die Panne

Abari und Jambo Zusammen,

ethiopia is only 4 days ago but yet so far away to get my mind back to this amazing country. i'm in the upper hill campsite nairobi with the best meals since the invitation from ehab's mother in egypt. this town is a great place to stay and temperatures are on a cosy bases of about 25 to 28 deg C. it only rains at night and many interessting people can be met at the campsite.
however, not everything has gone right in the last weeks...

8. April 2004 Wondo Genet
After breakfast and picking up dave s visa, we took the road to south heading for shashemene. Following a landrover was getting a bit boaring,
so i drove a bit offroad to stay awake. We put up our tents at the hotel in wondo genet and took a bath in a pool fed by the hot springs. We were under a lucky star today, imagening that it was raining every day exept during this day. At the time we had everything set up and when we went to the pool it pured... But who cares, the spring water was too hot anyway and the rain cooled it down for an hour. As we had enough of swimming it stoped raining so we could get out and dry up. It was just too bad that my towel was wet because i definatly wanted a picture of us taking a rainy bath and protekting the camera. Trying to sleep was an easy task even though we hear a lot of unusual birds screaming through the night... much better then the dogs yauling in addis. The hotel looks great so far, but we’ll see in the morning where we really are.. 9. April 2004 Dinsho
The ressort hotel turned out to be a small paradise with trees, flowers, birds and monkeys which we were able to feed. Thinking 200km would be easy to drive in 4 hours, we took off at 11:30. My lucky star from yesterday disapeared and my fuel pump refused itts work somewhere on the road. Out of nowhere, 40 ethiopiens appeared and were not bothered enough from the puring rain to watch us repairing. We were really wet and cold, so we drank a coffee in davets car beeing watched by all those wet people outside. Never getting tired of "give me" they even ask for water in the puring rain... 10. April 2004 Dinsho
To save resources, we booked a seat in the "Dragoman" truck which had coinsedently the same goal to the 4300m point as we. Marcel & Vivian (swiss), Lisa (australian), Kathrine (uk) and Ian the truckdriver were the other passengers who expierencend the same bumpy boaring 4 hours trip. A highlight could be called By sitting on the roof of the truck and waving to the locals. The last meters were took by foot where we were glad to strech our legs on a, i would say, boaring landscape with wolfs and birds. The way back became a bit exiting as we could'nt stop on a muddy hill and when we helped a beer transporter back on the road (who obviously had the same problem). Back to the lodge, a group of italiens arrive and having beer after pasta with cheese and meat, it became a nice evening. 11. April 2004 Dinsho
Today s walk took about 7 hours through the bale mountains including the 2 hours rain on the way back. Our adventures tour was intererupted by beeing attacked by three dogs and beeing followed for a long time by some kids how live up hier. Of course the were "youyou"ts but we did actually find normal people in the mountains who didntt want money. they were just normal shy people living in the mountains. The wildlife wasn't too exiting exept of the nyalas which hide around the trees. A couple words to the rain... Itts incredible moving through rain without beeing bothered. I guess it's because it's not too cold and the wind is not too strong. Anyway, we were happy to move our bodys for a while, so driving tomorrow will probably be relaxed. 12. April 2004 Awassa
A cold rainy ride thruh mud and clouds took us down from the Bale mountains, back to Shashemene. From there on, sun was shining and because of the tarr dry roads the bike somehow grabbed me and i took off as speedy as could get. In awassa, i thought it would be a good idea to wait for dave. It took 10 minutes to suround 60 people around me and my AT. I must admit it was fun to go slowly forward and watch the croud follow me and it is remarkable that these guys don't get ashamed by my teasing (even though i coudn't hide my laughing). After 20 minutes i turned back to see what happend... But no dave in sight. It's hard to believe how we could lose each other on only one road, but we made it. After both of us checked in different hotels, we started looking for ourselves and after 3 to 4 hours we met...puhh. having a couple of beers on the shore of lake awasa was nice until we closed the day. 13. April 2004 Awassa
Since we lost a half day yesterday, we decided to do some maintenance and laundry this morning and stay another night in awassa. Internet is extremly slow so i managed to send two letters in two hours. Ian (truck driver with the lot we met in Dinsho) popped in the cafe and said hello. We all had lunch (burgers with egg) and went shopping to stock up our food reserves. Afterwards, it turned to be a lazy day and ended up with whiskey and coke in the evening, chatting. 14. April 2004 Arba Minch
Departing from awassa and our new friends, we took the road back to shashemene towards arba minch. On our way we had brunch in a small town in an empty restaurant.
