Calamity strikes in series. Tense at the time, your subsequent tales turn the stress into laughter.
Africa has it all, but nothing can prepare you for Ethiopia. No world traveler returns from Ethiopia untouched. You are driven to share - the blend of beautiful countryside, fascinating people, mysterious rock-hewn churches and extraordinary priests, ancient legends of the Queen of Sheba and the Ark of the Covenant, living legends of the Felasha Jews, the source of the Blue Nile, fish eagles functioning as alarm clocks, beggars with Biblical leprosy and a gateway of the ancient world at Aksum.
Traveling alone has unique experiences. The unpleasant ones you may prefer to forget. The good you share and show others. So you go again, dragging people with you. You let them feel your stories. As a ninth-generation European descendent in South Africa, you are compelled to explore your continent. And Ethiopia, a hybrid enigma of Jewish, Christian, Islamic and African traditions, has to be seen and experienced. I showed a group of fellow travelers this fascinating country, following the historic route, knowing that a personal encounter can never be repeated, as any traveler can tell you.
We arrived in Addis Ababa with a group, the majority above middle age. Although armed with medical insurance and other precautions, the altitude of the Ethiopian highlands had some surprises. People coming into Ethiopia with colds, minor illnesses or dormant diseases, play themselves a dirty trick. As the tour leader soon realized, the ten days ahead were not destined to be for the fainthearted. The meaning of the cowboy slogan dawns gradually: "When the going gets tough, the tough get going." Nevertheless, our tales of Ethiopia would soon fill the pockets of our memories, never to be emptied again.
Elsewhere in Africa local people are viewed as noisy and loud, according to European standards. In Ethiopia, though, you are the noisy lot. The sense of a people at peace with themselves will eventually strike you, if not on the first day, then soon thereafter. Bus and taxi passengers seem to be single-mindedly focused on something - no one is moving about without a purpose. The presence of Christian icons is visible everywhere, even in the taxis. Chats with the young drivers are very interesting.
Our first day in Dahir Bar started with a direct minibus ride from the airport to the spectacular Blue Nile Falls, called Tis Isat, translated as "water that smokes." Before the rainy season the splendid falls display only a fraction of its well-known glory. Nowadays, its real magnificence is to be seen only after the rainy season from around October, due to the extensive use of hydro-electricity generated from the falls. The falls, which are about 40 kilometers south of Lake Tana, have to be reached via a dirt road through the small village of Tis Abay. From there a narrow path stretches for a stiff two-kilometer stroll, over a Portuguese bridge, through another local community with hoards of children, merchants and lush riverside bird population.
The crossing of the Nile in a papyrus boat is a rewarding experience only for those who have not been affected by the quick rise in altitude. Those who decide to give up before reaching the falls are faced with a steep return journey. For Melanie, who was running out of water on top of all the other stressful experiences, it was just the last straw and she promptly fainted. Fortunately, she was caught before a harmful impact with the Ethiopian soil. For me the first calamity struck as I carried her 80 meters towards the waiting bus. Doing this within our first 24 hours in Ethiopia, one doubts the eagerness of this young heart to introduce these people to the country. The relief after Melanie's recovery filled the following two hours with a sense of thankfulness, and became the talk of the day, with varying degrees of humor. The fervent hope of the group leader was that the health of the group would see us through despite this one early exception.
The boat cruise the following day on Lake Tana, the source of 80 percent of the water of the entire Nile River, provided the group with the enthusiasm to see some of the 12th to 17th century monasteries. Priests posing for the camera, walks through lush wood paths provided ample atmosphere for a most enjoyable day on this mass of water, which still has to crisscross its way through the Nubian and Egyptian deserts to the Mediterranean.
Two youngsters coming out of the cold European weather, one from Italy and one from Ireland, could not resist the lure of the African sun after more than four months of sun-shy winter. Clad only in shorts and pale winter skin, they treated the clear blue African sky with little respect. Three hours of unadulterated sun turned them into red turkeys, their equal not to be found in Ethiopia. For three days the going got extremely tough for these two, preventing them from fully appreciating the call of the lakeside birds, the marvels of the outstanding Gonderene castles and the Ethiopian holy places - their mobility limited to the bare minimum.
Travelers, as opposed to tourists, don't like to view a country superficially. They prefer traveling on foot or by slower transport to experience everything. They have to see, smell and taste up close and personal. With Ethiopia being three times the size of Britain, a small 50-seater Fokker has to fly on an historic circle route to experience special places one at a time, to have a slow but certain impact.
For the newcomer these flights may seem unnecessary until one has to drive the dirt roads from town to town. Amanda, our most senior citizen, was forbidden by her children and grandchildren to take on the mule ride from Lalibela. But they were unaware of the hazards posed by the major road from Dahir Bar to Gondar. The appalling uncompleted tar/dirt road had a devastating effect on Amanda's sore back, definitely much worse than the poor mule could ever have caused. The calamities kept sneaking up, striking one by one, each from another angle.
Our visit to the medieval castles of Gondar, once the glorious capital of Ethiopia, lately called the "Camelot of Africa," and bombed extensively by the coalition forces (in fact, the South African Air Force did the dirty work) during World War II, coincided with the first week of major attacks by the coalition forces in the southern part of Iraq in March 2003. The speechlessness of the local war-drained people of Ethiopia could be felt in a very strange way, no real comments coming from their side. The US/UK war in Iraq was sensed in a totally different manner from the rest of the world. They were relieved at not being part of a war again; they had their turn for almost a decade in the 1990's. It was not their time now, so for us the calamity struck far away on this occasion.
