Awash is a city, in the Afar Region. It is not too terribly far from Adama, and Awassa. And yes, I think everything in that area starts with A.
It is a five hour drive from Addis, if the traffic is reasonable, and is down out of the mountains a bit. It is also much, much warmer than it is up here in Addis.
Next time I go to Awash, I am not wearing black sweat pants.
I will wear a skirt.
And a nice blousy shirt.
And sunscreen.
Possibly even a hat.
We went there and back today, and spent around 10 hours in the van. It was interesting countryside though, more what people think of when they visualize Ethiopia; dusty, rocky, covered in scrub and accacia trees. The road construction may not immediately spring to mind, but it is also dusty and rocky, so it's not too hard a stretch of the imagination.
To get to Awash, we go through an area that is covered in old volcanic rock. Lots of extremely bumpy, rough, and porous black rock was piled everywhere, in the same places it has lain for who knows how many hundred years since the volcano erupted.
There is no volcano anymore. It's a crater. A crater with a road through the middle. A crater that is slowly but surely filling with water, and that road is nearly submerged now. It used to be quite high up!
This is one of the major reasons for all the road construction.
There is a rail road that threads it's way through this area as well, and also crosses the growing lake. There aren't any trains running on it anymore. You can tell, because where it crosses the pavement it has been paved over, and because the people in nearby towns use it as a convenient place to dry large pieces of laundry.
You don't realize that you are in the mountains when you are in Addis. You have to leave the city to be able to see them. They are not at all like the Rocky Mountains back home. They are smaller, closer, and softer. They are old and worn, and look like they've been smoothed over with loving hand. Or washed partially away with the rain. Or both.
The scrub and the rounded tops of the mountains hide a much rougher inside though. If you try to cut into it, the rock is just as rocky and hard as any granite in BC. Construction of any kind is always identifiable by the piles of rock chunks of every shape and size surrounding the area being worked on.
We also passed by a National Park, and saw some baboons keeping watch at the gate. And several herds of camels grazing on the treetops that the cattle and goats can't reach.
We also saw a hyena - but it wasn't as nice to look at. It was roadkill. Ick.
And now I am back in Addis, at my lovely and cool guesthouse room. And I think I need a shower to wash off the film of diesel exhaust that you simply cannot escape when you share the road with big rigs in Ethiopia.
Ciao!
It is a five hour drive from Addis, if the traffic is reasonable, and is down out of the mountains a bit. It is also much, much warmer than it is up here in Addis.
Next time I go to Awash, I am not wearing black sweat pants.
I will wear a skirt.
And a nice blousy shirt.
And sunscreen.
Possibly even a hat.
We went there and back today, and spent around 10 hours in the van. It was interesting countryside though, more what people think of when they visualize Ethiopia; dusty, rocky, covered in scrub and accacia trees. The road construction may not immediately spring to mind, but it is also dusty and rocky, so it's not too hard a stretch of the imagination.
To get to Awash, we go through an area that is covered in old volcanic rock. Lots of extremely bumpy, rough, and porous black rock was piled everywhere, in the same places it has lain for who knows how many hundred years since the volcano erupted.
There is no volcano anymore. It's a crater. A crater with a road through the middle. A crater that is slowly but surely filling with water, and that road is nearly submerged now. It used to be quite high up!
This is one of the major reasons for all the road construction.
There is a rail road that threads it's way through this area as well, and also crosses the growing lake. There aren't any trains running on it anymore. You can tell, because where it crosses the pavement it has been paved over, and because the people in nearby towns use it as a convenient place to dry large pieces of laundry.
You don't realize that you are in the mountains when you are in Addis. You have to leave the city to be able to see them. They are not at all like the Rocky Mountains back home. They are smaller, closer, and softer. They are old and worn, and look like they've been smoothed over with loving hand. Or washed partially away with the rain. Or both.
The scrub and the rounded tops of the mountains hide a much rougher inside though. If you try to cut into it, the rock is just as rocky and hard as any granite in BC. Construction of any kind is always identifiable by the piles of rock chunks of every shape and size surrounding the area being worked on.
We also passed by a National Park, and saw some baboons keeping watch at the gate. And several herds of camels grazing on the treetops that the cattle and goats can't reach.
We also saw a hyena - but it wasn't as nice to look at. It was roadkill. Ick.
And now I am back in Addis, at my lovely and cool guesthouse room. And I think I need a shower to wash off the film of diesel exhaust that you simply cannot escape when you share the road with big rigs in Ethiopia.
Ciao!
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