Articles in Travel
Guinea 001
The Guinea Journal
Sunday, December 10 2:30 a.m. Conakry
It’s early in the morning or late at night depending on how you look at it. I went to bed around midnight but couldn’t sleep. My mind was reeling with the images and activities of not just today but the previous couple of days. It’s a sensation unlike any I’ve had before. It felt like a physical assault, …
045 – Gondar
A Ghost in a Silent World
The next morning my eyes snapped open at 4:30. A drunk man was wandering through the Nile Hotel banging on each door in turn, looking, as all Ethiopians seemed to do in the early morning, for a friend. I called out to him when he reached my door and I offered to be his friend if he would go back …
044 – To Infrance
The Escape of the Joads
It was still pitch black when I was woken up by the Joads, their truck, and their rooster. They wanted to get an early start and started warming up their truck at 4:45. Unfortunately it was right outside my door and to my lungs it felt like they’d run a hose from the exhaust pipe directly into my room. I had …
043 – Bahir Dar to Werota
Leaving Bahir Dar
The streets of Bahir Dar were quiet and cold as I cycled through them. A group of men made swishing sounds as they swept up the road with large palm branches. Boys from a school scoccer team chattered and kicked a tattered ball back and forth. The only other people on the street padded by silently on their bare feet and stared at …
042 – The Blue Nile Falls
Speciation
The next day after a morning trip by bike to where the Blue Nile emerges from Lake Tana I returned to the Ghion to find Martin sitting in one of the lawn chairs on the grass. He was waiting for Andale, his right hand man on his project, and a second man from the Ministry of Agriculture. The two of them had helped him secure …
041 – The Ghion Hotel Crowd
In Search of the ‘Real’ Ethiopia
I woke up in the morning without a very clear idea of what I was going to do that day. I didn’t think I was going to do much. At most I thought I would have a cup of coffee, write in my journal, then ride into Bahir Dar and explore the city. As it turned out I never left …
040 – To Bahir Dar
“Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation”
Inside the bus to Bahir Dar there was a big poster of Jesus on his knees looking heavenward and praying. A tiny angel hovered above him holding a glass of some kind. The caption read, “Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation.” I had a long time to look at that sentence and think about …
039 – A Night in Amanuel
The Toe TAL Hoe Tal
The town that Azmo had sent me to was called Amanuel and it was as he said only 5 km away. But it was all uphill and I was soon reduced to pushing the bike almost continuously. I tried from time to time to pedal, but my rear wheel simply spun out from under me on the loose rock.
I looked at …