Flew Ethiopian Airlines to Addis Ababa from Joburg with Eugene on Friday 19th October. We were on our way to visit Pat, Eugene's Mother, and Les who had both been working on contract in Addis for the past year.
Despite being at the airport early we almost missed the plane when Eugene fell asleep on the loo close to the boarding gates. Luckily he woke in time to hear the final call.
The flight was five and a half hours long and Ethiopia is an hour ahead in time so we arrived at just before 21h30. Les and Pat met us in one of the project bakkies and we were at their house in less than 10 minutes as it is in the sub city of Bole which is close to the airport.
The house is 3 storeys high with a lounge on the ground floor which has a sloping wooden ceiling up to the 3rd floor.
The following morning we were up on the 3rd floor balcony next to the office admiring the view. The bird life is abundant and several yellow billed kites roost in the trees close by.
A strange mixture of old and new....
There are many new buildings being constructed in the city and in the outskirts. Scaffolding is made from eucalyptus poles and reminded me of the bamboo scaffold in Hong Kong.
Les had arranged to play golf with myself and Eugene at the British Embassy on Saturday morning so we were up early. We borrowed a set of clubs from Les' friend, Guy and were joined by a 4th player,Hope. Pat walked around with us. The course has 6 holes and we did 3 laps. 2 large tortoises frequented the 5th hole and only moved on our 3rd visit. We were not allowed to take cameras into the Embassy so no pictures of the course.
Afterwards Les stayed on for the members' competition in the afternoon and we were driven by Mulugeta to a modern restaurant called "Cup Cake Delights" for a spot of lunch. Afterwards we searched in vain for Eugene to buy a pair of shorts as he had accidentally left all of his back home. Many of the shops seem to be housed in tin sheds along the sides of the roads, especially in the rural areas. The front opens up fully to display the goods which range in diversity from clothing through fruit and vegetables to electrical and plumbing supplies. The most spectacular sights in my opinion being the hanging bunches of bananas and the sloping banks of shoes.
In the market or Merkato, in Addis,some of the shops are housed in halls. Shopping malls are the exception but during our stay we visited the Friendship Mall in Bole road and Bambi's supermarket in Jomo Kenyatta Street.
On Saturday evening Guy and Robin came around for Shepherd's Pie and a bit of soccer watching on the TV. DSTV is available via satellite.
On Sunday we were joining a birdwatching trip and had to be at the Hilton Hotel by 6h20 to meet the minibus and guide. Close to the Hilton is the National Palace standing in its extensive treed grounds. In places athletes were making use of pavement edges as steps for exercising.
About 20 foreign expatriates went on the trip and we started off by heading south west of Addis to the Menagesha Forest national park, Holeta and the Gerfersa Reservoir.
It was interesting to drive through the outskirts of the city and into the countryside. In the city there are many signs of rapid development, high rises, double roads and banks of pale yellow condominiums, which are replacing informal dwellings. Later in the week when we flew to Gondar I took an aerial photo of them.
The startling white of the new offices of African Union and its spectacular conference centre contrast with the rows of corrugated iron shops, mules carrying fodder and the numerous taxis, mainly dilapidated.
There are 3 main types of taxis but they are all painted bright blue and white. The largest are the fixed route minibus taxis, then the many saloon cars, commonly Ladas, down to the smallest which are three wheeled covered tricycles named Bajaj.
On one dual carriageway over 130 brand new trucks were parked in the central reservation waiting to be deployed to various road building projects.
Once out of the city we turned off on a sand road which passed through fields of wheat interspersed with neat rectangular dwellings made from compacted mud and straw.
The forest has many tall juniper trees making birding quite tricky. We saw many birds which are similar to the ones back in South Africa such as orioles, starlings and pigeons. The Hampoichs hornbill was a bit different and we were lucky enough to spot black and white colobus monkeys.
We also noticed leopard tracks in the mud.
After walking for a couple of hours Pam,the tour organizer, set up a picnic lunch for us under the trees.
At the reservoir we wandered down to the banks and spotted blue winged geese, pelicans, ruffs and wood sandpipers.
Les, Pat and Eugene at the reservoir.
We nicknamed him "The Grim Reaper"
We stopped for coffee in Holeta and our minibus had a small contretemps with a guard hut at the exit from the hotel car park.
Location:Rwanda St,Addis Ababa,Ethiopia
