Entering Ethiopia was a piece of cake. A thing that hits you in the face though is that after a month in Kenya, you get really used to the people speaking English. Ethiopia is the oldest independent and the second most populous country in Africa, people are everywhere. Arriving from Kenya, Ethiopia is a bit overwhelming. Not many people speak English and the ones that do will make sure you buy their services. Touts are to be found everywhere close to a tourist destination. Once off the beaten track, the locals are amazingly friendly. Where does it go wrong? Why do the friendly people turn into crazy money sucking vultures?
Our first encounter with touts was at Lake Wenchi. We arrived just before dark, it was raining and were looking for a place to camp. Our GPS had marked a camping next to the crater lake, but a kilometer before we arrived we were stopped by 10 local kids. They were happy to show us where it all was and where to buy tickets for an amazingly high amount of money. We laughed it off and said we didn’t need their service. This is when something switched in their heads and they jumped onto our car holding onto anything they can. We didn’t care and drove up the mountain towards where the camping was marked in our GPS. Nothing there. More and more people started gathering around our car demanding money for all kinds of services we didn’t need. They demanded we needed a guard, a ticket to some national park that didn’t exist and of course a guide fee etc etc etc. Counting it all up it was going to be well over 50 USD per person, just to camp for one night. There wasn’t even a toilet! Bargaining wasn’t a thing they knew and they told us to leave if we didn’t like it. So we did. Strangely half the kids were still holding onto our car telling us that they knew a better place. We were well fed up with these people. Just when we wanted to drive off some older man slipped over some mud on a slope and fell under our car. I stopped fast as we were barely moving, but he didn’t look too happy. Who knows who he will blame for his fall? The government in Ethiopia is not very tolerant with deadly accidents in traffic, as every driver will end up in jail whether it was his fault or not. Close encounter for my freedom here… The kids still holding on to our car started giving us better prices for camping next to their houses, but we didn’t feel like staying one more minute. Adios!
Our first encounter with touts was at Lake Wenchi. We arrived just before dark, it was raining and were looking for a place to camp. Our GPS had marked a camping next to the crater lake, but a kilometer before we arrived we were stopped by 10 local kids. They were happy to show us where it all was and where to buy tickets for an amazingly high amount of money. We laughed it off and said we didn’t need their service. This is when something switched in their heads and they jumped onto our car holding onto anything they can. We didn’t care and drove up the mountain towards where the camping was marked in our GPS. Nothing there. More and more people started gathering around our car demanding money for all kinds of services we didn’t need. They demanded we needed a guard, a ticket to some national park that didn’t exist and of course a guide fee etc etc etc. Counting it all up it was going to be well over 50 USD per person, just to camp for one night. There wasn’t even a toilet! Bargaining wasn’t a thing they knew and they told us to leave if we didn’t like it. So we did. Strangely half the kids were still holding onto our car telling us that they knew a better place. We were well fed up with these people. Just when we wanted to drive off some older man slipped over some mud on a slope and fell under our car. I stopped fast as we were barely moving, but he didn’t look too happy. Who knows who he will blame for his fall? The government in Ethiopia is not very tolerant with deadly accidents in traffic, as every driver will end up in jail whether it was his fault or not. Close encounter for my freedom here… The kids still holding on to our car started giving us better prices for camping next to their houses, but we didn’t feel like staying one more minute. Adios!
We headed on into the darkness and to make matters worse, it started getting misty. The track was very muddy, visibility was almost none, it was raining very hard and lighting lit up the sky every 10 seconds. A scene straight out of the horror movies, so we decided to put on some scary Beethoven music on. After driving another half hour we notice a light flashing behind us. We took a better look and it appeared to be somebody running after us! We weren’t able to drive very fast over this track so he would catch up quickly. Do we stop and wait for him or lock our doors and hope for the best? We decided to stop and see what he was up to. We stopped and he offered us a place to stay next to his brother’s house and come in for a cup of Ethiopian coffee. To be sure we agreed on a price to camp next to the house. We were tired so we cooked our dinner and basically fell asleep straight away. The next morning it occurred to me that how did the man know that we were looking for a place to stay? It was very dark at that time and no way could he have seen we were white tourists. We encountered the man with the question and it appeared that some of the touts in the last village had called this man to stop and help us. We were very surprised by this gesture, luckily it turned out for the good. In the morning we accepted a cup of Ethiopian coffee and to our surprise it was the most horrible coffee we have ever had. The people were very proud of their coffee and they love to add some really fat milk/butter substance to the little cup. It was so sour that it was hard to keep a straight face and decline any more in a friendly way. We got to know each other a bit better in the bits of English they knew and we learned that they were all potato farmers here. They offered us a horse ride up to the crater lake for another reasonable amount of money that seemed very interesting. The horses were half pony size so you can image that walking up the hill ourselves would have been faster. After only 15 minutes we reached the rim of the crater lake, which we could have driven ourselves by car. I had enough of torturing the horse and was a bit bummed that we got tricked into the horseride. Once back at the house I pay them a bit more than we agreed on and that’s when the whole story turns dark again. They though it wasn’t enough. Demanding payments for things we never talked about like guide fee for walking next to the horses etc etc. It was like last night all over again. They got angry and words flew back and forth. We had such a lovely time with these people, tried to be more generous back and they you get this. What a bummer, we decided to leave but didn’t feel happy anymore. Would more money have made them satisfied or would they have been greedy with every amount?
Skipping Addis Abeba, the capitol, our next destination was Bahir Dar. We decided to stay a day or two to explore the region so we were looking for a place to stay. It seemed that all the camp grounds we knew of, had vanished. They all closed down and the only place in town where they allow camping, was booked for a festival that weekend. Driving back and forth around the little town we found a sign that had a little Finnish flag on it. Jasmin was all surprised about seeing something of Finland so far away from home. We decided to go and explore inside the building to see what could bring the Finnish flag such a distance. It appeared to be an agricultural organization helping the local farmers, funded by Finnish non governmental organizations. The first person we meet was Laura from Finland. Jasmin and Laura were both stunned to see another Finnish person so far away from home that we soon ended up having coffee together. Even better, she even invited us to stay at her and Atte’s place. Before we knew it we were eating Makaroonilaatikko at their place. It was a little piece of Finland in Ethiopia, what a bliss.
Ethiopia being full of ancient history, we had to visit some historical places. We had visited some ancient temples in Bahir Dar, but they were not something to write home about. In the next city, Gonder, we entered the ancient royal enclosure full of ruins and an old castle. It was very interesting to see, but at the time it was a religious holiday so the orthodox churches were on full blast (they call it singing) the whole day. We couldn’t endure anymore so we left the same day towards a campground next to lake Tana, run by a dutch couple. Unfortunately we were not able to meet the owners here, but we did meet another overlanding couple from Tracks 4 Africa. Famous amongst overlanders in Africa for the GPS navigation software.
Ethiopia has some great places to offer for tourism, but all at a humongous cost. We have had several great offers, being discounts from the normal prices, but it would still be a great deal of our budget. We caught a glimpse of the country and decided to leave the rest of Ethiopia for another time with a bigger budget and left for Sudan.