A year ago - Ethiopia

It's Gabriel's Day and for almost half of Ethiopia's population this means a day at church, and a holiday for everyone. It was an amazing thing to witness.



At the entrance to a church, crowds wax and wane


The grass is sold to be laid inside the house to freshen it and also in some way to mark a new beginning or "fresh start".


A street seller







Crowded streets on Gabriel's Day


This woman smiles shyly as she sells her candles.


Some of the crowd in one street near a church, Gabriel's Day.


It's Gabriel's Day (after the Archangel Gabriel) and the citizens of Addis come out in their hundreds of thousands to celebrate. Impromptu markets are near every church and everything you could imagine is on sale, including candles and very colourful umbrellas used for offerings.


An Addis street


Koni and Dagem say goodbye with a typical open-handed slap "handshake". The harder the bigger the "slap" (that is how far back the arm is taken, and the slap never hard enough to hurt), the more affection and regard you have for a person (the same in Egypt). Once the hand is slapped a loose and quick shake follows.


The Emperor Haile Selassie's throne, in the Museum.


Dagem, one of the former street boys who lived in Ermi's House, or the Hope Centre, looks at Lucy's skeleton in the Museum. We went to the Museum on a "field trip". The boys were all fascinated with their country's history and culture. The oldest humans known have been found in Ethiopia. Lucy, several million years old, was discovered there in 1974.


"The interestingly named "I Love You Hotel"



Building scaffolding - I used to hold my breath watching the workers go up this ramp, bags of cement and other materials across their shoulders


A man makes his living with a sewing machine at his "shop" on the street


Pedestrians walk past one of the "plastic houses" of the homeless














Shoe shine "boys", some of the homeless of Addis. When Sentayhu asked me about shoe shine boys in Australia and I told him we didn't have any he couldn't contain his amazement and referred to it often.



Just a small supermarket


Near the end of the street that eventually leads to the girls' house (Joy Centre)


One of the small workshops where artists make goods for sale to tourists like me. I bought beautiful beads, a wonderful knitted shawl that I use all the time, saw weavers and artists at work.

G'day. I've been looking through some photos while I've been home and of course many of them are from Africa last year. I miss Ethiopia and all the wonderful kids and even Addis - I really found a heart-to-heart connection there. Sadly Konjit tells me that the Youth Impact Library hasn't opened again yet after the summer break when this year it closed down, not offering a summer program. It's all money of course, that's all, such a simple answer to this particular problem. Not even a lot of money.

Is there anyone out there who knows how to access around $30,000 US to make this amazing project basically self-sufficient for the forseeable future? $20,000 for one year's operation and $10,000 to set up the little business venture that should make it self-sufficient. Anyone who could help or who has ideas don't hesitate to let me know - PLEASE!

Anyway, I hope that you enjoy these few photos of Addis that you probably didn't see before.

Hope you enjoy,

lots of love

Lyndall

PS Tomorrow the kids go away for the day and so I will add some more photos and stories from the African trip

Cooling off in Cape Town

And COOL is the operative word here! About 14 degrees at the moment and not a lot warmer during the day. But before we do Cape Town and all the things in between - let's finish off Botswana.

Our last afternoon and morning in Botswana unfortunately didn't produce a leopard, although a boat trip down the Chobe River brought lots more elephant, including babies, lions, crocodiles, all sorts of birds and some buffalo. Timan came with us and seemed to enjoy the trip. Kaiser picked us up at White Sands and we did a slow game drive back to camp. More of the usual suspects, including giraffes. Our last night at camp was uneventful although the elephants were very close and there were certainly hyenas about. We tried to ask all the questions to which we hadn't already had answers. Kaiser and I were last up and I managed to get lost looking for the loo, thank goodness he was still up and came to my rescue or I may still be wandering the Chobe bush. No, not true, Kaiser is an excellent tracker (and always ready to teach us, so now we can recognise lion tracks, hyena, wild dog, impala, elephant, hippo, cheetah, all of which will be of enormous assistance to us next time we go out into the bush) - I'm sure he would have found me by now. I'm ashamed to say I even had a torch and still couldn't find it!

Chobe is an interesting park, still showing the signs of the village and the industry that were there many years ago before the park was declared. It was still dry and dusty, but the river winding through it opened some incredible and beautiful vistas from the hills. The game had eaten it bare, so unless they are prepared to swim to Namibia or one of the river islands, or to eat the flowering trees, they need to travel up to 40 km from the river for food. No wonder the elephants sounded restless. So the game wasn't as concentrated during the day and we worked harder to see it. Elephants and impala being the exceptions of course.

