Short hop

Our hotel in Mekele was booked out for tonight.  Instead of packing up for another hotel, I decided it would be better to move to the next town Adigrat.  It would break the journey to Axum nicely … especially when there wasn’t much to do in Mekele.

Both Mekele and Adigrat are bases for exploring the Tigray rock-hewn churches.  I’m a  bit jaded with churches … besides, the ones in Tigray (and also other sights like Debre Damo monastery) are very costly to get to.  Ethiopians seem to like ripping foreigners off with ridiculous transport pricing and there isn’t much choice … except to take it or leave it!

The journey from Mekele to Adigrat was supposed to take 3h.  We had a breakdown less than an hour after departure.  But despite that, the journey wasn’t too much longer.

Arriving at Adigrat, our preferred hotel was full.  So we settled for an unnamed one, in a room on the fourth floor with two big beds overlooking the mountain and town.

After dinner and back at the room, Marie didn’t seem very happy.  I asked “Are you not happy about something?”  She replied in her heavily accented English “Hayam not epi habout hanything” and promptly fell straight backwards like a freshly lumbered tree. 

While she was fine for today’s journey, it appears that she was still unwell from last night. That, and the fact that we were now at an altitude of 2600m perhaps (but that’s not too dissimilar to our “home” in Sana’a).  She regained consciousness soon after and retired for the night.

A few observations travelling around Ethiopia:

• There are few private vehicles on the intercity roads … only buses, minivans and trucks 🙁
• Long distance intercity buses can’t go before 0600 and must finish by 1800.  Many intercity hops seem scheduled between city-pairs that fit into that limitation.  It makes for many early morning starts!
• On the buses, people keep the windows tightly closed.  Yes I understand the roads are dusty but we need a little air too!
• Many people in rural areas carry a walking stick behind their neck with both hands grasping it.  They’re very upright as a result.  They may carry some personal items tied on to the stick.