90 days Cape to Cairo on 200cc Motomias

Commuting between the Queen Taitu Pension and the Taye Hotel

We have settled ourselves in nicely at the Queen Taitu Pension and have been enjoying the television. Normally we would be out exploring and seeing sights, but we decided to take it shamefully easy today (a real treat!) and we have been getting up only to commute the 10 meter stretch between our hotel and the Taye Hotel, which with it’s cheap food, flat screen tv, bar and free wifi. This 4 star hotel have become a bit of a home base for us during the day and we only go back to Queen Taitu once we feel we have pushed our presence here to the limit and use the offline time to get up to date with writing some more updates of our experiences for a few publications that have been supporting us so far. Luckily the Taye Hotel have different staff on different shifts so we try coming at different times in the day so that we do not look too suspicious though it is difficult to hide our rugged looks and creased clothes by now :o) Here Francois is playing the part at the Taye Hotel:

We want to leave early for the border tomorrow morning so we filled up our tanks and fuel bags in town this afternoon. Here Francois is untying his fuel bag in the courtyard at the Queen Taitu Pension.

We also want to thank Rufus and Calla for all the helpful advice about the border post to come. We have read interesting accounts of people that have had some hectic experiences crossing at Metema/Gallabat so we are looking forward to this next part!

This morning we also had a bit of time again to catch up with the ‘Voetspore’ team on their blog. They have certainly also had a very interesting experience since we last saw them in Nairobi. Read more about their experiences at www.voetspore.co.za We wish them all the best with the rest of their trip and look forward to meeting them again on the way to Cairo.

On air again in Gonder

We had to check out from the Belegez Pension

before 10h00 and it was still too early to check in at the Quean (sic) Taitu Pension, so we had breakfast at The Four Sisters restaurant where we had supper last night. It is the most amazing place we’ve witnessed so far. Very beautifully decorated this fancy (yet reasonably priced) restaurant is set on the edge of town.  It was started three months ago by four local sisters and you can see they are very proud of what they’ve created. And rightly so! The waiter is very professional and everything about the place makes you feel you’re at a five star lodge.

It is as beautiful from outside:

As from the inside:

Afterwards we rode around town for a while looking at two more hotels, but the Quean ended up being the best value at 150 Birr for the two of us. With a hot bath (no plug though) and a TV in the room. We’ve also got WiFi across the street at a fancy upmarket hotel. It’s free if you eat or drink there and the food is luckily very cheap. We consequently had time to update the blog posts for the past week, so please check out the posts we made since we left Addis Abeba.

It rained this afternoon, but we’re feeling better today. I feel bad about being so negative in my last few posts, but our self-appointed guide not getting the message yesterday pushed me over the edge. It is amazing how your feelings can change in seconds, but we feel ready for the third leg of the trip. We would have liked to enter Sudan tomorrow, but have to wait for Thursday since our visas are only valid for two weeks and the ferry leaves Wadi Halfa on Wednesdays. Since we are not in the mood to take a gamble on accommodation in Shehedi (the last town before the border) we will stay another day in Gondar and leave very early on Thursday morning. Enjoy the photos of the past week.

A long day’s drive to Gonder

We left Asheton Hotel in Lalibela this morning after a great breakfast of bread, butter, jam and eggs. We were both dressed warmly in extra jerseys underneath our bike jackets and our rain suits over everything. Despite all the layers it was still icy cold until we started to descent to Waratah (where the t-junction turns left to Bahir Dar and right to Gonder). It is amazing to think that just a few hundred kilometres from here there is a desert.

I have to be honest and say that it was a very challenging 360km ride today. There were just too many people along the road, of which a large part of them are friendly, but there are also too many children and teenagers that make driving very hard here in Ethiopia. I was thrown only twice (once with a piece of rubbish and second with a rock but it only hit the bike), but it was enough to make me not enjoy the ride and distrust most people along the way. Some also pick up rocks and act as if they will throw you but they don’t and some others jump towards the bike or point their sticks at you. I still don’t understand why they do this. The kids have so much energy and they put everything into waving, jumping, pulling faces etc. I wish I could channel all of that into something good like putting them in school where they can do something useful – I think they are really bored.

