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27/04/2009

Today we are going to explore the rock hewn churches of Lalibela. It is a short walk from the hotel to the main entrance where we have to pay 600 Birr for entrance and 200 Birr for the guide. We have an old man as a guide but he is very sweet and patient with the children who ask him many questions.

We don’t normally take a guide but with the 11 churches here it is better to have the guide. The churches are all impressive and you cannot imagine the amount of work that went into each one. They are all still used and each one has a priest looking after it.

The routine at every church is the same. There is a public section to the church, a section for the priests and then a section called ‘holiest of holy’s’ in which only the high priest of that church may enter. By the 4th church we have a suspicion that this ‘holiest of holy’s’ is actually the bathroom, but we might be wrong.

Each church has some unique feature whether it is the architectural style, the paintings, or the processional/ceremonial crosses associated with the church.

At every church the priest will dutifully display these unique items, allow you to take a photograph of him with his cross and thereafter point to the donation bin. We learned not to take pictures of every priest.

At the one church the priest refused to display his crosses. The visitor and guide just ahead of us tried in vain to have a look at it but the priest point blankly refused. When it was our turn we joked around so much with the priest that he eventually relented and fetched his ceremonial crosses.

It is a long day with a lot of walking and luckily there is a lunch break. We enjoy a good lunch at the 7 Olives hotel. The restaurant has a stunning view but there is nobody else besides us.

After lunch we quickly finished the churches, then enjoyed some coffee at a roadside café, which are all good, and returned to the hotel.

Although we are parked in the hotel courtyard and the gates are locked, there all still youngsters hanging over the wall and you continuously here ‘you, you, you.’

26/04/2009

The distance to Lalibela from Debra Berhan is only 570km but the travelling is slow. When we reach Dilbe it is already early evening and there is a dirt road of about 60km to Lalibela. We decide to stick to the main road even though it is 120km.

We should not have bothered. The road turns bad at Dilbe and we make really slow progress for the next 120km. We eventually arrive at Lalibela at 01h00 in the morning. It was stressful driving the mountain passes at night. The Chinese are building a new road and this section is close to completion.

In Lalibela we stay at the Asheten hotel. When we arrived we agreed on a price of 80Birr for a night. We stay in the car but can use the toilet and shower in a room. It is a western style toilet and there are hot showers if you remind the staff to turn the geysers on.

Ethiopia has a population of about 80 million and it feels as if most of them stay on the main roads. Everywhere you look there are people, all asking for money or a pen or making the hand to mouth gesture indicating that they want food - regardless of whether they have a food basket in their hand.

Begging just comes naturally to them. They don’t need anything but they will still ask for something with no shame. Wherever you go, you will hear ‘hey you’ or ‘you, you, you, you, you’. I don’t know if I mentioned it earlier but when the dogs bark at you it also sounds like they are barking ‘you, you, you’.

25/04/2009

After saying our goodbyes to Doris and company we buy a few more groceries and then we are out of Addis. The plan is to go to Lalibela, Axum, Gonder, Bahir Dar and from there to Sudan.

Travelling north from Addis the road goes through mountain range after mountain range. We have never quite seen anything like this before. At any moment the scenery is breathtaking and just as you think it cannot get any better, there is a more beautiful scene around the next corner.

From Addis you travel on a good tar road north but travelling is slow because of the mountains. From exiting one pass you might travel a few km’s before entering another pass and we hover between 1700m above sea level to 2700meters.

Because we left so late in the day there is no way we can make it to Lalibela. When we reach Debre Berhan we decide to sleep over. There is not a shortage of accommodation options in town and we found a new, modern setup where we were offered a night at 150Birr. After using the starting car technique the price dropped down to 50Birr although we could not use their showers. This was fine. Zante and myself quickly discovered the local off-sales where we buy 4 beers and 4 cold drinks for 36 Birr, about $3.

24/04/2009

Things at Holland house has changed since we arrived. Doris, Laura and company arrived in their 3 camper vans. Two of the vans are huge, 8 meters and longer. We were’nt there when they fitted them into the parking area but it is a major achievement. We were moved out of the courtyard of Holland House and are now parked in the street. We don’t mind because we are still part of the action but now don’t have to pay for accommodation.

There is a festive atmosphere at Holland house. There are now in the region of 30 people and it is nice to socialise.

The evening there is a band playing. We do not stay for the party and we are grateful when the band stops playing at 12h00.

23/04/2009

We go to the Egyptian embassy using our own car. The visas are for free but they cannot give us any documentation for the car.

For the time being there is nothing we can do about it so off we go to the Sudanese embassy. There is a long queue and we fall in at the back. We should have realised that this is a sign of things to come in Sudanese.

When the embassy open at 10h00 there is a sergeant major type guy that storms out and shouts at everybody to get into a straight line. He sees us at the back and motions us right to the front. It is only in Africa where there is this racism because regardless of the fact that we are last in line, we are summoned to the front because we are the only white people. He motions inside and just barks out ‘sit!’.

We wait inside as the room slowly fills with all the other applicants. When sergeant major comes into the room he sees us sitting on the one side and orders us to go sit on the other side. There are no reason or logic behind it but we obey dutifully.

We already know that you have to submit your application with the photographs, US Dollars and a copty of your passport. After completing our forms we submit them and the guy goes through everything. As he asks for all the items we have it ready. Lastly he asks for a copy of the Egyptian visa and smiles wickedly when we could not produce that. Luckily we have all the facilities in the car and 5 minutes later we are back with the copies.

A visa costs $100 per person, including the children. This is only for a 14-day transit visa. It is an incredible rip-off and the guys are not even prepared to consider giving a 30-day visa. If you apply for a Sudanese visa in Egypt you get 30-days but these guys are inflexible. They tell you, you can extend it once you are in Khartoum but nobody knows if you then have to pay the visa fees again.

We are told to collect the passports at 12h00 which is quite efficient considering the number of applicants that was there.

Zante and myself decide to take the 2km walk to the embassy to collect our visa’s. We arrive late at 13h00 and the embassy is closed for lunch. They only open at 15h00 and we wait there instead of taking the walk back empty handed.

At last at 15h00 we get our visas. I once again try to get the length changed to 30-days but the officials refuse. Eventually, at the risk of the visa’s being cancelled before we even get in we beat a hasty retreat.

As a family we have started our own challenge to see who can buy the best, or most, of anything with $1. At this stage everybody is still playing a strategic game of waiting to see what the other guys are going to buy.

We have also met some really nice people from Europe that has said to come visit them once we reach Europe so we decided to extend our One Dollar Challenge to any person, group or company that feel like making a contribution to our trip.

It basically works like this. You offer us anything you want for $1. We decide whether we want to accept it and if we do then once we meet up we will give you $1 in exchange for whatever you offered.

Example: You offer to buy us a beer when we reach Paris. When we reach Paris and contact you we will exchange you our $1 for a beer.

Of course you can offer anything. Maybe a room for a night, a meal, a guided tour or whatever you are prepared to exchange for $1. Once we take you up on your offer we pay you $1.

If you have something to offer us please e-mail us on ericus@north-bound.co.za Keep in mind we are 2 adults and 2 children.

You can enter your own offer here. Just remember to send us your contact details as well.

We will display everything that anybody has offered us on this page and our heartfelt thanks to everybody that has taken the time and trouble to respond.

Play along. It can be fun.