Our last morning was really bitter sweet - lots of photographs taken and hugs given out. We waved goodbye to Amos and Timan around 8.30 and set out on our last game drive, with many comments being thrown around about last chances to find a leopard. Which we didn't. (But we won't hold that against Kaiser) . We did find a lion kill (completely stripped by the vultures) and the lions sleeping it off. A last visit to Kasane to tidy up the paperwork and look regretfully at the art gallery and it was off to Kasengula to cross the border into Zimbabwe.

Finally armed with our visas (a long and tedious manual system) and our Zimbabwe guide having arrived, we made heartfelt farewells and crossed over into Zimbabwe headed for Victoria Falls. As CC Africa had been late, we quickly threw our bags into our rooms and grabbed a taxi to the Falls to make sure we didn't miss getting a long look at them. Lon and I LOVED the taxi. You need pictures to get the real idea: yellow Mazda 323 around 20 years old (Osbornes think of the Colt with a battered yellow paint job) - one of the Executive taxi fleet. With the sweetest and most reliable driver! The Falls are truly mind-blowing, powerful and awe-inspiring, and deserve their place as one of the natural wonders of the world. If I could upload some images I'd show you - maybe tomorrow!

While JD and Shelley went back to the hotel, Lon and I did a little shopping (surprise, surprise!). We were frequently approached by people asking us did we want to trade our clothes, followed by children holding out begging cups and accosted by stall holders touting for business. The hotel didn't have water or virtually any soft drinks, and only 3 dishes on the dinner menu. The economy seems to be struggling to say the least. The people were wonderful however and we especially thank Rochelle who did our laundry on the morning we left in less than an hour - washed and dried and beautifully folded. All the hotel staff were impressive.

It was a looooong day the next day. We said goodbye early to Jeremy and Shelley with an agreement to meet in Cape Town for dinner on Friday night and then had a two-hour flight to Johannesburg first up, with around 3 hours at the airport to try and find Lonni's luggage. And yes, there it was eventually, only with a broken zipper and missing a whole bunch of stuff. Sad to say the losses from both our suitcases add up to around $7000 - so hopefully both Emirates and travel insurance will come through. Everything took so long that without the assistance of a great porter who got us checked through Alliance Gold Star we would have missed the plane to Cape Town. Then to top it all off we had the driver from hell pick us up at the airport to drive us for 2 hours to Groot Bos. Ten to twenty ks over the speed limit all the way (already set at 120), non-stop talker and so arrogant that we both struggled to stay calm and quiet. Lon escaped into her iRiver but I had the joy of the front seat!

Groot Bos (a private nature reserve), once we got there in one piece, proved to be a fabulous and very luxurious, quiet retreat. We were welcomed by Andre and Michelle and nothing was too much trouble - luggage delivered to our rooms while we had a quiet late dinner, and when we got to our rooms there was a fire going and everything was ready for us to fall into bed. Up early for whale watching and we saw lots, as well as penguins, seals and a great white. In the afternoon we were supposed to go off on some other activity but sleep overtook us both. Another enjoyable dinner and lots more sleep! There's something to be said for 5-star treatment on occasions.
Another fairly early start and Nzuzos took us on a beach and cave tour - a great deal of climbing down sand cliffs and over rocks, and steps and interesting caves used by the Koi people around 80,000 years ago as well as some time on the sand. The water is COLD though.

The same driver came to pick us up and I made Lon sit in the front - once again she escaped into her iRiver but this time I matched her, falling alseep not far out of Hermanus and only waking up a few minutes from our hotel. I thought if he snapped his fingers in front of her face just one more time she'd have them off at the elbow - much easier to sleep and pretend I heard nothing! That way I couldn't testify.

Anyway, the Victoria and Alfred on the waterfront is a beautiful hotel and Cape Town a pretty city. I'll have to tell you the rest tomorrow night - it's getting late and I still have to take the hired laptop back. Lonni is already showered and reading in bed and I need to get there myself.
Both cameras have been in for a clean at a camera repair place we found - I collect them tomorrow and hopefully everything will be in good working order for Namibia. They are also downloading all our cards, so maybe I can get some photos up tomorrow night. I can't wait to see them on the screen anyway.

Gotta go - will tell you about Cape Town and our activities tomorrow night.

lotsa love - L & L

Bewitching Botswana

We've had such an adventure since we last posted. I am here in Kasane just near the border of Botswana, Zimbabwe and Namibia on the second last day of our magical safari through the Okavanga Delta, Moremi Game Reserve, Savuti and now Chobe. I will be very sad to leave it behind - I have been totally captivated by the landscape, the people and the animals.