It is a pity that the people challenge you so much, because Ethiopia is really beautiful and around every new bend you are blessed with yet another magnificent view over the mountains. The tarmac is also in a very good condition, which makes driving a pleasure. We spent quite some time in the saddle today so the only photo I took was this one of the rudely shaped rock - hehe here goes:

I must say that once we turned towards Gonder the people calmed down a little and the last 160km was not so bad as the first part. We arrived in Gonder at the Belegez Pension at about 16h00. The place is great for bikers because the rooms are built around a courtyard where you can park your bike right in front of your room. Unfortunately the place is booked out by a tour group tomorrow evening so we will look for another place to stay tomorrow.

We were very hungry when we arrived and decided to walk to town to see what we can find. But, soon after we left the hotel, Babi appointed himself as our guide and started to point out obvious things such as the nursery, library, mountain and cobblestone path. We were polite but firm (as the Lonely Planet instructed) and told him that we would like to walk alone to get some exercise. This however did not work and even after Francois told him how tired he was because it was a long drive and the kids threw us with rocks so we were not feeling happy we still couldn’t shake him. The last straw was when we went into a restaurant to sit down when he casually also sat down with us and started pointing out the river in the distance to talk about that when Francois politely told him that he wants to have a private dinner with his wife. Finally that worked and he left us alone. We didn’t feel good about it, but we just couldn’t take it anymore.

The combination of difficult journey from Lalibela, rock-throwing kids, self-appointed guides, kids constantly shouting out to you for attention in the streets just got a bit too much for us today – it is quite difficult to explain it all in words. The best way to describe it is to quote what the Lonely Planet said – “people come to Ethiopia to be moved, and moved you shall be!” It is the first country that has made our heads spin as much as this one.

We try and isolate these experiences from the good ones and realise that when you are a bit tired all seems a bit harder :o)

6 November 2011 (aka 26 February 2004 In Ethiopia)

We slept like babies last night and didn’t get up at 6h00 as planned. It was overcast, so we could take photos any time of the day. After breakfast we walked over to the internet café to post the previous day’s post and hopefully some images. The connection was slower than ever. Rufus, I don’t know how you did it!! Google: “three farmers and a greek”.

Not getting anywhere with the internet the churches being closed for lunch time we decided to walk around town and have coffee somewhere. At 14h00 we headed for the last group of churches and explored without a guide. This was also a good experience as you do not know here you are allowed to go and where the tunnels lead. In one section you need to walk through a pitch dark tunnel (we didn’t have a flash light) and you don’t know how far it is or whether there are more than one way to go. We cheated a bit by following another group the first time through!

The view of one of the churches...

A beautiful wall painting in one of the churches...

Beautiful church...

Exploring alleys and into the tunnel...

Earlier, during breakfast, we were invited to a coffee ceremony at Afat’s (who works at the hotel) house. We arranged to be there at 17h00 and a young guy working at the hotel took us to Afat’s house in the village. It was rainy outside and the Sun was setting as we entered the small mud house. Inside it was beautifully decorated and a young girl brewed us coffee. There were also a small boy (aged seven) and two other women popped in for a coffee.

The ceremony lasted around an hour and a half where she first boils the water on hot coals while grinding (or rather mashing) the roasted coffee beans. The first cup is strong, the second medium and the third soft (all with too much sugar!) But it was a great experience and I had some ginger biscuits to have with the second cup. Apparently they do this every Sunday and sometimes on other days as well.

The ladies didn’t speak or understand any English and everyone chatted away in their own languages. The small boy ate his injera and tibis halfway, before storing the rest in a woven container for later.

A dog later joined the party, but was not allowed in. He is the house’s watch dog. When it started raining he lay on the ledge in the doorway. Not very comfortable, but dry.

When we were done it was already dark and the young guy from the hotel escorted us back. We felt much better today and are ready to get on the road early tomorrow morning towards Gondar (360 km away).

Lalibela Steeped in rich history

This morning we went hotel shopping and found another great place to stay in Lalibela for a third of the price we paid for our room at the Seven Olives Guesthouse last night. The Asheten Hotel is just around the corner of where the action is and the rooms are very comfortable and clean. Every little bit helps :o) and the saving enabled us to get a guide to show us the rock-hewn churches in Lalibela in the afternoon.

