Archiv der Kategorie: Africa

Namibia, World Trip 2018-19

Namibia Part 1 – South

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When we arrived in Windhoek, I was excited and a little overwhelmed at the same time. Excited for Namibia and our 4×4 with roof tent, and overwhelmed because it had all happened so quickly. We were just in Ethiopia… and then suddenly here, since we pre-poned our flight to Windhoek to avoid potential problems with Ethiopian immigration as they made a mistake and gave us 29 days instead of 30. We had booked an AirBnB to get ourselves a bit organised before receiving our car for the next 5.5 weeks. Yay!

We first headed South, on a nice tar road until shortly before Keetmanshoop where we found a pretty campsite surrounded by quiver trees. They are so cool!! After struggling with the roof tent, a thunderstorm surprised us. We first fled into the roof tent, then realized we were probably not save in there when lightning struck very close, so fled into the car. At least our roof tent withstood the storm and rain test – and it didn’t last too long. Afterwards, we were treated to some beautiful evening light, kitschy rainbows and photogenic dark clouds in the distance. A good start after all!

On day 2, we headed further South to Fish River Canyon, an easy drive during which we spotted some Oryx antelopes. The canyon was really cool, supposedly it’s the 2nd biggest one after Grand Canyon! There’s different viewpoints which can be reached via rough dirt roads – the first time we were glad to have a 4×4. The views were great everywhere!

We then drove further to Aus, where we wanted to camp – but the nice campsite was fully booked and the one in town didn’t appeal to us. So we decided to wild camp at the wild horses viewpoint. We were lucky enough to spot some wild horses over the next day, although less at the waterhole than while driving between Aus, Kolmanskop and Lüderitz.

Day 3 started with a visit to nearby Kolmanskop, a ghost town that is being swallowed up by the surrounding desert step by step. It was much cooler than expected!! We were in photo paradise.

The old buildings, the sand which is piling high in same places, the doors which are barely still hanging in there… it just all looks very photogenic. It was also much larger than expected, so we spent over 3 h wandering around, exploring, taking photos.

From here, we went on to Lüderitz which in return was a bit underwhelming. Took some photos of old houses, checked out the expensive campsite on Shark island, decided not to stay there, moved on to the peninsula to see Diaz Point and the surrounding bays. We were not so lucky on the peninsula: we saw some pretty flamingos around Diaz Point and some seals and penguins on the islands too far away to take proper pictures. The other bays were virtually empty besides the ever-present seagulls. Since there wasn’t really an appealing campsite nearby, we decided to wild camp again – in Witmuur bay which at first seemed sheltered. Later, quite some wind came up and it was coooold. The whole day we had been cold already, with clouds hanging low, strong winds and high humidity in the air. Let’s just say it was not an enjoyable night… The highlight of our stay on the peninsula came next morning when we saw 3 jackals in Griffith Bay! We also saw some more flamingos and other birds.

After this night, we were definitely ready for some warmth again though! We drove back to Aus and then up North, taking the photogenic D707 road with many photo stops, all the way to Betta. Here we found a really nice campsite, not the best views but really good facilities and most importantly: good showers to clean ourselves up after wild camping for two nights. A good day and finish to our „South“ Namibia adventures.

Ethiopia, World Trip 2018-19

Ethiopia – Summary & Pictures

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People: Ouff. How not to make this one sound too bad!? Well, we did meet some nice people, for example owners of well-running local restaurants who are not dependant on tourists. Anyone who worked in transportation though, was an a… And everyone wanted something from us: money, pen, be our guide,… It was exhausting. Literally no friendly conversation would just remain friendly – it would always end in a request. Also, people lied to our face many times e.g. that there was water in the bathroom when there wasn’t (for days probably already). Unfortunately, Ethiopia has been the most exhausting country we have ever travelled, where we experienced the most hassle.

Food: It was a nice change after expensive South America, to go out for food every day three times a day again. But at the smaller restaurants there often wasn’t much choice, and after a while I was a bit sick of injera (sour pancake) and shiro (lentil paste) – the most common dish. Sometimes, they had mixed vegetarian platters which we quite enjoyed and the pasta was often quite tasty. For once, being a vegetarian was pretty easy!

