The Political Road to Addis Ababa…

I was happy to leave Dilla, and head north again for Addis Ababa, the third highest capital city in the world… Ethiopia is a very mountainous country and although Dilla lies at roughly the same altitude as Johannesburg, it is considered to be in the “lowlands” of Ethiopia… Addis Ababa lies a further 750m higher above sea level at 2360m… Temperatures range from swelteringly hot, to uncomfortably cold, and on the ride up to the capital, I considered pulling over to put on my raincoat, just to add another layer of clothing…

Overtaking a 25 km convoy of trucks and buses, filled with political supporters...

To the west of Dilla lies the large Lake Abaya, and just south of that, Lake Chamo. This appears to be the beginning (or end, depending from which direction you are riding) of Ethiopia’s “Lake District”… About 85 kms north of Dilla is Lake Awassa. The town bearing the same name is located on its eastern shores, and as I approached the outskirts of this large and well laid out town, I rode into the middle of a 20km long convoy of trucks and buses, carrying supporters of the largest political party in Ethiopia… In order to work my way past them without fuss, I joined in the bedlam, keeping my finger pressed down on my hooter and waving wildly in support of whatever it was they were celebrating… I cleared the convoy after half an hour of near misses, flags being draped across my visor, pats on the helmet etc…

Awassa was a revelation… For the first time since entering the country, 500 km to the south, there were lines painted on the road…!! The main street was well signposted, and although it was very busy, people seemed to be adhering to a few of the more common “laws of the road”…like indicating when they wanted to turn, and actually driving on the correct side of the road…

In the thick of it all... Making a political statement in Awassa...

On the northern edge of town, I ran into the mother of all traffic jams… I bullied my way forward until I saw what was causing all the hassle… A massive political march was on the go…thousands of people, waving flags and carrying banners were marching to a large open field a few kilometres away…

It was impossible to move through them, so I was forced to walk the bike for the next three kilometres… There was no point in showing my annoyance, so I joined in the fun…. The locals enjoyed the banter, and in a few minutes, the Big Fella was decorated with flags, and everybody in touching distance was my new best friend… After half an hour of this, four marshals surrounded the bike and kept the younger and more exuberant marchers from hanging on my panniers and causing the front wheel to leave the ground… This is a bit disconcerting when you are surrounded by hundreds of people, and popping a wheelie would certainly cause casualties on a large scale…

My left hand was cramping up as a result of the constant pulling and releasing of the clutch, and I indicated to the marshals that I needed to move forward, as that strange smell they had noticed was coming from a burning clutch plate!! They cleared a space for me and indicated I should ride down a steep embankment, across a little stream, along a patch of cultivated field and back up onto the road… Yeah…right you are…!!! The path they had chosen for me was best suited for a 125cc trail-bike, but I managed it somehow, re-entering the march a few hundred metres further on, and close to the head of it… I finally made it under the main banner, which read “The Wishes of the People Must be Heard…”, and with the Big Fella’s overheating warning light flashing, managed to get past 1^st gear for the first time in an hour…

I had no idea which party I was supporting, so grabbed a red flag to go with the yellow one the Big Fella sported... Covering all bases...

With the rally behind me, I was on my way again, still flag be-decked...

The road surface was in excellent condition here, and I made good time after the delays in Awassa, riding through Shashemene, Kuyira and Arsi Negelle, past Lake Shalla on my left and then in between Lakes Abijatta and Langano, to the little town of Bulbula, where I stopped to have a packet of biscuits and a bottle of water… I also got into a game of cards with a guy and his girlfriend, and although I did not have a clue as to what the rules were, I managed to hold my own (with much help from the girlfriend, much to the young man’s annoyance!)

Then it was on past and through towns and villages with more exotic names such as; Adamitulu, Abosa and Rama Gebriel, all nestling on the western shores of the huge Lake Ziway; and then through Barta and Alem Tena and over the bridge spanning the Awash River, where it spills into Lake Koka, just south of Koka Town and Ijersa…

Tough decision... Look for my Mojo, or pop into Nazareth to pay my respects...

I arrived in Modjo, searched everywhere and couldn’t find mine… Then I saw the turnoff to Nazareth and wondered if I’d taken a wrong turn somewhere… I turned on my I-pod and listened to Mark Knopfler’s “Speedway to Nazareth” on my way to Debre Zeit, which lies wedged between the shores of Lakes Bishoftu and Hora. I am itching to rewrite the words to this song to suit my journey so far… It is one of my top ten favorites of all time, and is off the album “Sailing to Philadelphia”… You gotta download this song, Dudes… It is six minutes of brilliance by the master guitarist…

While the majestic Baobabs are no longer in evidence up here, there are many huge Fig Trees on show...

