ETHIOPIA! we made it!

so After being in Djibouti for 2 weeks as we waited for the car to clear customs....TIA This Is Africa, we finally loaded everything up- left the contradictions and rugged terrain of Djibouti behind us and headed to the Ethiopian border! There were a couple of Hiccups: the main one being we were told you can get a visa at the Ethiopian border, not the case, so had to drive the 3 hours back to Djibouti city to get one! But we finally crossed over- feeling like we'd finally broken the Groundhog day cycle of 14 days in one of the smallest countries in Africa.
Ethiopia...given what you see in the news it seems like it should be a dry barren drought ridden landscape. well the Ethiopia of today is lush green rolling hills, cattle, goas and donkeys grazing peacefully as brightly coloured tribes people walk down the tarred roads (with no regard for cars or lorries) as they herd their livestock.
We traveled all day to the second largest town in Ethiopia- Dire Dawa. It's a character filled town with plenty of markets whee you can buy anything from chinese sunglasses to knock off louis vitton handbags. Disappointingly i didn't find any of the traditional Ethiopian cotton shirts I'd seen everyone wearing. hopefully in Addis... after giving an Ethiopian version of a tuk tuk to drive us around the crazy busting streets, nearly being roben by street kids twice, martin and i harassedly (if this isn't a word then I claim it as my own) got into the Nissan Xterra and heading off to the thousand year old walled city of Harar.
it was built in the 16th century (that's Ethiopian 16th not roman..do you know by the Ethiopian calender we're only in 2002!) to protect the women while the men went out to war with the christian invaders. It's a stunning, stunning city enclosed by a 3000km wall.
outside the ancient city as night falls, a 300 year old tradition takes place. the Hyena men of Harar feed over 20 hyenas by hand and by mouth! they know each creature by name and for a small fee you can take part! we did! it's terrifying! The creatures are quite tame and are used to being fed but, they're still wild animals! so then off to Addis Ababa. at the moment i'm sitting in a fabulous fabulous Sheraton hotel room in the capital city, we're planing on having a great night sleep on a proper bed then back t camping and off North to Lalibela and Lake Tana! stay tuned for the next update
xxx

still in Djibouti...

Well this is definitely an interesting country. First of all we need to say a MASSIVE thankyou to the Sheraton Djibouti who have put us up for over a week while we try and clear the car out of customs! Mohammad at the Sheraton knows everyone in town so he has been a incredible help as nothing seems to get done here unless you know someone who knows someone. TIA- This Is Africa.
but on the bright side- we've done some fantastic diving with a dive and tour company here called 'le lagon bleu' We went looking for whale sharks but sadly are a bit before the season but saw 50 dolphins who followed the boat! Luke from Lagon Bleu has an incredible kick ass underwater camera so we borrowed it for a couple of dives so hopefully the footage will be amazing!We spent a day relaxing on moucha Island- which seems to be the chill out area for all the military in town- and there are loads of them...and us- we seem to be the only tourists in this place. We drove a couple of hours out of town to see lac Assal- the lowest point in all of Africa and the start of the salt caravan route. it's incredibly bizarre- the salt is hard like concrete and forms a beach around the lake. it's like being on the moon. the Djibouti people are friendly but the nation is held back by a daily arrival of Qat. It arrives in from Ethiopia every afternoon and the people here buy it in bunches that cost between 2 and 20 dollars depending on the size( it's basically just a bundle of leafy twigs) and they chew the leaves for hours and go into a hazy stoned daze all afternoon. random. anyway, we're being as patient as we can be while we try and sort out the car so we can leave for Ethiopia. hopefuly on saturday everything will be sorted. pictures posting soon ;-)

DJIBOUTI DAY 1

After spending an incredible couple of days in Salalah in Oman, staying at the arabian sea villas and being shown around by one of the most amazing tour guides we've ever met- Yousef from Sumahram Falcon tours (we're editing the next webisode now so keep your eyes out for it), we finally cleared all the customs and nonsense for the car and loaded it into a giant shipping container on it's way to Djibouti- thus avoiding Yemen as everyone had been seriously advising us to do. We then flew dirt cheap to the capital - Djibouti city, staying in the Sheraton Hotel as we wait the 4 days for the car. It's a very strange country from first impressions- very third world Africa with loads of German military wandering around (obviously on call for Yemen and the surrounding problem regions)but being a french colony we felt a relaxed, smiling francophone vibe added to the mix as we drove from the tiny airport in an old battered bluebird station wagon taxi, past 2nd hand flea markets bearing bright french signs of welcome, terrible smelling factories and crumbling suburbs. We are definitely in Africa.
If, like us, you have trouble placing Djibouti- it's a tiny tiny country just above Ethiopia, that most Visitors to East Africa often miss as it's more expensive than Ethiopia and if you're not a diver or snorkeller you might miss it altogether. The beaches seem muddy as opposed to sandy with loads of crabs and ravens scuttling across the sulphur smelling shore, but the diving promises to be AMAZING- swimming and snorkeling with whale sharks are promised and we've heard rumours of a huge salt lake that you can drive across. Apparently the nightlife and bar scene here, especially in the European quarter is massive so we'll check that out in the next couple of days and there's a huge following for the nations daily drug of choice here called Qat which arrives from Ethiopia every afternoon and puts everyone into a lazy stupor for the afternoon. Things definitely run on African time here and there is no rush for anything, but the Sheraton staff are lovely and putting up with my terrible french and martin's English with an attempted french accent ;-), the hotel is clean and relaxed and its definitely an exotic new country to ad to our list. pictures to follow x