Weather: We travelled Ethiopia in dry season, so it was sunny and nice. In the evenings you did need something long though, as it got quite chilly.

Costs: On average, we spent almost 30€/person/day which is below what we expected, but certainly above what we could have spent. But as travelling Ethiopia was quite exhausting, we ended up getting better accommodation over the course of the weeks and booked quite some flights instead of enduring more long bus trips. Also, anything touristy like entrance fees or the Danakil tour cost a lot more than you would expect from an otherwise cheap country like Ethiopia.

Accommodation: We stayed in simple double rooms, mostly with our own bath room, for very little money. Finally, a country like that again! It was basic though, internet a struggle, water not always available etc.

Infrastructure: Busses were very old, uncomfortable and got filled to the max. Same as minibuses. As soon as you entered the bus station, you would get stormed at by guys who would pull you into their van and take the backpack off your shoulders. It was very exhausting. The bus trips took long even for short distances and since people don’t shower much at all and some people throw up, the smell was often bad. We also took some flights, to avoid some of such bus rides.

Illnesses: We both had some stomach issues at one point – I got it really bad for the first time. But I guess that’s normal in Ethiopia.

Safety: In Dire Dawa and Harar, I didn’t feel so safe with many weird characters hanging around in the streets. The rest of the country was no issue.

Itinerary: We travelled along the Historical Circuit in the North, clockwise: Addis – Bahir Dar – Gondar – Simien Mountains – Axum – Tigray – Danakil Depression – Lalibela. We then added a complicated detour to Harar, from Lalibela back to Bahir Dar by bus, then a flight to Addis, another one to Dire Dawa, and a minibus to Harar. Not sure it was worth the effort.

Highlight: Danakil Depression.

Lowlight: The people, our visa situation and Dire Dawa/Harar.

Click on the photos below to see our full photo album of Ethiopia:

IMG_5729 (Medium)

Ethiopia, World Trip 2018-19

Harar: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

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From Lalibela, we embarked on a little travel marathon to reach our final destination: Harar. Flights out of Lalibela to anywhere were pretty expensive on short notice, so we decided to take a bus to Bahir Dar and fly from there, via Addis Abeba, to Dire Dawa. Harar doesn’t have an airport, so from Dire Dawa we would take another bus to Harar. Sounds long? Yeps, it was.  

Our bus journey to Bahir Dar was probably the worst we had in Ethiopia: first no seats, then overcharged for our luggage, or they would have kicked us off the bus. In exchange we did get seats, however the bus was too full and a puking women (8 h straight almost!!) sat and puked next to Mathijs on the floor. Not very enjoyable. The flight was the easiest part and went rather smoothly, Dire Dawa a catastrophe stopover with a bad overpriced hotel with unhelpful staff, and the bus ride to Harar longer than expected.

Harar started off badly as well. Lots of homeless people, many druggies trying to talk to you and get something from you etc. Some guys grabbed me, tried to touch me and so on. I shouted at people, slapped one of the guys in the face and people around me were just laughing mostly. What the f…!? Ethiopia so far had been exhausting, but this was just plain bad bad bad. I just didn’t feel safe, something that was not the case anywhere else in Ethiopia.

It turned out though that the town itself is nice and colourful. It’s just not as pretty as we had expected, but there’s lots of picturesque little streets and colourful local markets.

Because it’s a mainly Muslim town, women were all covered, but in a very colourful way that made for good photos. Fortunately, they usually didn’t mind, so Mathijs was one happy street photographer.

I was still not feeling too comfortable, but the photogenic old center made up a bit for the exhausting trip here and the drama with the homeless druggies. A bit. I wouldn’t go back to Harar, and it’s not a must see for me. The effort required to get here is just not worth it – there are easier to reach market towns in this world.

After these last exhausting days, I was also more than happy about our sudden plan change to leave Ethiopia a few days earlier than planned: we had discovered that the visa we had gotten was valid for 29 days instead of the usual 30 days. Our flight out was on day 30. We couldn’t find any easy way to clarify the mistake without paying lots of money and read about people being forced into ridiculous fees or otherwise missing their flight. In short: the easiest way out (literally) seemed to be to change our flight to Windhoek for 2 days earlier – not cheap either, but at least our worries were gone!

Ethiopia, you’ve been very interesting, and very exhausting.