Part
4 - Axum to Debark
Here is the next part of my trip as I left Axum.
After
our little adventure in leaving Axum, we were finally on the road. The
tarmac of the main road in Axum ended about a hundred yards out of town
and we bumped down into the dirt road. It was all rocky and even though,
obviously prepared to soon carry some more tarmac. So the voyage wasn't
too unpleasant.
The trip took us through the hilly countryside between Axum and Shire.
Outside of the beautiful view out of the dusty windows,
clouds from the tires wafting by at regular intervals, there was the
interesting inside of the bus to enjoy. Bus travel in Ethiopia is a
real blessing for the backpacker, not too stressed out to go with the
flow. Our bags had been thrown on the roof, leaving us with just
the smaller bags containing all things essential, as wise travelersdivide
their luggage.
With my size and the bag, I was kind of stuck between the back of my
seat, and that of the seat in front of me. I could choose to move my
feet a little forward or backward, so as to squash another stretch of
the skin on my knees. Next to me on the windowseat was an amazingly
beautiful girl being the very embodiment of shyness. The catchy, sweeping
rhythm of Ethiopian music was
booming through the walkway, assisting the scenery in taking the mind
of the stuffiness of a closed metal can under an equatorial sun.
As it turned out the buses in Ethiopia stop wherever someone wants to
get on or off. Whenever this happened to be within the limits of a town,
the bus was quickly filled with several young people selling water,
cookies, tissues and such handy travel wares. The most lovely was the
roasted barley called kolo. The vendors carried baskets full of them,
out of which they handed them out by the cups, waiting around till the
cup was empty, if there weren't any other places to store the kolo.
Whenever someone buys anything from these vendors, it is usual to share
with all people around you, regardless who.
It was very nice to see the local people handing us a handful of kolo,
or offering a drink of their wuha (water). Another reason for stopping
the bus, was engine trouble. As it turned out, no trip went without
the vehicle breaking down, and only the best of trucks would keep it
down to once or twice. It was a welcome reason for everyone in the bus
to step out for sanitary breaks, gossiping in the shade of the bus,
or just generally standing around in the 'fresh' air.
And, in the end, we reached Shire. As it had been in Axum, the bus terminal
of Shire was no more than a large parking lot, with one single row of
buses, surrounded by an entropically justified dispersement of lone
buses. With loads of people walking in between the parked buses, calling
out for all kinds of things. In Ethiopia, any gathering of people is
a promising area of business.
People call out to sell tickets, others call out to buy them. Some people
offer to buy the ticket for other people at a previously agreed price.
This is usually the way used by tourists, since the original vendors
are dealing with a thick cluster of excited buyers calling out prices
and numbers of tickets in some Ethiopian dialect. Some other people
offer themselves as guides to hotels, where they
will receive a commission. And so on. It always takes a little time,
after the tiresome, but peaceful bus trip, to get accustomed to the
more tiring, chaotic frenzy of people either offering something to you,
or otherwise just crowding around to gaze and smile at the
Faranji.When we found a man that spoke reasonable English (Dyou! Dyou!
Dyou want-a-go bus?), we were told there were no buses anymore.
We had to buy tickets for tomorrow. As it turns out, all transport is
only carried out in the morning. There are no lights anywhere, so people
don't feel much like being on the road at night. And since it takes
at least half a day to reach Shire from Axum, going to Debark now would
mean driving on after nightfall.
The Frenchman however, having traveled around in Ethiopia for a month
more than me, told me this message was given in every village, and it
did not mean there were no ways to leave the town. So we walked off
down the road, running on from where we came, this being a one-road
town. We had already seen that Shire was many times more dirty and sloppy
as Axum was, and felt little inclined to spend the night.
A boy walked up with us, stating he knew a perfect hotel, just a little
further down the road. I was feeling more and more like just calling
it a day, but the Frenchman had made up his mind. So we walked on past
all the hotels the boy could possibly show us,
and he gave up. We reached a gas station, and figured it was worth asking
the group of people sitting around in front, if we were on
the right road and whether it was possible to reach Debark today. The
people in front greeted us happily and were all to happy to
provide any help they could. Of course they told us that it was possible
to get a lift from there to Debark (as Ethiopians never say
no, even if they mean no.) They then suggested we sit down and take
the load of our backs.
So we sat down and decided that it wasn't such a bad idea to sit and
wait here at a gas station for traffic to just pull up in front. So
we asked the men if there were many trucks stopping at the station,
before setting off on the road. They told us there was no gas.
