The bikes would stay wherever our time run out and wait until the next year when we can go back and continue, hopefully around the world. The plan for the time we had left in Ethiopia was to travel with Martijn and Wibien to Lake Tana and Lalibela. From there we would head back to Addis, store our bikes and fly back home. The VW with Martijn and Wibien will go on to Sudan.
Instead we found ourselves enervated filled to the brim with Addis petrol, sitting in the grounds of a monastery with the carburettor of the VW in pieces spread all over my ground sheet trying to figure out how this ‘Gynaecologist’ could fix this girl.
Our first thoughts were to arrange to sleep over as it was already late afternoon, but after lots of fluttering hand signals, rapid eye movements and broken English, which achieved fuck all, the agelast monsignor demanded 5-star money from us to camp, without any water or facilities in his monastery grounds.
No Samaritans or Philanthropist on this holy ground. By that time I figured out the carburettor needle was not working properly and stuck open thus flooding the carburettor it was late in the afternoon. With the best fix-all tool in the world, a hammer, I gave it a quick whack and off we went back to Wim’s Holland safe house.
The next day a local VW mechanic tried a cheap fix and off we went again waving to Wim and his wife, they return the wave and with huge smirks knowing we will be back.
“The record of travellers leaving and coming back is 5 times see if you can beat that!”, they scream at us as we set off.
Fuck! Addis and Wim’ spell was still with us and 60km out of Addis the VW said no more quick cheap fixes!
It must be the StGeorge beers or Voodoo. Back to Addis, this time we went and bought a proper brand new pirated part. In Ethiopia, there still are a huge following of VW aficionados. Parts are still readily available and in plentiful supply for any VW irrespective of age. Thick dust layered genuine pirate parts presented in the original boxes.
On our way to Lake Tana, the tortuous road meander through the most amazing and beautiful gorge forming part of the Blue Nile. The small towns we passed en route were alive with vocal rowdy locals happily buzzing away with their daily routines and friendly waves.
Every now and then, we hear the now familiar screams “gimme money gimme money”. That is the curse of the failed Western Aid programs and non-sensible travellers.
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Supercool to have a report from so far away. The slideshow is lekker.
Holy smoke, but you are so blessed to experience so much of Ethiopia. The good lord works in mysterious ways !!!!