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Well, three months ago today I headed out to Brisbane International Airport, jumped on a plane, and headed off into the wild blue yonder. Well, it hasn't really been terribly wild so far. And it's really only been blue for about half the time. It was definately yonder though. That means I'm about a quarter of the way through my time here. It really has gone quickly. Anyway, on with the newsletter...
Three weekends ago (circa October 10th) I finally (after being here for about two months) got to see some of the Ethiopian countryside outside of Addis Ababa. About a dozen of us piled into a van (including the Hicks' and Anne Hutton) and headed south. The drive down was full of beautiful landscapes, interesting sights, occasional traffic jams, and local buildings, and took about 6 hours. That's a long time to be cramped into a small space like that, even with breaks along the way. Near the end we stopped and picked up our guide, who lead us to the place where we would switch to horseback. Eventually.
When we got to the location, we all unloaded and repacked our bags so they could be transferred to the pack horses. All was going well up until the point when we were ready to depart. At which point the discovery was made that there were only 3 other horses. For 11 people. Hmm...
About an hour later they had rounded up (quite literally) enough horses for us all and we were off. As some of you know, I had never ridden a horse before. But so that you don't get too concerned, I didn't fall off at all on the way up the mountain. It was quite fun actually. Apart from the fact that I couldn't quite fit my foot into the left stirup, and that my saddle kept slipping, it was fairly comfortable. Definately better than walking. My noble steed (whom I dubbed 'Binky') did a better job than a lot of the horses of avoiding smacking my legs and other body parts into nearby stationary objects (trees, for example).
About three hours later we reached the summit. By then it was about 7PM, and, as a result, quite dark. We all dismounted, rugged up, and tried to regain contact with body parts long lost to feeling. David and Sylvia Hicks, along with Anne Hutton got about cooking dinner and in no time we had lamb stir-fry, ready to consume. Yum!
The next day, we got to sleep in a bit (8:30! Way better than 5:30 the day before). Upon getting up, we discovered a clear blue sky day, giving a great view of everything around. After a bit of breakfast, packing up the bags tents, and reloading the horses, it was time to head back down the mountain. I managed to arrange a saddle exchange, so this time it was my right foot that didn't quite fit in the stirup. It was way better than the other one though. And I only came off once. We even galloped in several places, which was made all the more thrilling by never being sure if your saddle would stay attached to the horse it was on. David Hicks' saddle actually came off right near the end. A long drive later we finally made it back to Bingham on Sunday evening.
But my journeys out of Addis were just beginning. Stay tuned for the next exciting episode: David hangs around with 7th and 8th graders near a lake.
Director's Commentary
- Addis Ababa literally means "New Flower", which gives a somewhat more picturesque image of the city than reality presents. Back to the story
- Apparently there had been a miscommunication about the number of steeds we would require. David Hicks had asked in advance for 11 horses, 3 of which were bigger. Somehow, the part about 11 in total got lost in the translation. Back to the story
- All Terry Pratchett fans out there, the answer to your question is "yes". Back to the story
- Ok, here's how it happened. We were riding through a well worn path at the time, so the ground was about 5cm below my stirups. Stephanie Hicks had lost her hat along the way, so I had a momentary lapse in good judgement thought I'd pick it up for her. Without getting off. About three-quarters of the way down the saddle slipped, and I took a short trip to ground level. I got the hat though. Back to the story
- One thing which made the drive home a little more exciting (other than the bumps/gaping holes in the road, of course) was not quite being sure whether we'd run out of fuel on the way home. We had less than a quarter of a tank of fuel for the return journey, and the discovery that the local petrol station was out of diesel was not a welcome one. The only other option there was to buy individual 1 litre cans for 20 birr (about AU$4.00). Dave Hicks wasn't impressed with that, so we headed off, hoping to find a place further down the road. Two petrol-stationless towns later, David stopped and asked a local if there was anywhere we could get fuel. He jumped in and led us to a small store that (thankfully) had what we needed - at only 3.85 birr (about 60c) per litre. While we refueled, pretty much the whole town gathered around the van and looked at us. I hope we were entertaining... Back to the story
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