We've certainly had an adventure getting from Dubai - our luggage didn't show up in Joburg and so we got a great guy called Sidney to take us to a mall where we got underwear and a change of clothes for the next day while the hotel provided a toothbrush. Hitting the airport at 7.00 am the next morning we discovered that our safari bags had turned up with the lock on Lonni's broken, my suitcase had been ransacked and gone are my laptop (with photos), a lens, some Oz dollars and my expensive 100th anniversary edition Mont Blanc fountain pen bought in Dubai. Unfortunately Lonni's whole big bag is yet to surface - we are just hoping against hope that it will be waiting for us in Joburg again. Her new jewellery is in it as well as all her chargers etc. and clothes of course and Dubai souvenirs. The jewellery is the big concern (no it's not it's the crappy I heart Dubai key ring I got Lahni as a souvenir, you can't replace that! - Lonni).



However, we determined not to let it ruin our trip and so faced Botswana with happy faces. And it has been amazing. On the fringe of the Kalahari and in the dry season it's hot (as Lonni keeps saying, it's hot, damned hot! - remember Good Morning Vietnam), dry, incredibly dusty (we've given up on fingernails, you're filthy again about an hour or two - or in Mum's case its more like thirty minutes - more from Lonni thank you, sweetheart) but totally bewitching, exciting, entrancing and magical (don't forget surreal). At least it is for me. The only animal we've really missed so far (there's still this afternoon and tomorrow morning to go) is a leopard and there are no rhinos here (though I would like to see more hyena).



We've had a fabulous and full of it guide (Kaiser) and two wonderful camp hands - Timan and Amos. I would bring them all home if I could (so would I you should see the muscles!). There are only four of us in the group, we are with a great young Texan couple called JD (Jeremy Daniel) and Shelley. Kaiser is always joking and smiling and is incredibly knowledgeable - we are often the first and only to find animals - but all the guides share information around. We've seen impala (Fast Food for the Big M on their butts), lions, elephants, hippos, kudu, sable and roan antelope, cheetah, warthogs, zebra, giraffes, steenbok, red letchwe, crocodiles, Cape buffalo, jackals, hyena, wild dogs, mongoose and squirrels, baboons and monkeys, honey badger and birds far too numerous to mention, except for the gloriously coloured lilac-breasted roller and the carmine bee eater. We've lunched with the hippos, taken tea with elephants and zebra, had lions around our camp scaring the **** out of the Texans the first night, us aussie girls were either excited (mum) or asleep (Lonni). And I managed to sleep right through a honey badger trying to get into our tent while Lonni almost had a heart attack. A hyena also trotted through camp while the boys were preparing dinner and raided the trailer one night.

We also have been through some small villages and stopped a couple of times to talk to people and buy locally made goods. The people are SO friendly and beautiful - we have all been totally entranced. The country is so dry I have to keep asking Kaiser - but what do people eat? How do they live? And speaking of that we've been having pa pa (mealie porridge) for breakfast - it's the local staple and we all think it's pretty good. Kaiser is a great cook as well so the food has all been fantastic.

Anyone who knows us well will be hugely surprised to know that we are awake before our 6.00 am wake up call as Amos or Timan pour warm water into our basins outside for us to wash faces, have a quick bite and go out on our first game drive. We have another cuppa and a biscuit whilst out (maybe at the hippo pool or beside the river watching zebras or elephants) and then back to camp about 10.30 for Kaiser to cook us a substantial brunch. Then maybe it's in camp in the shade, doing the washing or reading until we take a bush bucket shower and head out again around 3.30, have another cuppa out and back at sunset. Kaiser gets us a magnificent feast for dinner and under the brilliant stars (Scorpio right overhead), listening to hippos or lions or hyena or elephants, with a glass of wine beside the camp fire we chat away by candle and firelight (listening to Kaiser's stories as he answers all our dumb questions - often with a big fat lie until his contagious laugh gives him away) until at a fairly early hour everyone drifts away one by one to get a good night's sleep - unless the animals wake us up.

It's a wonderful life - I have no idea of the day of the week or the time and am totally relaxed!!! When I have more time I'll tell you more about Botswana, it's an interesting country and the way the villages are organised by community trusts an interesting model.

No photos to add - with the laptop gone and being unable to charge batteries or download I am starting to conserve and can't do anything here - maybe later. Hopefully what I have will last me until we get back to Cape Town. The 400D is on the blink - the dust is very pervasive and I suspect that's the problem. With the big lens gone I have been really lucky as Shelley has lent me one the same size but without stabiliser. She has been very generous.

Boat trip in around an hour so better go - down the Chobe River - we might even see a leopard! If we don't, as Kaiser says, there will be an excuse to come back!