Up to this point, 50 kms short of Addis Ababa, and probably because the area had experienced some recent rain and looked lush and green, I had enjoyed the ride immensely, but now with Addis perched up in the hills somewhere ahead of me, a haze of dust seemed to cover everything… It blew into my eyes, making them smart and itch… Worse still traffic had multiplied at least ten-fold, with trucks and buses zooming away from the capital and into the countryside… It looked for all the world as though the capital was being evacuated!! I battled to overtake the trucks and other traffic on the way into town, as the oncoming traffic seemed hell bent on killing anyone who got in the way of their headlong dash to wherever it was they were heading!

Big Fella comes to rest outside Greig's offices in Addis...

The entry into Addis was hectic to say the least… As I’ve mentioned before, if you want to survive driving in any of the cities in Africa, you have to ride like a local… That is, try and cause as many accidents as you can, while pretending not to notice the chaos you leave in your wake… Kigali, Bujumbura, Kampala and Nairobi had been excellent training grounds for the Big Fella and I, so we flung ourselves into the bedlam of Addis with gay abandon… The Chinese have built a ring-road around the capital, but like so many big and expanding cities, the ring road now lies far deeper within the city than I had anticipated…

Greig Jansen runs the Coke operation in Ethiopia, and gave me a warm welcome (and a cold Coke, of course!) when I arrived at his offices, having been escorted the last few kilometres by his driver.

Easy-peasy... It's "Coca-Cola" in Amharic...

He showed me around the Coke plant, where they bottle over 24 million cases of Coke, Fanta and Sprite a year… Greig lives not far from the factory in a massive four storey house, which he shares with his dog! The house could easily pass for a hotel, and has two upper floors of bedrooms and en-suite bathrooms, connected to the ground floor and each other by a wide marble staircase. Whoever owns this place must have a very large family… Large house such as this are common in Addis Ababa, and right across the road from Greig’s house, another is under construction, which when complete, will probably dwarf his!!

ED was re-christend "Mal-Haas"... This dog must be eating Khat...

Greig’s dog is a strange looking animal, with more than a little “wild fox” in her… Greig found ED (Ethiopian Dog!) abandoned on the side of the road with a broken leg, and has nursed her back to health… She took a liking to me and followed me everywhere…and I mean everywhere, including into the shower! I had to shoo her out to get the shower door closed…

Later that evening, we went out to supper with Johan Krige and his Logistics Manager, Lukas and his wife Annette, with whom I would be spending the next few days, as Greig was flying out to Swaziland the following day, to attend a Coke conference… Johan, who is a friend of Louis Barnard’s, heads the SA Breweries operation here in Ethiopia, where they currently bottle Ambo, a naturally, carbonated spring water, which comes from a volcanic crater to the west of Addis Ababa. It is one of only a handful of naturally carbonated water sources in the world, and their product is not only very popular in Ethiopia, where it is enjoyed with much pride, but is also exported to the USA and Australia amongst others. Johan has a military look about him, and the shaven head and fitness that he exudes made me think that he would not be out of place on a parade ground, barking orders to troops… In my mind, Johan became “G.I. Joe”!!

Lukas and Annette are those typical “down to earth” South Africans, which within minutes make you feel as though they are old friends… I looked forward to practicing my Afrikaans again with them, a language which I so thoroughly enjoy…

"Pick a floor, then pick a room..." Interior of Greig's house...

Early the next morning, Greig left for the airport, and I spent the rest of the day writing and being looked after by his housekeeper, Seble, who ensured that I did not go thirsty or hungry and also found time to put my muddy kit into the wash… She also introduced me to a local fruit she called “Kasmir”. I had seen them sold from large baskets next to the road, and had thought they were limes or small green lemons… The flesh is very sweet and tasty, and contains four large almond shaped pips…

I received a severe reprimand for taking this photo outside the Air Force Base in Addis Ababa...

The gardener also took it upon himself to wash the Big Fella and when I went outside to get something off the bike, I was surprised to find a gleaming bike in place of the rather grubby one I had parked in the driveway the night before…

Lukas arrived to guide me to their house later that afternoon, and I settled down to enjoy the next few days in Addis… I had to consider when to head north again… Sunday was Election Day, with 65 official parties vying for office… Ethiopia has a history of political unrest, and I had certainly picked up a vibe that in general, people did not particularly like their current government, whose President, like so many others in Africa, had been in power for more than two decades already… After discussions with Lukas, I decided that in view of my experiences the previous day on the way through Awassa, perhaps it would be prudent to stay off the roads on Sunday, and leave for Bahir Dar on Monday morning…

©GBWT 2010