After Marieke and Jon left for Lalibela on their very early bus, Cheryl and I had a lazy morning, enjoying the superb buffet breakfast at our hotel and got a free ride to the airport with their airport shuttle at…
How to Hike the Simien Mountains Independently- and Save (Some) Money
I was determined to do the Simien Mountains without joining a tour. Partly because I knew it would be cheaper, particularly for a group, and partly because most people joined a tour, so I wanted to buck the trend. The…
Nearing a boiling point- Navigating the Simien Mountains
Simiens Post 1 of 2- Guest post by Cheryl Williams Of all the planning, researching and discussion we’d had about Ethiopia for the past number of months, the thing we probably focused the most on was hiking in the Simien…
Avoiding the stellae dogs of Aksum
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…
The Hassles of Hawzen
I had been warned that Ethiopia was a bit of a hassle. But I also figured that I had just spent months traveling around Africa, and so would be fairly prepared. This experience helped, but it also meant I was…
Danakil Depression- the most inhospitable place on earth, apparently.
Guest post by Cheryl Williams We started our journey at 8am from Lalibela, being picked up by an empty Land Cruiser. Within a few minutes we’d picked up a couple from Peru and a woman from Singapore. Steph had negotiated…
The rock churches of Lalibela, Ethiopia
Guest post by Cheryl Williams I got to Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, the night before Steph. Steph was coming from Kenya. When she arrived at the airport I was there with the hotel transport to pick her up.…
Finally, the end of rainy season- Kisumu, Kenya
After two matutu (minibus), one boda boda (motorbike), and another matutu ride, 7 hours after I left Mbale, I arrived in Kisumu. I walked to the de-facto hostel which was really a hotel that was reasonably priced, in a good…
Sipi Falls and Mbale
After a week in Jinja, I was rested and recovered and ready to move on. Of course, a 3 hour road journey ended up taking 7, but I arrived in Sipi Falls before dark, giving me time to set up…
Jinja- source of the Nile
Jinja is Uganda’s third largest city, but after Kampala, felt really small. Which was kind of nice, particularly for running errands. In Kampala, we had struggled to do errands (other than the great thrift shopping), but here we easily found…