25 Oct
Selama from Addis Ababa,

Ethiopians have just celebrated the millennium. Our names here are Pippa Ross and Florent Bernard. The day starts around 1 o’clock and we have lunch around 6-7 o’clock. The kids on the side of the road herding cattle and goats do backflips for us as we pass, or pull a one-handed spinning break dance move – usually bare bummed. There are thirteen months of sunshine every year, we drive on the right and we can no longer see the Southern Cross at night … In short, our world has been turned up side down; Ethiopia is utterly bonkers and we’ve completely fallen under its spell. Vibrant Addis Ababa is the perfect place to have an enforced rest for a few days as we wait for our Egyptian and Sudanese visas. The food here is incredible – spicy sauces served on tangy fermented injera, luscious creamy juices of avocado, guava, mango and other exotic fruits, exquisite coffee brewed on the most beautiful old fashioned Italian espresso machines and the atmosphere is cool as we are at 2400m (which also keeps away the mozzies).

We arrived 10 days ago after 3 weeks in Kenya where the National Parks absolutely lived up to their world-class reputations. In 3 days in the Masai Mara we saw more predators than over 3 months in Southern Africa. The wildebeest migration was impressive, especially to see (and smell!) the hundreds of carcasses lying riverside after unsuccessful river crossings. For a change and a chance to really get up close and personal with the wildlife, we visited Hells Gate National Park by bike which is supposedly safe because there are no lions so you won’t get eaten. There are however many 800 kg bellicose buffaloes who didn’t want to make a meal of us but lined up ready to charge us when the road came close to their waterhole! There was some frantic peddling and adrenalin pumping going on for a while but luckily we managed to get past before they organised a charge.

The journey up through Northern Kenya took us through some of the most remote tribal areas that we will travel through. Pippa kept an anxious eye on the horizon as we drove through the ‘bandit territory’ of Northern Kenya after reading about a recent attack on a vehicle but it turned out easier than we’d have thought to get used to the sight of shepherds on the side of the road wearing nothing but a blanket and a Kalashnikov… Their main concern was protecting their livestock from raids and they weren’t interested in the passing tourist though so our trip through went without hitch. The tribes of Northern Kenya around Lake Turkana were incredibly colourful with the teenage warrior boys dressed elaborately in pastel pink and blue outfits with shimmering decorative discs of silver attached. They were some of the most beautiful people we have seen; their beauty so much in contrast with the harsh desert environment they lived in.

In the Omo Valley in Ethiopia we were lucky to come across a bull jumping ceremony that men from the Hamer tribe must partake in before adulthood and marriage. The day starts with the whipping ceremony of the boy’s female relatives where the women dancing and blowing trumpets are whipped until they bleed and their backs are permanently scarred. It was incredible to watch these women trance-like begging to be whipped showing incredible courage in an ultimate display of devotion to this boy they are ‘losing’ to the world of men. Later in the day a group of 7-8 cows is selected and held in a row by the horns and the tail so that the boy can jump on the backs of each one, crossing over the group, back and forth, three times. If he falls, he will be ridiculed and whipped by the women and probably unable to marry so the pressure is on for the poor guy to succeed! To add to the stress of it, he has to do the jumping in the nude in front of a crowd of about 150 people including any tourist who wants to come and take photos!! :-) We also spent a night in a Hamer village, hosted by a wonderful Hamer family and Paddy an Irish missionary that we were lucky to meet. We slept in the traditional hut, ate with the family, drank the cow’s milk, feasted on fresh honey and even shared a song or two with the family. It was a fantastic night and a highlight of our trip to share in typical rural family life as so often as a tourist you are on the outside of how the local people live.

Today we think our Sudanese visas have been approved after some diplomatic cajoling with a letter of recommendation from both of our Embassies, so either this afternoon or tomorrow we’ll head North to the ‘historical circuit’ of Ethiopia with the rock-hewn churches, monasteries and the Blue Nile. This country has really charmed us though with such a unique and proud culture and it will be very sad to leave – and we still haven’t got through every national dish on the menu at our hotel!

Love Pippa and Florent