My last day in Kenya turned out to be an extremely long day...
Last day in the office
I ended my fellowship at Kiva with the Kenyan traditional cake feeding procedure. One of my colleagues birthday coincided with my last day in the office. So I got a typical coffee cake with cookie monster blue colored frosting. Not the most delicious cake but definitely more fun! Pascalia, one of the Kiva Zip full-time staff had brought her son to work. Cutest kid ever! So energetic! The office was continuously filled with laughter. Especially when it was Warren's turn to get cake. We headed out to a fancy hotel right next to Nairobi National Park to get some cocktails overlooking jumping buffaloes. Afterwards, I sent the last e-mails before a week offline and had to pack up my stuff from three month in Kenya.
Nairobi Airport...freezing cold after burning down
Nairobi's international airport got destroyed by a huge fire just a week ago and all the operations got shifted to the domestic airport which obviously hasn't the same capacity and security requirement which requires the arrive three hours in advance. So we stayed up all night, got picked up by my fabulous driver Saidi around 2am. At the airport there was some issue with my ticked which I had changed earlier to an week-long layover in Addis Ababa. While I was bargaining with the Ethiopian Airlines manager I learned about how challenging the Airport situation is for all the employees. Every passenger needs to checked twice, much of the operation takes place outside in the freezing Nairobi cold and it requires a lot of overtime. Flight went well, we arrived in Addis almost on time.
A fancy welcome in Addis Ababa
We headed out, directly found a Sheraton counter and got offered a free ride! Why not? I had arranged in advance that I could store my big suitcase there since we are planning to stay there for the last night of the trip.
Lost in translation I/II
At the Sheraton the very professional but slightly arrogant concierge helped us with arranging transportation to Gheralta Lodge where we wanted to stay outside of Mekele to start trekking Tigray. First real challenge... The driver didn't speak English. Unfortunately he also didn't speak Ameheric, Ethiopian's main language. After some back and forth with involving staff from both hotels we found out that we were discussing pickup from Axum. Not quite right since we wanted to fly to Mekele. So starting all over, new city, new driver.
Tesfa - a wonderful tour company
From our stop at the Sheraton we wanted to head out to meet Tesfa the tour company. Got a cab called, bit pricey 200 birr and it turned out to be a black big shiny Mercedes. Great car to drive around a country which ranks 176 out of 184 in the Development Index...next ride would be in another car...
We arranged our trip with Mark and his lovely team over the first taste of delicious Ethiopian coffee. Three days hiking in the Gheralta Mountains with stays in local communities and a scenic ride to Lalibela was our choice.
We hadn't had enough cash to pay directly so Mark recommended to go to the Hilton hotel to withdraw money. And that was the beginning of more hilarious taxi experiences. The first ride was in an at least 30 years old Lada with an about 90 years old driver who was extremely slow and would just honk (instead of drive) to get through a roundabout. But the ride was 50 birr only - at least something. On the return trip we met Farsi who seemed to be more Italian than Ethiopian with all his passion. Initially passionate about the price we would pay him but eventually about Ethiopian's historic treasures and German tourists.
Some more trouble
Before we returned to the airport we stopped at The Lime Tree a nice expat restaurant with fresh lunch options and free wifi. Unfortunately, the first email I downloaded was from Expedia. My flight to Germany got cancelled! What??? Totally shocked I called Expedia over Skype. Couldn't resolve it because the connection broke off...terrific.
Off into the wild
Next stop Addis Airport again. After long nervous minutes the airport staff confirmed that the flight was actually ok and not cancelled. What a relive! We got through security to our gate for the flight to Mekele.
Missed flight?
While waiting at the gate we weren't really able to understand the announcements. So I walked up to the staff 3 times to ask whether we are boarding. "Not yet, soon".... A bit later we look at the screen with the flight status. "Mekele - departed" what??? There was also another Mekele flight 2 hours later, so did the Ethiopian rep mean that we are not yet boarding for the next one?? But it turned out that it was another system error and the plane was actually still on the ground. Phew! Yeah, and being totally exhausted after a night without sleep might make you experience for emotional up and downs probably a little stronger.
Wrong airport?
We got on the plane, I loved that I had a window seat and spent the flight enjoying Ethiopian's landscape. Everything is lush and green and there was a big lake shortly before we started going down. Interesting, I had envisioned the Tigray as quite dry and mountainous and hadn't heard about a big lake close by... And the airport sign says Gondar for some reason. Weird. However, the stewardess welcomes us to Mekele airport so everything seems fine. But no. Everyone on the plane looked around a little puzzled. It turned out that the plane needed some spare part before we could continue to Mekele. I was pleased though because Gondar to Mekele means flying across the beautiful Simien Mountains. I was even convinced to identify Abi Adi and the Abuna Yussuf, a stone church build in a tall steep wall.
In Mekele we wanted to achieve three things: getting cash, buying a ticket for Lalibela to Addis and finding our driver. Sounds straightforward but by now not surprising anymore that it would be very challenging. We couldn't find an ATM, Ethiopian Airline's system was down and no person was holding a sign saying "Nora" or "Gheralta Lodge".
Lost in translation II/II
After half an hour the security told me that there was a minibus waiting outside for us...Father and son with a bus. We just called it the Porno Bus. Dark red curtains, pink fur carpet and loud, Ethiopian music. No English, extremely slow driving, not very fast person in general. The small boy had to manage everything. Putting on the father's seat-belt, picking up the phone and getting under the car to exchange a part. Yes - we stopped to get the car fixed. We were very unsure whether we were in the right place, especially because Gheralta seemed to be a famous very professional place.
We continued our ride and it was very very interesting. We continued very slowly, always driving on the left side - and no, Ethiopia is not a former British colony where this is normal. But when a car was coming from the other direction he pulled all the way over to the right. Since we were in a mountainous area there often were steep rock walls along the road. Very tense moments....at some point we actually hit some rocks at the right side! My friend who was sleeping in the back fell off the bench and from then on the drive was accompanied by a very strange sound of metal clanging to the tarmac... But everything was ok apart from that. Thanks to the Chinese, the streets are fairly well maintained and we soon passed all the cities we were supposed to pass on the way.
Once I asked where we were and the driver said Hawzien. I got very excited that we would get to the lodge a little earlier then expected because Gheralta is just outside Hawzien. But I should have remembered that he didn't understand English...a looong wait started. After 20 min it was clear that it must have been way before Hawzien and that it at least would be another hour. So disappointing.
A last shock
By that time it was pitch-black outside and got increasingly scarier because there was just nothing except for an extremely muddy road with great potential to get stuck (hello rainy season). No houses around. After about 40 minutes cars passed by and stopped. What now? The people in the other car started shouting at our driver. Slight arousal of nervousness and alert. Are these guys Eritrean kidnappers? We were less than 80km away from the war-torn border with Eritrea and had not yet considered that possibility....thanks, fantasy, doing great.
And arrived
The Eritrean kidnappers actually were staff sent by the lodge to look for us because we were so late. After a while we finally arrived! Beautiful setting. We had a delicious Italian-inspired dinner and spent the night in an extremely stylish cottage. And the next day was enchanting. We got picked up by our lovely female guide who was about our age and headed out to our memorable hike through the Ethiopian Tigray...
