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Hiking in the Bale Mountains

Our driver Daniel left at 5am to drive back to Shashemene because our truck has as crack in the exhaust which urgently needs to be repaired. He tried already to get it repaired in Addis Ababa but the mechanics there did just put paint over the crack without really repairing it.

In the morning there were also some optional activities available such as hiking, horse-riding and fishing in the Bale Mountains. About half of the group went hiking and the other half horse-riding. I decided to go on the hike to get some training for my Kilimanjaro climb at the end of this month. We started at 9am and walked for approx. five hours. The hike was pretty easy since there wasn’t much elevation. During the hike we were also able to observe some baboons.

Chris, who’s iPhone got stolen yesterday and as a result of that he was killing his pain with Vodka, didn’t participate in any activities since he was suffering from a hangover.

The two Dutch travellers, who just joined us two days ago in Addis Ababa, didn’t really enjoy travelling with us. The reason was mainly because they had different expectations regarding the style of travel and sleeping in a dorm room and the unavailability of a hot shower was simply too rough for them. In addition they fear to travel through the Moyale region because there are bandits in this area why we will be very careful and pay soldiers to guard us. I can fully understand their concerns. Especially if you travel only for a few weeks like them you might want to enjoy a bit more comfort to recover from work. For long-term travellers like me comfort is less important since giving up luxury is part of the experience and it also helps to save a significant amount of money when travelling for a year or longer. Regarding their fear it’s probably very hard to calm them down since fear is always very personal and not tangible at all. Because of their fear and the uncomfortable style of travelling they are planning to leave us in a couple of days and fly to Zanzibar to relax on the beach.

Dinner was very delicious. Today’s cooking group prepared fried rice with vegetables which is a simple dish but very tasteful.

The evening was again freezing cold. There was still no firewood available to heat up the water of the shower. Actually we couldn’t have a shower at all since there was no running water today.

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