After our good bus karma in getting to Hawzen, we knew the trip to Aksum would not be as smooth. After 30 minutes on our second minibus (and our second argument about not paying for bags), we heard a faint hissing sound and pulled over. Yup, a flat tire. And nope, we did not have a spare. 

We soon joined the locals in the shade across the street while we waited to see what would happen. At first it seemed a spare would arrive from another minibus, but this did not happen. A few locals managed to jump on a passing bus that was already quite full, as we were of course in between towns, but with our backpacks still strapped to the roof of our stranded minibus, we were not getting on that.

After an hour or two, our driver flagged down a passing land cruiser who graciously strapped our bags onto the roof and found space for us at the back and gave us a ride to Aksum. Turns out they were computer science professors on their way back from a conference and a couple of them spoke good English and enquired about phd scholarships in Canada. They were nice enough even when we professed ignorance, of course, and soon enough we were in Aksum. We found a very cheap hotel as we had a nice one booked for the next couple of nights and couldn’t be bothered looking around for one night and set out in search of food. 

It was Christmas on our calendar, so we were hoping for a special meal, but ended up eating ful (a spicy bean dish) for both lunch and dinner, as it was all we could find. At least it’s good.

The next morning we parted ways with Calesta, who was on a faster track than us, switched hotels and met Marieke and Jon, who had just flown in from the UK, having attended a wedding there. 

We spent the next few days looking at various stellae or stelle and debating how to say each, singular and plural, and just who exactly Queen Sheba was. We also avoided the guides hanging out at all the historical sites, having been warned off by a local who called them “stellae dogs” that made up stories and didn’t really know anything anyway (like who Queen Sheba was) and our less than stellar experience with a guide in Hawzien. We did have a rather cute young guide for the lion, just outside of Aksum, where this 10 year old boy literally moved rocks out of our way. Unnecessarily, I might add. But still.

Stellae dogs aside, Aksum turned out to be probably the nicest city in Ethiopia, with lovely streets and good coffee shops, so it worked out we had 4 nights there. 

We also did a lot of planning for the Simiens, which I was determined to do without joining a tour. More on that later.