To Lalibela

A donkey train hogs the road.

 The road was winding and had many sharp turns and sheer drop-offs.

 The whole route was under construction.

Working the fields.

 A baobab tree.

 The girl on the left got disciplined for leaving the others unattended.

 The vistas from the road were stunning.

 Driving through a town.

 A wedding blocks the road.

 Another wedding we joined.

 The participants followed us back to the van.

A farmer. 

The scene of the accident.

Sunday, January 28^th.

We left the hotel in the dark, at 6:00, after a hasty breakfast. We had a long day of driving ahead of us. Kaleb told us that he was taking a different route to Lalibela because there was some potential unrest on the usual route. Apparently, at the Timket Festival in the local area, a group of people were protesting against the government. They were told by the organizers that this was a religious festival and to take their political views elsewhere. Someone threw a rock at the police, the police fired and there was a melee. When it was over one policeman and three civilians were dead. So, after talking to people he knew he was advised to take this other route, in case we got held up on the road and couldn’t get to Lalibela.

At first Takley couldn’t find the right road, as it was dark and the road we were to take was under destruction/construction. After a couple of false starts we got under way. Shortly after leaving the city, we came across a couple of mule trains carrying construction supplies. The hardest working Ethiopian is undoubtedly the donkey. It was Sunday, and this is a very religious country, but there were still some people working on the road. Apparently, the Chinese are building or financing the road. It was a 285-kilometre road that is under construction the whole way. The entire length winds around many mountains and over a number of incredible passes. There are shear drops off and no guardrails, which make it exciting and perhaps dangerous. Parts of it were gravel, other parts red dust or hard packed dirt and about two kilometres were paved. However, Kaleb said there was basically no road on this route ten years ago, then five years ago they widened the track to make a passable road and now they are widening it again to pave it. He sees this as great progress. 

As we drove we saw people walking along the road, or with donkeys, or goats or cattle. At one point the road was blocked because of a funeral and we had to take a detour route. Then, at one of our by the side of the road pee stops, a local woman told us that the road was blocked a little further on, so we had to turn around and take a different road. Later, we came across an area where baobab trees grew. We saw a few from the van and I asked Kaleb if we could stop to see a large one. We all got out and walked across this dry barren field to the tree and took some photos and a family came out of a hut next door. I think they thought that Martians had landed and couldn’t figure out why we were interested in the tree. The family followed us to the van and the women posed for photos. Meanwhile, two young kids were sitting on a donkey which started walking away. The kids were upset and the mom who was with us clobbered another child who was supposed to be holding the donkey.

We continued on driving through the mountains and the beautiful vistas. We stopped for lunch after six hours of driving. We had purchased box lunches from the hotel, as there are no restaurants anywhere on this trip. We had our lunch and a couple of cold drinks at a small shop in one of the towns.

Shortly after lunch the road was blocked by a wedding party and some revellers. They parted to let us pass. A little further on we came across another wedding celebration. We stopped the van and Kaleb led us all to the roadside celebration. There were people jumping up and down and chanting in a circle surrounding the couple who were dressed up in robes with crowns, like a king and queen. I tried to climb a small pile of rubble to get a better view and two young girls gave me their spot. We were definitely of interest to the locals. I watched as a few people led the couple away and the rest of the wedding party followed. So we walked back to the van and about thirty people followed us. They posed for pictures and asked us questions. Really a friendly group of people.

We continued on our journey along the incredibly dusty winding road through the mountains for another couple of hours, when suddenly we came around a corner and there were a number of parked vehicles and people all standing around. It turned out two trucks going in opposite direction collided and were blocking the whole narrow road. We were very lucky in that the police were on the scene and were just finishing their report. One truck moved out of the way and the stopped vehicles coming towards us, were allowed to pass first, then us. We could have been stuck there for hours.

The last part of the drive was tiring. We were all exhausted and had had enough by the time the twelve-hour drive came to an end. I can only imagine how tired our driver, Teklay was. We arrived at our last hotel in Lalibela about 6:30. This hotel is part of a chain that used to belong to the government but has been made private. We stayed at two of the others previously on this trip. We had time to shower and get organized before we met up again in the lobby and walked to a nearby restaurant. We are all getting a bit sad that the trip is coming to an end.