The ticket price to visit all 11 churches and valid for 4 days was Birr 350 per person (roughly divide by two to get the amount in Rands). We only had time to do the two clusters of churches and there is one more cluster which we will do on our own tomorrow morning, but our guide Zewdu Melak (a young tourist guide) gave us a very good in-depth history around the churches which we enjoyed very much. It is incredible to see the churches hand carved out of a massive solid piece of rock, some standing totally alone and others joined on some sides with the rock.

In 1166, King Lalibela started the carving of the churches and the legend is that he claimed to have finished the churches all by himself and in the evening the angels continued his work while he rested. But historians say that 8 000 Egyptians were commissioned to do the work and it took them only 23 years to complete all the churches. Amazing!

Our first view of the church:

The first church outside:

Shoes stay outside the church:

The beautiful St. Georges Church:

Adam's tomb:

The beautiful roof at St. Mary's Church:

Beautiful windows:

Another interesting story is that of the cross of Lalibela which was said to have been stolen by one of the priests who worked there in 1997 and it ended up in the hands of the Belgians. The church then had to buy back the cross from the Belgians for USD 20 000 before it was returned to its rightful place. Here is a photo of the cross of Lalibela – the real McCoy!

Today the churches are still used by locals and each church has its own priest and they get paid a salary from the money that is collected through selling tickets. The rest of the money goes to the tourism office, which I also found out own three hotels in Lalibela – an interesting concept! We also visited the Lalibela Museum which houses some very old paintings, holy books, clothing and other things. The guide there was very knowledgeable and he is studying to become a priest one day.

During our walk we got some heavy rains, but luckily it didn’t last long. It is very cold here in the mountains and finally I am appreciating my thick jacket and woolen hat that I have been dragging all across Africa. Tomorrow we will go back to the churches for some more photos and will include a visit to the last cluster of churches we still need to see. We still haven’t managed to find a quick enough Internet connection that will allow us to upload our photos so unfortunately you will have to wait some more, but we promise to show them all!

PS: Happy 30th birthday to our friend, Eon! We wish we could be home to celebrate with you today! May you have an awesome 30th!!

Beautiful and disappointing

We had a great stay at the Lal Hotel and it ended up costing half of what we initially thought. We also had nine eggs for breakfast, all due to the communication gap. It great fun. Tania, for instance, asked for a 'makiato' and they say 'NO!', but then the person next to us get one. Or I ask for bread and they say 'NO!' and deliver four bread rolls. Great fun! :)

We packed up after breakfast and went to the internet shop around the corner. Fast internet! they said. Yeah right, we couldn't manage to post one image. Sorry about that! We'll make up in Sudan...hopefully!

We left Woldia around 12h00 as we only had 130 km to do, but with the last part being 65 km dirt...and it was starting to look like rain again. After 65 km there was a road to the right with a heap of dirt blocking it and suddenly the GPS recalculated that we still had 130 km left. Then it started raining! When we stopped Tania told me she'd been thrown with rocks earlier. I saw the guys gesturing, but didn't know they had hit her. This made me shake with anger and the rest of the day was the most emotionally draining experience of the trip so far! Most of the people still waved, but a lot of them pulled angry faces and swung sticks or an umbrella at us. Some threw stones from behind. I was so disappointed as we waved friendly to them until the end. Luckily the dirt road was not too bad. It's rocky, but not muddy. Here also, the people scared me. It evoked feelings of aggressiveness, which after you've had time to think it over turned to guilt. How can you be mad at someone that has to survive on so little. It is really important to stay calm and relaxed and try to keep perspective. The landscape surrounding Lalibela is absolutely stunning and we'll try to enjoy it more riding out again in a day or two. At some stage we reached 3 541 m if I remember correctly and the Motomia still managed to breath fine. Here is a picture of this point.

And the view from the top...

We checked in at the Seven Olives Hotel as we were wet and cold (it rained so hard the last 5 km that we could almost see nothing), but will now be moving to another hotel that is a third of the price. We also saw a BMW GS1200 and a Honda Africa Twin there, hehe). We also organised a guide to show us some of the rock hewn churches this afternoon. We'll get a feel for it and go back tomorrow morning for good photos. The people here are really friendly and helpful, and we just need a day or two to reset our experience of yesterday. Sorry we still cannot post photos and I hope the next post will be more positive. Thanks for the following and for hanging in there without any images.