After 3 minutes a croud of 85 poeple surounded our vehicles and by taking a seat at the restaraunt, the place filled magicaly. In time, you get used to these things and wonder why people get wipped away so soon by someone who thinks you want to be alone. moving further down the road we broke a record by 47 minutes until the first youyouts and givemets arrived at our afternoon break. These poor kids ran about 15km to beg and while we were about to leave as they arrived, they had to hurry up with begging and became a bit agressive out of breath. Somewhere on the road was our first washed away bridge, which was no challenge but exiting. The recommended hotel in arba minch was far to expensive so we put up our tents next door for half the preis and double the sight. A baboon shows up here and then at our tents. Tonight, Itm having my second flat tire. 15. April 2004 Arba Minch
Our new friend, the baboon, had together with us breakfast and decided to jerk off right in front of us while drinking coffee. What a pig! Heading for the crocodile farm, we took the road acording to the lonley planet book and some native directions, but no farm to see. Back to town, at several internet cafe s, but no connection. So we decided to go some offroad by the southern lake. As we reached the shore an armed local tried to chase us away but "sorry, only english" gave us a couple of minutes. That was the first time on the trip to see a croc in real envirement. The way back was full of baboons which we tried to get on the car, but no way, the boss of the gang wouldntt let the others to near. He himself was too scared. At all, not much was achieved today and even the campfire was on hold because of the rain in the evening. 16. April 2004 Arba Minch
The first half of the day was, more or less, pretty lazy because none of us slept very well due to rain and whiskey-cola. A boot trip to the crocodile market was great seeing these huge monsters on the lake. This was also the first time to see some hippos doing sommersalts in water. Right on the boot, we bought a fish for dinner which dave took out and grilled on the fantastic campfire we had the whole night enjoying this wonderfull sight of two lakes separatet by a mountain called gods gate 200m below us. 17. April 2004 somewhere by Jinka
The Omo valley is not really easy to reach during the rain, since all bridges seem to be washed away. However, I had a wonderfull time riding my AT with all my luggage in davets Landi (a half of a dream came true) and the deepest water was only knee-deep. The valley is a great place where everythingts geener then the rest of the country. The locals get taller and colourfuller. The females don't wear tops, so it's hard to keep my eyes on the road. because it was getting late, we decided to put up our tents somewhere out of town, which seems to be possible in this area. Where ever we stop, poeple come and suround us, but they dontt beg so much as elsewhere. All in all, it's gets better and better the more south we get. One man with a knife appears and sits on my chair for 3 hours... That was it! Tonight is a great night to watch the stars and enjoy the camping. 18. April 2004 Jinka
2 hours after takeoff, we reached the "Rocky Campsite" which is a nice quiet place. After lunch, a group of 20 year old girls arrived to get fotographed in the campsite.
As they left, another group arrived having a party with dance and beer. What a campsite! Soon you become an headache from ethiopian musik where itts hard to recognize any kind of melodie and we left for the next foto shooting. Later on, the dragoman truck (10. April) arrived and it was good to meet again. Our plans to pass lake turkana and be in nairobi by latest 1. May demands fuel for at least 700km and Jinka is the last fuelstop, so we filled all canisters. Because of an elektrizity fallout, I had to note the numbers on the pump... an half an hour later I remembered that I left my adressbook on the car roof! If you walk thru town with a torch, you get a lot of attention and soon, many people are with you. Quess who found the book... the guy from the station and his 4 friends wanted to have a fee for finding it.
I ripped the book out of his hands, offered the finder some birrs and argued with the others that I'm not paying the whole town when one asshole lets me search for an hour to raise the prize.19. April 2004 Omorati
After all the beer we had together with the "dragoman" guys, we got away from jinka a bit later as planned. The shortcut- "road" to Turmi turned to be a great fun to ride...
