Our last
stop in Egypt was Abu Simbel. The area
between Aswan and the border with Sudan is a military area, and for the first
time in Odyssey history we were able to travel the majority of the way by road. But we could not drive on our own to Abu
Simbel – we had to be in a convoy with all vehicles travelling in that
direction along with our military escort.
Usually there are two convoys per day, but due to the weather (a rather
warm 49 degrees), there was only one running…at 4am. So an early start for us to get to the
meeting point in time. The General in
charge of the convoy was a jolly nice chap, and whilst we were hanging around
waiting for all vehicles to arrive he very kindly shouted the whole group to
tea and coffee.
In Abu
Simbel we visited the amazing temple that had been moved brick by brick to Abu
Simbel as in its original location it was in danger of flooding after the Aswan
Dam was built. And then off for dinner
in the only place that sold cold beer before heading into Sudan, a dry country!
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| Abu Simbel |
After a
short stint on a barge and another short drive, we got to the border. Once the formalities of the border were
complete we headed to Wadi Halfa to pick up supplies as we would be wild
camping in the desert for a few days.
We headed
off into the desert and drove for about an hour down a very bumpy road to a
spot we had in mind to camp, right by the river. Unfortunately, this area has been taken over
by lots of men mining so not quite as picturesque as we had hoped. But back on the road for half an hour and
another beautiful desert camp was found.
Although it was pretty warm still, we got a fire going so that we could
make a barbeque under the fabulous African sky.
Heading
south we stopped off at Jebel Barkal and wild camped nearby. The following morning we needed to top up our
water tank. We managed to find a
community centre that would let us use their tap. But the water pressure was not good enough
for a hose uphill to the truck. So we
had to manually fill it up, using jerry cans, saucepans, kettles and any other
receptacle we could find. It did take
somewhat longer than usual to fill our tank, but everyone secretly enjoyed
having a bit of water on them after a couple of days wild camping.
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| Lee & Roberta at Meroe |
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| Filling our water tank |
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| Roberta filling water for our water tank |
Then our
journey south through the deserts of Sudan continued. It was 50 degrees every day and not a drop of
rain in sight. Yet on our way into
Khartoum we were held up due to flash floods…
But we got through in the end to stay in a lovely campsite in the centre
of Khartoum on the bank of the River Nile.
As we headed
south the landscape changed from endless deserts into agricultural land. On our final night, we camped in a field with
goats and camels. And our cook group got
dressed up for dinner…
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| Wilma, Claire, Malcolm & Killian dressed up especially for dinner |
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Lee caught licking the spoon from our banoffee pie
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Once we
crossed the border into Ethiopia we were suddenly in lush, green mountains.
After a day
of seeing castles in Gondar (which made a nice change from pyramids!) we headed
up into the Simien mountains to try and spot some Gelada Barboons and do some
hiking. We quickly discovered why the
whole area is so beautiful and green. It
rains. A lot. Some of the group packed
their bags and went off on an “epic” 3 day hike deep into the national
park. Whilst everyone else did day hikes
to various waterfalls and beautiful places, followed by beer and curry night in
the rain.
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| Gondar Royal Enclosure |
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| Ciara, Killian, Leanne & Sissy having lunch in the Simiens |
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| Jacq, Em & Tony creating a curry in the Simiens |
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| Jan & Steve having lunch in the Simiens |
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| Alison & an armed guard |
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| Leanne & a barboon. Leanne is on the left. |
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| Mikkel found a snake in the Simiens |
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| Nothing would stop our Saturday night beer and curry night |
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| Our beautiful, but slightly damp, campsite in the Simiens |
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| Sissy in the Simiens |
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| The gang trying to get good pictures of the Gelada barboons |
Then we were
off to Lalibela for more Ethiopian culture.
First off, the amazing rock hewn churches. And then a couple of visits to Torpedoes, a
local bar famous for its traditional Ethiopian drink – honey wine, and its
traditional entertainment and dancing.
Everyone got involved in the dancing, helped along by the honey wine.
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| St George's Church, Lalibela |
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| How many people can fit in a tomb? |
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| Ciara & Alison at the hobbit house |
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| Tony & Leanne in Lalibela |
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| Wilma in Lalibela |
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| Leanne, Ciara, Tony, David, Sissy & Killian in a tomb |
Heading
south we spent time at the Ethiopian Riviera, Bahir Dar, then on to Addis Ababa
and Lake Awasa. Where we had to create a
new truck job – Wildlife Watcher – in order to protect our food from the
monkeys.
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| Andrew with a lunch crowd |
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| Andrew, Leanne & Tony enjoying some local food |
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| Mannequins in Addis - spot the odd 2 out |
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| A monkey pleasantly surprised to see Odyssey back in Africa! |
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| Andrew, Ann, Jacq & Tony - who's interviewing who? |
Up in the
Omo Valley we were lucky enough to be invited to the Bull Running ceremony with
the Hamer tribe. Certainly interesting
to see such a different way of life.
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| Bull jumping in the Omo Valley |
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| Jacq with some new friends |
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| Jacq, Malcolm, Steve & Ann |
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| Leanne getting her hair done (with Wilma) |
Time to head
out of Ethiopia and into Kenya. But
before we could get to the border, we had to pull over and wait for an hour or
so as a race was just about to start.
Then a bit of a delay at the border due to a power cut. And they couldn’t use the generator as they
had run out of petrol. But luckily one
of the group agreed to marry the border guard if they could get power within 10
minutes. And magically the power
returned. And she can never go back to
that border….
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| Delays getting to the border in Ethiopia due to a race |
