Travelogue: Day 2, Dessie to Lalibela

We said good-bye to the ‘grand old lady’ in Dessie and were not sad to leave the hotel or town. It was no fun to use a toilet that didn’t have a toilet seat and was obviously used by men who didn’t care if the next person might have to sit down on the bowl. And the lack of water also meant that I couldn’t wash up properly the next morning (morning face all day long). The last straw was the fact that the toilets were backed up and couldn’t flush and yet one had to use the facilities, no other choice.

But the breakfast was good; scrambled eggs with toasted bread or cereal (but with warm milk; not a good thing with cold cereal, the corn flakes just melt into a congealed mess). At least they had good food. We packed up and left soon after. We tried to buy gas on our way out of town but all the gas stations were out of gas (diesel, actually). No worries. We still had a ¾ tank and I reckoned we could easily drive to Lalibela if needed. Mekonnen had advised that we buy gas and fill up whenever possible because of just such a problem; gas stations which were out of gas.

The drive from Dessie to Lalibela took another full day of driving, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. without lunch. We stopped for fuel in Woldia and stopped for a potty break another time but that was it. Not that we wanted it that way, there just weren’t opportunities along the way for a lunch stop. Thank God for the cooler of snack foods we brought with us. Some good friends shopped at the U.S. Embassy commissary for us before we left so we had Cheetos and Rold Gold pretzel sticks along with k’olo (roasted barley and peanuts). Somehow we all managed to drive under these conditions without too much strife or mutiny. The girls complained a bit but were quite good overall, given the circumstances.

The drive was once again a scenic wonder. Yes, the land was dry in this rainy season from a lack of water and yes, the roads were alternately bad and good (acceptable). But as we left Dessie we once again headed up into the mountains on roads that were clinging to the mountainsides. I was driving so I couldn’t linger on the sights as we climbed higher and higher. The view of range after range of mountains and the vista of the valley below was tempered by the fact that we were on a gravel, dusty road that sometimes was only one lane. And don’t look down over the edge, these roads don’t have any guardrails and the drop-off was usually thousands of meters. So Wanda and the girls were nervous. Hey, I admit I was fighting off a bit of vertigo myself. Just concentrate on the road, just don’t think about it.

Along the road as we climbed the mountain we would come to villages (a welcome respite from the cliffhanger- driving). We would see water running in ditches beside the road. That water, in an arid land, was water from hot springs that gushed out of the mountain side. So there were pockets of green lush landscape and growing crops.

We kept climbing. One common theme that we have experienced since leaving Addis has been the construction of roads all along the way and the presence of Chinese road builders. Everywhere roads are being built, the Chinese are there. Ethiopians are used to the presence of white western foreigners (we’re called ‘fereng’) but now a generation of Ethiopian kids are seeing Chinese. One boy even mistakenly shouted out, ‘China’ to his mother in his excitement when he saw us in our Land Cruiser. The roads are being paved all over the country. We had to drive around and sometimes through the construction but as we did we all thought how nice it will be when it is done in a couple of years (if we do this route by vehicle again).

It seemed like forever but we finally reached the top of the mountain. We all expected to start a downhill crawl but amazingly the road went on and on. Like we were on a long plateau. Again the scenery reminded me of other mountainous scenes I have seen; alpine scenery in Europe or the Rocky Mountains. Windswept land that was green but not lush. Rocky outcropping everywhere. And a road runs through it. We found another stone circle and stopped for our bathroom break. Mekonnen struck up a conversation with a mother and two daughters who were fascinated by our stopping. The older daughter (a teenager) was married and had a child. The younger daughter, 10 years old, was ‘promised’ to a boy in marriage. Traditional practice in these parts, Mekonnen said.

We finally found the road to Lalibela (no road signs, you just continually stop and ask) and started the downhill plunge. The road was full of switchbacks. I used my horn continuously to warn the people and animals on the road ahead. Don’t want to hit anyone or anything. As we descended the landscape changed again. Now we were looking at something from the American desert southwest. The cactus, large ‘spider’ plants and other relatives of the aloe vera plant. The rocky, sandy brown soil. We went on and on through the desert landscape.

Everyone was getting restless by 3 p.m. We had not stopped for lunch and the girls were ready to end this drive. We continued to go up and down through the mountains, more spectacular scenery. We counted down the kilometers until we were scheduled to reach Lalibela; 200 kms, 100 kms, 70, 60, 50, etc. Then we saw a large billboard looking very out of place in this desert land, a sign that was advertising St. George beer and saying ‘welcome to the holy land of Lalibela’ (yes, holy land, the Orthodox Ethiopians regard this land as quite sacred).It took another 20 km but we wended our way upwards one more time to the city on the hill. Houses clinging to the hillsides. A road once again on the side of the mountain. Wanda remarked that it is hard to believe that there is an airport, an actual flat landing strip, somewhere in the vicinity. They must have flattened a mountain top to do it.

Our hotel was on the far side of town, through the cobbled streets. We could tell we were coming to a tourist trap because as we got closer to town people started shouting things in English at us. By the time we had arrived in Lalibela there were English speakers. The Roha hotel is also a government hotel but is a marked contrast to the one in Dessie. About the only thing they have in common is the same soap is in the bathrooms! This one is more ‘Ferengi’ friendly with a large common room, dining area, even a small gift shop. The rooms have running water, electric, even satellite TV (although only 4 channels; BBC World Service, Al Jazeera News, a Arab movie channel of English language films and a Euronews channel that has no sound)! The courtyard is well maintained and the girls enjoyed running around. Beautiful flowering bushes in colors of yellow, white, red, blue and purple. We had a nice supper and relaxed before bed. Another day done, another adventure about to begin.