Love to all

Lyndall & Lonni

"Dubai is not a fantasy - it's a desert dream" (seen on the side of a car)

Well, the luggage was a miracle, 20.2 and 20.4 kgs, with hand luggage just scraping under the 7kg mark for each of us as well. (Only because I packed some things for mum in MY luggage, what can I say we all know the woman is hopeless) Then it was all aboard the Emirates 777 bound first for Singapore (about an hour's sleep each) and an hour's stopover, and onwards to Dubai - almost another 7 hours and about the same amount of sleep. Emirates has a forward camera on their aircraft (and a downward camera) so you can watch the landings/take offs in graphic detail - not necessarily such a great idea when the landing goes a bit wobbly like it did in Singapore!

Dubai is 6 hours behind Brisbane/Melbourne, so we arrived as dawn was breaking around 5.40 am. Surprisingly Dubai was covered in smoke/dust/smog with limited visibility, reminding me of China initially. The walk from the arrival gate to exit was at least 4 miles :-) and Lonni is insisting that we can only take stairs from here on in! The formalities were brief and painless, all the luggage arrived with us and the tour company met us as arranged.

When we left the terminal the heat hit us like a solid wall, and not only the heat but extremely high humidity. The camera kept fogging up so much I couldn't even get any pics at all for a while. The overnight temperature was 31C and today is a mere 41 degrees, humidity having now dropped away. And as the day has gone on the smoggy cover has mostly burnt off, just like our driver said it would.

Our room wasn't ready when we arrived but the hotel is well set up for early guests with breakfast immediately available (seated beside a wall of glass overlooking the creek with an amazing buffet and I swear a staff person per guest!) and complimentary use of the health club and the pool, including showers with all condiments supplied and towels, robes etc. plus a locker in which to put your valuables temporarily.

Our first order after breakfast was then to get clean and then to get cool - the pool of course - then a soothing massage each. Morning tea in the lobby cafe and then our room was ready and handed over at about 10.45 am even though checkin is not until 3.00 pm. I can't recommend the hotel - the Sheraton Creekside Towers - highly enough. It is quite beautiful and the staff are all so incredibly friendly and helpful. The man looking after the health club happens to be Ethiopian, he's already lined me up a meeting with his wife, a room and meals at his mother's in Addis and his little brother to look after me whenever I need it.

Visited the bank next door and withdrew some dirhams from the ATM and now Lonni is sleeping for a little while. Once she's up it will be lunch and into town to start seeing the sights and start the shopping. City Centre Mall here we come.

My first

impressions? Delightfully friendly people, amazing architecture, luxury cars everywhere and hot, hot hot. - Lyndall

Hot, hot, hot I feel does not describe the weather to my satisfaction. "It is hot, damn hot, real hot and wet which is ok when you're with a woman but no good when your on holiday, gonna try a little crotch pot cooking" or something like that. (A little tribute to Good Morning Vietnam)

What can I say (mum seems to have covered it all already) but as Micheal would say its not complete until I've had something to whinge about and well here goes. The flight was looooooooong and VERY uncomfortable, even with mum's squishy shoulder to lean on, and then finally came out of the airport only to step into the thick mist of a balmy thirty three degrees and its only 0530 in the morning! Dad, eat your heart out.

Enough of the whinge; the rest has been good, the people here are so lovely, ma'am this ma'am that, good morning here, good evening there, I feel slightly out of place with my, g'day ow ya goin'. Would have been helpful had someone told me, like, Lahni for instance (yes surely by now you would think I would have realised but no I have not) just how hopeless mother really is. Left the room, leaving the door key INSIDE, thank god someone's organised and I still had MY key, set out for the mall - tell mum to leave her phone in the room but no she needs to bring it along so she can leave it behind in the cab, along with her $800.00 camera! Thank god for honest citizens. Call the phone - cabby answers and is on his way to drop them off personally, not quite as painless as that but you get the shortened version. Why? because I finally get to go to one of my favourite places on holiday - or not - BED. Until next time - Lonni

PS from Lyndall - You can see the day's images from the safely recovered point and shoot (now if I'd had my real camera with me it never would have happened!) at http://lyndall.smugmug.com

TOMORROW - the big red bus goes round and round...

The night before take off

Well I'm getting excited, even if Lonni tells me it hasn't really sunk in yet that tomorrow night we wing off to Dubai via Singapore.

Have completed all the chores except the most important one - getting the luggage below 20 kgs!  Hopefully after a good night's sleep at Linc and Lucy's I'll be able to see it all so much more clearly and discard the extra pair of shoes and a shirt or two and manage to make it happen.  Ley and Amanda have been over tonight and Lucy has cooked us a great dinner.

We're all having lunch together tomorrow and then to see Lonni and me off to the airport - Micheal will be down as well, but I think that Wrex is being left at home - probably too emotional for her - she will miss her mum.