So we sat there for a while. The sun had passed the top of it's trajectory,
and birds were, as always, chattering away happily all
around. The group of Ethiopians slowly grew, as some women with children
and even the teacher of the children turned up. A group of
children also passed, sensing a great opportunity in two tourists sitting
at the side of the road, but they were chased off with the
throwing of shush-words and stones in their direction, by the men from
the station.
The Frenchman was offered to play along in a game of checkers with bottlecaps
on a cardboard square, with a playing field drawn out on it. He defeated
the Ethiopian time and again, but the man lost neither lust for another
game, nor his good mood. As the time slipped by, and the sun sank ever
lower, the men assured us that a late truck would still be leaving from
a road coming down from the north, joining the one we were traveling
just past the gas station.
And, sure enough, a while later a truck did turn up, albeit coming from
the main road, instead of the north. Some of the gathered
Ethiopians ran to the road, calling out and waving for the truck to
stop. They spoke a while and beckoned us to make a deal with the
driver. The Frenchman who had asked me what the busfare would have been
from Shire to Debark, which was just short of 40 Birr, went over to
the truck to take a maximum of 50 Birr per person. The driver however
wanted 200, dropping only to 150. At this price the
Frenchman started acting all indignant and walked off, back towards
the gas station He told me in passing, as I had just stumbled
forward with our bags, which (as always) one of the Ethiopians had offered
to carry for me, only to find out it was a great deal
heavier than he thought, that I had to play along. He told me that they
would reconsider their insane request when faced with the
possibility of not getting any bonus money at all, if we were to turn
down their final offer. And sure enough, as we had just settled
ourselves back onto the stairway, they called out they'd go along with
50.
And so we found ourselves sitting in the empty open container of a dirt
truck. As long as the day would last we had the great scenery
of the road between Shire and Debark to look forward to. And we had
been blessed with the ideal kind of panoramic view to enjoy it with.
We would leave the highlands of Axum and Shire at some point, to dive
down into the river valleys that cut deeply into the country, mainly
the one housing the Tekeze river in this case.
The first
stretch we enjoyed cheering children and waving grown-ups all around
at the sides of the road. Children would often run along beside the
truck cheering and crying out in glee and joy. Some of them walking
around in their school uniforms. We also saw fantastic birdlife all
around, like one that looks like a ducksized starling in shape, but
is coloured in iridescent dark blue, with bright yellow rings around
it's eyes. An amazing display of beautiful colour. And then we saw in
the distance the walls of the gorge dropping off into nothing.
A while later, enjoying ourselves greatly with all the fantastic things
to see, accepting the cloud of dust swirling all around the
back of the truck, we could see in front of and below us the deep bottom
of the abyss we were entering. The Frenchman could not stop taking pictures
at every bend in the road as it swirled slowly down. I was mainly awestruck
at the view, as the wheels of the truck passed deep ravines by only
inches and every now and then dropped down ominously in a hole in the
road, where it had been washed away by previous downpours.
All kinds of wild birds simply walked leisurely across the road, in
front of the truck forced to go slow, as the road was almost unceasingly
steep and narrow. The most amazing feats of driving skill were shown
when another truck would come up from below to face us, and the two
crawled along beside each other carefully.Eventually when dusk was finally
setting in, a huge thunderstorm crawled up on us. The sky turned a dark
greyish black with hints of dark blue and purple. Huge, really huge,
lightning blasts slammed
down all around in the hills, with thunderous crashes that rocked us
to the core. As a couple of children we moved from one side of the truck
to the other, to keep facing the show, as the truck kept turning bend
after bend of old Italian road. When we finally came
out of the river gorges and faced the foothills of the Simien mountains,
I could see that the lightning was really drawn down to
the mountains, probably due to high decrees of iron ore. I, for one,
have never seen a thunderstorm this amazing. Soon after, however, as
we started fearing the rain hitting us, where we sat unshielded in the
back of the truck, we stopped for the night at the town of Adi Arkay.
It was just another one road town, like so many across the country,
and we were quickly baffled by the concept of having to find a place
to spend the night. The Frenchman, who was quick to get irritated, verbally
fought the driver over the agreement to take us all the way to Debark,
and eventually even succeeded in getting the man to reimburse us half
the agreed price. As the rain, accompanying the thunderstorm came ever
closer, we managed to be guided to the two hostels this town held, meant
for travelers stranded there, obviously a recurring event. We chose
the latter for it's lower price, and I was introduced to the looks of
Ethiopia's cheap stays for the first time. But
that interesting image I'll save for later.
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