The Hero's Return

By guest-writer Roger Drange

Well, I finally got my silky Norwegian body to Addis, to join Hans on his splendid adventure. I must say it has been a marvelous first week, and I am glad that my beloved Hans let me join him, me being such a lousy student and all.

I arrived on Wednesday the 5^th, and was very satisfied when my mentor, Hans, picked me up at the airport after that humpy bumpy flight. The flight was alright, except from that I was not allowed to go to the toilet to spread my water for three harsh hours because of terrible weather and turbulence and all. For those of you who know me, you surely understand that it is not “only only” (as we Norwegians put it) for me to sit several hours without letting out my water.

Me, Hans, and Klaus went on an expedition north to Lalibela from Friday to Monday. We saw a lot of crazy nature and buildings and people and animals and all.

The road we chose was kind of not the one that we wanted to choose, but after seeing the road we didn’t want to choose for some 150 km on gravel we kind of wanted to choose it anyway, so we chose it, and for that I am very glad. We made camp on the first night on 3500 meters above sea level, which was quite cold, but very beautiful. The valleys took the breath out of all of us.

We arrived in Lalibela on Sunday morning. Lalibela is well known for its rock-hewn churches, and I must admit that they were fascinating. The journey to Lalibela was even more fascinating, though. We didn’t stay in Lalibela, but had to head back towards Addis the same afternoon.

Before we left Lalibela, Hans got a phone call from his friend Jeremy (the one that he traveled through Sudan with). Jeremy had some major problems with his motorbike. We decided to be good Samaritans, and offered our help, and ended up with the motorbike (Africa Twin 800) inside Hans` lovely Wombosi, and transported the beautiful bike to Addis. Jeremy himself stayed up north, and will travel around for some more days before he comes to Addis to pick up – and fix – his bike.

We will now wait in Addis for some days, trying to get a visa for South Sudan. We hope that we will get out visas, so that we can visit this rather new country.

That is all for now. Do as we do, take care.

Afterword by Hans

It is indeed a pleasure to have Roger here with me, and our first expedition was very good. The nature in northern Ethiopia is grander than anything I have seen, probably with the exception of the Alps. It was also good to get some days traveling with daddy, having planned to have a lot more time together with him all the way from Khartoum to Addis.

 

Blogspot is blocked here in Ethiopia, so I cannot access my blog. This means that I will try to publish this post by sending an e-mail to my Blog. Having never done this, I don’t know how the post will look. I can’t answer your comments either, but look forward to read them as soon as I am in South-Sudan.

Wombosi has got himself a roof-rag, and if the Visa goes swiftly we’ll leave town next weekend.