One way ticket to Africa

Well the countryside is gorgeous and the people are really well put together as well but just to back track a little... My arrival to Ethiopia was just somewhat challenging with the bus connecting the very isolated and unserviced north of Kenya and the Ethiopian border having broken down some 4 months before yet to be replaced. However, on reassurance of lorry hitching being the common thing, I began to settle into the dingy hotel room until the early hours when the lorries were due to leave Isiolo. It was attributed yet again to my luck by my self appointed guide Willy, a sickly looking man who I avoided making any contact with after out initial handshake, that a one off bus from Nairobi to Moyale at the border was due in Isiolo about 11pm that evening. So after succeeding on getting only a third of money back from the hotel owner I had checked in with just a few hours before, I began the wait in the dusty and somewhat seedy streets with two sisters who were happy to look after me, Anne and Rose. At about 1am and after news that the bus was hours late leaving Nairobi we tried to get some rest in one of the parked buses en route to elsewhere. It was the nice side of such a restless sleep to be awake at 3.30am and able to call Mum for her birthday before she left for work. Needless to say, she did most of the talking. The bus finally arrived at 5am and we had to fight unnecessarily for our available seats to begin the long journey to Marsabit, the half way stop on the 400km journey that took the usual 8 hours in such areas void of MP representatives and thus all infrastructure. My decision to stop in Marsabit and not continue to the border with the bus was continually questioned the following day, but I did enjoy the walk up Marsabit hill (despite the view being compromised by the receiver tower occupying the peak – forgot to mention that one hey Lonely Planet!), which was the reason for breaking up the trip. The town itself was fine along with the company of Rose and Anne who I was happy to buy dinner and drinks for, which they gladly accepted along with my last US$50 without my knowing…I’ll let their God settle that one for me. As the even worse serviced road between Marsabit and the border at Moyale had become victim to the break of the rainy season, transport was even harder to come by as the trade lorries between the two countries were now to heavy to navigate the mud sling that was the main highway. So after waiting all day, the 4WD that was expected from Nairobi arrived and I set off for Ethiopia in the canvassed roofed tray about 4pm squashed between 5 men in 3 seats. The road was stupendously bad. Thick sticky mud had removed itself from the road on the tyres of every passing vehicle leaving ruts half a meter deep for following vehicles to navigate. I lost count of the number of times we got bogged but it was around 6 with me deciding that my more-than-double priced seat earned it’s worth watching the men squelch barefooted shoveling mud with their hands and rocking the car back and forth with attempts at gaining traction. My boots gained an immediate half kilo of mud that one time I had to get out when the car was at 45 degrees to the passenger side. At about 3am and the final bogging the men slept for 2 hours until helped arrived via another traveler to relieve us for the final time. We got to Moyale 8.30am and I set about sleep walking my way across the border. In my lucid state, after the exhaustion of my last days struggling across Kenya’s north and my zero knowledge of the Amharic language, I decided to take on John as my Ethiopian guide until I got used to the place. It was a good decision overall but as he turned into a suffocating babysitter and a ineffective communicator in how we spent my money moving through different regions, the day of releasing him from my employment was overdue. He did however, get me to the beautiful Bale Mountains in the central south of Ethiopia where I immensely enjoyed 3 days of hiking with the much more agreeable Muzeyen, carrying my own equipment and revisiting the independence of hiking without a 1:4 tourist:porter ratio as per more touristy areas.