A good day in Ethiopia

We spent the night rolling around listening to the hustle and bustle of Debre Sine and pressed ourselves together in the middle of the bed in the process of trying not to touch too many things in the room :o) We were then waken up by a knock on the door round about 4am to start morning prayers, but when Francois opened the door the watchman with his torch realised his mistake and smiled and we could squeeze in some more bed time. A bit groggy we went down for a nice omelette, but noticed that everybody around us looked tired too, here in Debre Sine they start early. After breakfast we went to the “office” to fetch our bikes and when we returned the friendly hotelier asked the same three guys (including the little boy) that helped us yesterday to help us with the luggage and within seconds all our stuff was downstairs – nice!

We packed up the mules with a crowd of people watching and trying to help us and once we embraced the crowd we actually started to have fun. We took out the camera to take some photos of the people and the little ones loved seeing the photos of themselves on the little screen of the camera.


 Soon after we left Debre Sine we started to look out for a place where we can get fuel. Most of the petrol stations did not have petrol and they told us to ask for Abraham about 25km further who will have some for us. So we continued stopping anywhere it looked like they got petrol asking for Abraham until we finally found some fuel at a shack next to the road and filled up for the road ahead.


The road to Woldiya was fantastic and the views breathtaking. Ethiopia is really beautiful. The people were friendly with some kids (and adults) getting a bit overly excited when they saw us. All the busses and taxis also waved as they went past us and some even made space for us to pass which we found quite extraordinary. There were also many many goats, donkeys and camels along the road so we had to concentrate quite a lot.


About 10km before reaching Woldiya rains started pouring down and we were soaking wet by the time we arrived at the Lal Hotel in town. The hotel is lovely, clean and we had a wonderful hot shower. The restaurant also serves good food and again we had too much food picking up all the weight we lost previously :o) Tomorrow we will be heading to Lalibela of which about 60km of the road there is gravel so hopefully with all the rain it will not be too muddy!

Beautiful road North of Addis

Our second night at Wim?s was a bit better, but the flea bites still had me up a large part of the night. Luckily the power and water was on, so we had a hot shower and cooked frankfurters for breakfast. After packing the mules we went searching for a working ATM, which we found easily enough after trying three. We then filled up Tania?s bike (mine we did the day before) and headed out of town. Addis is HUGE and there is a lot of development. New buildings are constructed (using cut trees as scaffolding) and the main road towards Lalibela is not on Tracks4Africa yet. We thus had to drive ?off road? on a new six lane tarmac road. Luckily the people in the city drive better than anywhere else we?ve experienced, but there are some mad intersections, where sometimes seven lanes each way (i.e. 14 lanes in total), meet without a traffic light. You just wait until somehow it?s time to go. Sometimes all four directions meet to create a deadlock. Then there?s reversing and confusion until the plug is out.

It was unfortunately impossible to film this, but here is a pic of the countryside. Most of the roads are brand new and there are still not nearly as many people as I imagined from the descriptions of others. We stopped here for a quick break and saw no one else.

 The rest of the way towards Debre Sina had us climbing up to an altitude of more than 3 100m. The Motomia's didn?t struggle nearly as much as I thought they might and our speed was mostly governed by the curved in the road and the people and animals, not the bikes being out of breath. At some stage we passed through Mussolini?s tunnel and I suddenly felt as if we might as well have been riding somewhere in Europe: Beautiful tarmac, riding on the wrong (right) side of road and empty field everywhere. If it weren?t for the kids and camels on the road around every tenth corner (not every 2nd or 3rd as I assumed it would be) this would have been the perfect road for a superbike.

We reached the small town of Debre Sina at around 15h00 and stopped at the Tinsae Hotel. Tania had this one place?s name from a guide book, but as soon as we stopped we were swarmed by people. An old lady started touching everything on my bike, looking for something she likes. Without even greeting us first. Then she started asking for money. It was frustrating and heart breaking at the same time. We decided to have a coffee across the street to decide what to do in peace.

