Addis Abeba.
February 2012.
We head towards Arba Minch.
We cross the territory of several different tribes.
In the distance we see huge piles covered by plastics.
This is cotton that is stored before shipping.
There are cotton fields as far as we can see !
We finally reach the asphalt, but there is so much cattle on the road that we cannot drive faster than on the track !
Here the woman is the most popular means of transport.
Wood, straw, water: They carry everything.
When we see a man carrying something, we make jokes abount him being single or widowed !
The small market of Konso is very lively.
There are so many people that the children do not want to go out of the car.
Most of the things sold here are manufactured locally, even wheelbarrows made from wood !
These strange boxes in the trees are not birdtraps but beehives.
We pass a group of Dutch cyclists.
A Batavian tour operator organizes tours through Africa by bike.
12,000 km in four months for fifty pedal enthusiasts !
At the entrance of the villages, roads are flooded by pedestrians.
We have lunch in a small restaurant.
We are quickly surrounded by many curious who want to attend the lunch of the "Farang".
People often have to walk miles to fetch water and it is very crowded around the pumps.
Strange funerals !
Arriving in Addis, we go directly to Wim's Holland house.
This friendly Dutch set up a camp for overlanders near the old Djibouti-Ethiopia train station (in French in the text).
We had promised the children to have pizzas in Addis.
We will go back twice. Humm.
Wim's place is overcrowded.
We meet again the group of Polish guys we saw at Ngorongoro.
They travel through Africa with five cars.
We also meet Anita and Bernard, a very nice French couple.
And the most incredible of all:
Carlos, father and son, two Portuguese, who are travelling around Africa aboard an old Renault 4L !
They do not know much about mechanics and the 4L is seriously getting tired.