Learning to Fly

Ajajaj, look at the wheels

After almost five hours we prepared for a last try

Filling water

Ethiopian forest after Mizan-Teferi

John, one of the two soldiers who joined from Boma to Juba

Last camping in Ethiopia, 30 km. from the border

A church in South-Sudan, early morning

Roger

Wombosi at dusk

Sunset in Ethiopia

Kapoeta 22.01.2012

This extended week has been so full of adventure that it is hard to begin telling anything. It has been filled with many hours in a car with partly working breaks on nonexistent roads, being the first tourist crossing the border at Raad between Ethiopia and South-Sudan ever (according to the local authorities) and the fist car to cross a 95 kilometer long stretch of “road” since July. It has been a lot of car and driving, but it has also been meeting the South-Sudanese people, that are truly amazing.

Filling Diesel

To start at the start: We left Addis when all the preparations were taken with high hopes. Already after half a day a diesel-tube in the engine broke. We managed to fix the tube alright, but it had spilled diesel on the master-cylinder of the breaks, and ruined the brake servo. We had to do our customs in Jimma, over 400 km. before the border. This went smoothly on Monday.

Tuesday we wanted to get all the way to Sudan, but when the servo broke again between Mizan-Teferi and Dimma, that plan was spoiled. I fixed the problem while Roger hitched to Dimma and came back with transmission/servo-fluid 4 hours later.

The next morning we came to the border at Raad. The road from Mizan to Raad is good gravel all the way now. The Border was OK. The Ethiopians were not very friendly, but let us pass after some inspection (even if the customs were finished). The South-Sudanese were a complete contrast. They were super-friendly, asked us to sit down and really helped us. We couldn’t get an entry stamp at the border, but they radioed the next town, Boma, so they knew we would be coming, and would give us the stamp we needed.

The following 95 km- were a big adventure. The road was not driven for half a year, and the grass was three meters high so it was a blessing that we had a local soldier with us. The vehicle that had moved there last were huge trucks that had left deep tracks our “small” Wombosi couldn’t drive in. It is unnecessary to say that we got stuck plenty of times. Thursday morning we used five hours to cross a small river, and both we and Wombosi were very tired when we finally reached Boma that evening.

In Boma we met a man working for Joint Aid Management (JAM) who offered us to camp on JAMs compound. Friday we got our stamp and used the rest of the day to clean and repair Wombosi who had suffered damage on the track rod (steering) and the track-rod protection was broken. He also had some minor damage on his brakes. That night we met a lady from New-Zeeland working for the UN, who offered us to stay at here place in Juba when we got there, so now we are heading there to try our luck as street-musicians in the world’s youngest capital.

The track from Boma to Kapoeta has taken us one and a half day, heavily bending the track-rod one more time, sleeping in a church compound, driving through a lake with water to the bonnet, eating biscuits to lunch (the rest of our bread being rotten) and, believe it or not, meeting some young Norwegians working for the Peace Corps in the area. This time we took two soldiers who wanted a lift to Juba.

It’s been a very fascinating week. I would not recommend this route to other quite yet, unless they are hardcore and have luck as we had, but in some years the roads will be much better and the route will be a good alternative to the typical Moyale route. Huge thanks for making it goes to Roger who has proved physically strong and maybe more importantly mentally positive when I had my moments when things looked really black. We wouldn’t have made it without the good help we have gotten from our South-Sudanese friends either, who really have helped us out, even if we had no Sudanese pounds to pay them.

South-Sudan is a hot country with bad roads, but a very colorful people with the decorations and bare breasts that have made south-west Ethiopia so famous. It’s hard to imagine that this country has been through the longest lasting civil war in African history, and still continue fighting their neighbors in the north and among themselves. They have an incredibly ability to show love and happiness towards us strangers. I really wish this young country all the best and many years of peace and prosperity.

For your orientation

Juba 23.01.2012

The last stage to Juba went well this morning. The afternoon, we spent earning some money playing music. We got 38 South-Sudanese pounds (ca 10 USD) in two hours, and were very happy with that. We’ll stay here tomorrow, and then head towards Kampala, were we hope to spend some more time.