Nothing can prepare one for the small town of Lalibela. Reaching the town from the airport on a tar road, the main street continues as a dirt road spawning the unanimous question, "Is this the main street?", before entering the hotel grounds in the middle of nowhere. The afternoon visit to the first set of rock-hewn churches filled everyone with a sense of awe. Entering the spectacular Bet Giorgis monolithic church from above became surreal. No picture or movie can provide sufficient insight into the magnitude of these 12th century churches.
The tunnels and thoroughfares between the churches have some mysterious threats awaiting unsuspecting tourists. No one is permitted to enter these churches with shoes on, so a major issue after returning from the inside of a church is to find your shoes. Each person has a personal shoe-caretaker who provides excellent service throughout your entire visit on site. The officials only allow the exact number of shoe watchers as the number of tourists inside the church area.
A different kind of calamity then strikes your heart. The large number and variety of physically challenged and sick people waiting everywhere is more than overwhelming and rather disturbing. One walks on his knees, another on his elbows, still another has an eye disease, his one eye protruding. They are everywhere, cornering you. The psychological impact on every tour member is clearly visible. Dinner that night is different from the others, each tour member pondering the experiences of the day in his or her own unique way.
Lalibela is a mystery in many ways. With its beautiful 12th century churches and unattractive streets, this small town or rather village is full of unpredictable surprises. A young 13-year-old girl in our group suffers from a bleeding nose from the beginning of the trip. At Lalibela it becomes unstoppable and the only doctor around is at a hospital unfamiliar to any outsider. After a drive around the wrong side of the village, we reach the local hospital where, unexpectedly, there are no major queues. Although the doctor looks more like a medical student, he cures the condition within a short time, with a dose of adrenalin.
That evening we are invited to taste the fruit punch look-alike local brew of honey and grapes. Our Italian and Irishmen go beyond their limits and calamity strikes the following day. The first stretch of the 12-kilometer journey to the church of Ganata Miriam on the back of a mule finishes them off, body and spirit. The return mule journey is later described by them as being the closest one can get to the netherworld this side of death. These two guys are hanging over their mules like the living dead, literally and figuratively hungover. Even the local people observe them in disbelief. They take a few days to recover from this second, self-inflicted, man-made calamity.
The burning incense and other odors in the rock-hewn churches are responsible for yet another disaster. Elderly Joe, who has climbed Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa in his hey-day, succumbs to a severe attack of hay fever. A cold that has been dormant since leaving South Africa now goes into momentum, giving us quite a scare. As white as a sheet the following day, his color becomes even worse as the treasures of Ethiopia unfold before us. Although he has to rest for most of the following excursions, we can at least tell him about it over dinner each night. Without knowing the outcome, we are relieved when he recovers after two weeks in hospital. We learn never to enter Ethiopia with any kind of illness and never underestimate the altitude in the tough Ethiopian highlands.
Misadventures can also bring people down to earth, put things in perspective, or let new ideas emerge. Joey has it all - better, greater - yet, an ordinary, plodding mule with his muleteer brings her down to an earthly position right there in Lalibela. With no sense of balance to speak of, her terrifying experience on mule-back lasts for about 200 meters. Even a ride on a bicycle has never been part of her extraordinary repertoire. Before over-reacting with laughter to this botch-up of a simple exercise, a flash of insight crawls through the narrator's mind: there are always aspects, places and customs which will be unknown and unfamiliar to every traveler, but that is what traveling is all about.
Aksum has a flavor of its own, with treasures originating from different ancient and modern civilizations. The obvious stelae or obelisks, described by early travelers, add to its mystery. But the main attraction remains the St. Mary of Zion Church where a holy priest still guards what is supposedly the Ark of the Covenant from Old Testament times for future generations. To protect this holy church, there are two special churches next to it. On its right is the church used for special occasions such as the inauguration of the country's president. The catastrophe that encounters us here is that only men are permitted to enter this church. The late Emperor Haile Selassie built a spectacular new church especially for women on the left side, but this is not good enough for women with western inclinations.
Many travelmates bond forever. They join to be with old friends last seen in another country or on another continent. When you meet and travel in good times, your hopes become high for something more special in the future.
Jessy has been with us four times at all the remote places in the Middle East, in good health and with sufficient funds. But then funds deplete and health deteriorates. She not only increases her mortgage to be with the familiar crowd, but does not allow her worsening health to keep her away from taking on the unknown with old buddies. Shivering without enough warm clothes in the mountains of central Turkey, parched in the breathtaking dry desert of Syria, sweltering under the unfamiliar confines of enforced head-to-toe covering in Iran, a drastic lack of western-style toilet facilities in Iraq, and a dreadful stomach infection on a Nile cruise in Egypt, does not stop Jessy from boarding the Ethiopian Airlines plane.
A sore hip, a degree of diabetes and asthma probably cause the breaking point for Jessy. The stroll at the Blue Nile Falls gives her the first signal when thin air leaves her literally breathless. The downward climb with her painful hip, her unawareness of the degree of diabetes prevent her from recovering throughout the trip. The local versions of western food affects her for the entire period, reminding us of her suffering on the Nile cruise in Egypt two years earlier. In spite of her mishaps, Jessy's desire to travel still has no limits.
Exploration will continue even when calamity strikes as long as travelers remain active physically and keep their spirits high. At the time of the event, calamities cause stress, but in retrospect, they enrich memories. Ethiopia will always beckon the adventurer, no matter what.
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