Awash weekend

This update is two weeks late and many of you have already read Thea’s blog (normally a better and faster writer then me and describing the exact same trip), but thought I had to write something personal as well.

As Thea’s Ericsson trip to Dubai was cancelled and Femi had a slightly bad ending of his trip up north we decided it was a good idea to go out of Addis for the weekend and see something of Ethiopia.

[Femi lost his wallet in Gondar including his Dutch residence-permit, so spend 1 1/2 week going to the embassy every day to be able to fly back on the 28th]

Anyway, the road to Awash was of much better quality then we expected, although we did have to avoid hitting any people or animals that were crossing the road without having any clue what a car driving 100 km/h can do to you when it hits.

But the park was worth the ride and made you feel like a real safari (although there seem to be better parks, but to far for a weekend). I think we noticed around 15-20 different species including baboons, crocodiles, warthogs, turtles and different gazelle look-alikes.



But the most amazing was probably the picnic at the edge of the gorge and the swim in the hot springs. The last was around 37 Celsius and in the middle of an oasis making you feel you were swimming in a small paradise.



We spend the night in a hotel in the village of Awash, which claims to have hosted Charles de Gaulle and Emperor Haile Sellassie. This could easily be true, but then nothing has changed since. Nevertheless great beds and we needed those, because we were exhausted.

The next day we went back to Addis and tried to visit some sites where apparently there were hippos and another natural spring. The hippos didn’t come out in the day (which can not be said for the amount of tour guides harassing us) and the spring was turned into a commercial recreation centre.

But the monkeys, real cute ones not the big fat baboons, and the ice-cream made it into a successful day. With another amazing experience richer we arrived back in Addis Ababa where Femi had to hurry to catch his flight. But not without one last meal of Injerra (Ethiopian national dish).