I really enjoyed the ups and downs, passing crates, huge rocks, and everywhere were interesting tribes to see. Somewhere down the path a whole group of red painted, almost nacked, dancing women surrounded davets car and with my zoom camera i made pictures in a distance, not affending the croud. In Turmi was market and loads of people dressed and painted in their tribe ways were ready for pictures against one Birr each. I was able to deal with one of the 30 guys around my bike saying: I take you for a ride and you take pictures around town. When we left Turmi, everybody was happy with a long lasting memory of the day. The road to Kelem was good for 80km/h passing one huge ant-hill after another. The hotels in Kalem are not really worth beeing called hotels,
but on the other side of the road we were able to put up the tents at the police office for 0birr and peace and quiet. On this evening, drinking beer on the ground, we spotted our first scorpion. From now on, we use chairs and wear boots! 20. April 2004 shortly bevore Kenya
After a short episode of Dave giving a boy his old t-shirt, we left Kelem passing the imigration office to get our stamps for passport and Carnet. Passport stamps are no problem, even though my visa ran out 3 days ago, but they wanted to send us to Arba Minch for the Carnet. The path to lake turkana is sandy and dirty with thornbushes to each side. If itts dry you can get thru, but reaching the wet areas you dig yourself in deep mud and get stuck very easy. It came the way it had to come... my clutch refused its job at one point and the the way passing turkana was no longer possible. (my clutch warned me in sudan already, but no parts were available ttil now). Using davets shovel, I freed my bike back to ground and with the sight of no telephone or internet within a circle of 500km I started to disassemble my gearbox. We managed to get out of the riverbed (if it rains at night, wetll have a bigger problem) and put up the tents where we were. Every once in a while, people from near tribes arrive and want food, water or whatever.... At night, massiv lightning and rain appears all around us and with the thought of beeing the highest spot around, we removed all burnable liquids from the car and grounded it as far as possible with sandladders. However, the wind pushed the storm away from us and nothing happend... puhh! 21. April 2004 somewhere behind Turmi
I somehow managed to get my clutch working in the first gear with the goal to reach the "fast road" between Kelem and Turmi, hoping to find a truck to pick me up. It worked better than I thought and we were able to pass the sandy, muddy road and made it even to pass Turmi. Lucky for us, since not one truck passed! A washed away bridge took us down to a riverbed which was a nice place to put up a tent. During the evening a couple of lonely locals popped up and I was able to change a raserblade against a neclace. It was fascinating, watching one of these guys smoking a overreached cigarette (wait for the movie I made!) 22. April 2004 Konso
Another fantastic sunrise, between the mountains and above the riverbed, opened the day. Our first visitor today came just after breakfast and we left pretty early to find the road. My clutch went worse by every hill an after 20km, no connection at all. Beeing towed with a long rope is not too difficult as long as you move uphill. However, downhill gets pretty stressi and luckely, after another 10km I managed to stop the first truck of today. A very big truck with non-removable sides and no high trees in sight (for the windge) seemed to be hard to tackle, but with help of the croud (that always appears from nowhere) and with getting all plastic parts broken, we pushed my AT over the edge and the last 40km to konso were safe. A windge on a tree, pulling a motorbike off a truck is an attraction which will probably stay for a long time in everybodyts memory. The "green hotel" seemed to be alright, so we booked ourselves for two nights. Tibbs and beer were ok and we closed the day. 23. April 2004 Konso
Going thru all different options we could think of, like leaving the bike in konso, putting the bike on a truck to nairobi (getting prices is an adventure on ist own), take a bus to addis, return and stay in jinka until the post way may work,... Dave offered to put the bike in his landrover. 400kg (myself included) additionally is not possible for offroad terrain, so all liquids (300kg) had to be ditched and without any reserves, we cantt take the lake turkana road. time is also running out since our visiters will be in nairobi by 2nd may, so we decided to take the fast smooth road thru moyale. After getting all packed, we spent the rest of the day with laundry, coffee and cooking.24. April 2004 behind Mega
The first day traveling in a Landy was quite pleasant and comfi. Nothing really exiting happend today exept maybe that we almost got stuck in deep mud. I was glad we decided to turn back and looked for another road to yavelo instead of digging around in mud for four hours. Maybe another note... Somewhere down the road this crazy guy was getting in our faces and thru a stone against the car. By the time we stoped and got out, he was running for his life... He was cirtainaly better off doing so!!A wild camp somewhere off the road was quite good and because of the loud musik (tom lee hooker... mp3-player in the car) some locals arrived after a while.25. April 2004 Marsabit
The border to Kenya was reached very quickly and the customs officer cooperated well even thou itts sunday. Bye bye ethiopia. I will never forget this country...
On the other side, we checked in our passports and carnets and the officers claimed that the road would be safe to marsabit without any escort. 2 hours was said to marsabit... we took 7 hours on the most horrible road yet. Mud, holes, rocks and 100km nothing but flatland of rocks and grass. Now I know how a Martini-wodka feels... shaked, not stired. Dave s moaning about the weight of his Landy increases with every bigger bump we take. Against all travel laws, we reached the "JJ Center Hotel" in Marsabit at night. The first time you become a meal served with fork, nife and serviette after 38 days seems a bit bizarr and you cantt stop looking at the ketchup bottle on the table next to the toothpicks... civilisation at last!... no onets looking at your plate or sitting near you like a dog waiting for a drop of bones. 26. April 2004 Marsabit
After a good nights sleep and a huge breakfast we changed money and found an internet connection, which was extremly slow and I managed to write one mail within 3 and a half hours. Because it became too late for the road, we decided to stay another night and visited the nearby crate.
That’s about it for today...