Afterwards we rode through town (about 500m) and turned back to the only hotel in town. We attracted the same big crowd and a small boy asked if we want a bed. No English. I said we?re fine (mistrusting him) and headed in through the restaurant to try and shake him. He found me again and said: ?No, this way!? I followed him and watched the hotel manager and two ladies look for keys to room 208 in a big pile of keys. Then two friendly guys and the small boy helped us with our luggage without asking for anything. I quickly started to get a liking in the kid as he was so enthusiastic to help us. He then showed us to a gated premises down the street where we left the bikes for the night.

We spent the afternoon reading and writing and had a lovely supper of spaghetti and other unidentifiable (but enjoyable) stuff. Again it was amazing how cheap everything is. The room was less than R50 and the supper less than R30 (including a beer and a coke).

I am not going to say too much about the room, but it was a shocker!!!


 It doesn't look too bad at first, but the toilet stinks worse than an open drain and the geyser drips in the toilet, so you can't sit down. The mattress is rather tattered, but the walls are the worst. I don't even want to think what it was that they haven't washed off it for what must be years:

The battle of the fleas!

I felt so sorry for Francois last night! I think he managed to pick up a bunch of fleas at the scruffy Sheriff Hotel in Moyale a few days back as he woke up this morning and we counted more than 70 itching bites all over his body! He struggled and fought with the tiny buggers all night, when I figured that they must be hiding in his sleeping bag as we slept on two different beds in Moyale and I was flea-free. So in the middle of the night, we kicked his bedding out and shared mine and that seemed to help a little.

Thus, the mission for today: FUMIGATE! But unfortunately not an easy thing to find this in Addis Abeba and all we could find was insect killer spray for mosquitos and flies – eish! Back at Holland House we sprayed the tent and his sleeping bag, but I am still a bit hesitant to allow the sleeping bag to return to the tent so wish us luck for tonight :o)

While hunting for the fumigator we also bought some supplies. Amongst others we could not resist something for the sweet tooth and we left with the following bag of fizzers – which means we can each have one for the rest of the trip :o) hehe

We also did another oil change this afternoon and then headed off one more time to get some more anti-itching cream as ours are now pretty much depleted after the battle between Francois and the fleas last night. We got two different brands and will try both to see what works best. We also tried again to find a place where we can buy local sim cards, but it is really really impossible to find. So we will have to try our luck at Internet Café’s in the next few days.

Here is our camp while Francois is busy with the oil change:

Here at Wim’s Holland House we have met two American women that will be travelling South through the Omo Valley. We bought their Egyptian Lonely Planet Guide from them which will help us a lot in Egypt. Other than that there haven’t been any other travellers. Unfortunately the legendary Wim, the owner of Holland House, is in Holland at the moment for a back operation so we are sorry to have missed him. Here Francois is enjoying a beer in the bar:

Tomorrow we will start heading North towards Lalibela and we will take about two nights’ sleep to get there. And tonight I hope that the battle with the fleas are over, but we are going in with enough spray to at least shock the buggers into a light sleep – wish us luck!

Sunrise at Lake Langano

We went to be early last night as I didn’t feel too hot after taking my bilharzia pills with too little water. We discovered we did not have more than about a litre of water and there were no taps. Oops! Luckily we have a great late lunch next door earlier. As a result I woke up before sunrise and got up for some pics of the lake:


We couldn’t have asked for a better spot to pitch our tent:


We used the last bit of water for an early morning coffee, brewed in our open air kitchen at the edge of the lake:


Tania did the dishes:


The lakes are blessed with birdlife and we were treated to the calls of a pair of fish eagles:


This one shows how I just rode until the bike got stuck in the sand before pitching the tent right there:

Getting an early start:


After breaking up camp we headed back to Sabana Lodge for a huge buffet breakfast and headed further North towards Addis Abeba. The road was good, but as we approached the city the traffic became hectic and I ended having a huge headache upon arrival at Wim’s Holland House. Luckily the food here is amazing and we could use their USB modem and SIM to update the last few days’ missed posts (see under the relevant dates). Thanks for hanging in there!

We plan to stay for two days to sort out the internet, service the bikes, do some shopping and the washing if the sun is out.  Over and out.