Liz Mokamba

 “Welcome to the world, it sucks, you are gonna love it!!” Friends, season 1, episode 1.

When I came to the realization that life won’t follow my plans and rather does what it wants to do to me, I decided to let loose abit, enjoy Gods good earth, create my own stories and memories before check out time arrives.

I found a group travelling to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia by road. August 2024. Intrigued, I decided to take the bold step and tour the land of the origins. I didn’t know much about Ethiopia and to think of it, despite her vastness, Ethiopia has managed to keep herself enclosed such that little is known about her.

3.45am August 2024, my cab driver pulled over besides these two humongous overland trucks. He was visibly wowed by these beasts, whose mere sight and sound you can’t miss as he curiously asked me where I am headed to. In all excitement, I told him “Naenda Addis” He asked if the trucks do get there by road and after how long. I answered “Yes tutafika, siku sita hivi, polepole tu.” I heard excitement and awe in his voice as he told me “Mungu awalinde, muende salama na mrudi salama” I said Amen as he left. I quickly scanned the environment, admired the branded ‘Nairobi to Addis’ overland trucks as I settled in ready for the adventure due North.

The first day was a normal day with a sleepover in Marsabit. Lots of excitement, some anxiety, meeting other travel enthusiasts, still on Kenyan soil.

Day 2 was the long awaited day when we finally get to cross over to Ethiopia and begin the real adventure. The journey from Marsabit to Moyale was painfully long. Not because it is 250km long, but because of the sheer anxiety of traversing Northern Kenya and the hope of peacefully crossing over to Ethiopia.

During disembarking and through immigration, we were warned to stay alert and beware of any thieves that might be lurking around once we exit the border premises. The process was easy for individuals but on the other hand it was excruciatingly long and devastating for the vehicles.

The sheer difference in culture is experienced at this border point even though the communities are similar in both countries. The most shocking one is the minimal tourism culture in Ethiopia. The Kenyan excitement of when visiting a new place and interacting with people was met with “But why did you come here?” and the simple answer of “to visit and tour your country” was not convincing enough, it was almost foreign.

With 8 days ahead of us, we had already signed up for this and we were going to do it no matter what. After a successful crossover, we kicked off real tourism by settling in a kibandaski tasting native food and some Ethiopian beer. I ordered anjera like the tourist I am, it came with some vegetables and cereals only since they were performing some kind of fast where they don’t partake in meat. Im not gonna lie, it kinda tasted nice. I had some pasta too and thought to myself, “huh! this is interesting!!”

On day 3, we embarked on a 500km journey from Moyale to Hawassa, a lakeside city in Southern Ethiopia. The vegetation along the way was surprisingly green, the roads were fairly good but there was little to no decent developments along the way. Petrol and diesel prices were way cheaper than in Kenya and the Ethiopian Birr was slightly more valuable than the Kenya Shilling.

We arrived at dusk and got settled in our hotel rooms. We were staying in Hawassa for two nights. Our chefs prepared a Kenyan dinner and our stomachs thanked them fully. Well-fed and relaxed, we went out to experience Hawassa. The city is beautiful, clean and organized. It is sat just by the lake and the night life is crazy. Ethiopian Hookah is best experienced in here and their cheap beer definitely makes you not want to get back home. Also, delicious fried fish by the shores of Lake Hawassa.

I managed to sneak in two morning runs in Hawassa. One within the city and one along the shores of the Lake. It was refreshing running in a different territory, while exploring at the same time. The two days in Hawassa were a good break from the long continuous journey from Nairobi and as at this time, anjera had started tasting like bitter herbs.

As a group, we toured Wondo Genet Hot Springs, a place where people go for different types of healing from the natural hot water and did a tour of Shashamene (for some medicine) including the Rastafari Headquarters and the 12 tribes of Israel. This got me thinking, perhaps Ethiopia seems different than us because she actually is different from us according to history. Ethiopia was never colonized, is huge with a population of about 128 million people yet we here so little about her. At this point I was getting curious.

Our stay came to an end in Hawassa and it was time to pack up and hit the road again, due North. The trip to Shashamene had us well stocked and ready for the big city.  We were 270 km away from Addis Ababa!!

Part 2 coming soon….

With Love, Liz