. So a quick back track was called for and we set of towards Lalibele.
The initial 120 km was good going on tar which included some fantastic passes with switch backs, really high and very little traffic. After that we turned onto the dirt. The map measured 40km, we estimated it at 70 and in fact it was 171! Today was quite the hardest day we’ve had. The road was treacherously slippery with some very steep grades. The best news we’ve had all day is that we don’t have to backtrack as expected and only have 64km dirt before we join the tar.
After 40km I had another overheating problem. I don’t know the reason but it’s getting a bit worrying. At one stage I had serious reservations about coming so far away form civilisation. Anyway we filled and bled the system and it all now looks ok.
We’ve in Lalibele, which has 11 churches hewn out of rock. They are reputed to be the highlight of any visit to Ethiopia. We hope so after the effort to get here.
It seems that the population of Ethiopia all walk in the road. That includes donkeys, sheep etc. We’ve had some very near misses. It becomes really tedious, we’re all hooting like the locals and nobody worries. Today was worse than normal; as all the villagers go to market in the nearest town, the quantity of people out was unbelievable.
We’re now off to look for a dstv dish to watch the rugby. We’ve been totally out of touch and don’t even know the teams.
Later.
Well we got to watch the game. It was a delayed broadcast, in a shack behind a house, with a generator going, which we had to pay for. To start off they had to tune the dish which involved much shouting down a human chain as the dish was about 30m away from the set. It was all very amusing. The atmosphere at the ground looked fantastic.
It’s now early Sunday morning and we’re off to church, that should bring a cheer from some readers back home!
Later Jim.
It is so wonderful to be able to follow your trip on the blog!
ReplyDeleteSuch a great geography lesson !
No, seriously, we are so in awe of you 3 and wish you good luck and good health for the rest of the trip.
Zanzibar is just around the corner now!
Enjoy it!
from some of Jimmy's pommie relatives...Judy x