Modnay, 21 April 2003
Vague instructions marked the day from the early morning. All three of us were convinced of leaving the campsite in order to walk to another campsite. Therefore we packed our tents and loaded them into the minibus, believing that the minibus would drive away to the next campsite.
Routinely I asked our cook “Mengistu” about today’s schedule and he mentioned that we would be walking in 6-8 hours, which just confirmed our assumption. Some questions later convinced us that this assumption was incorrect. The driver interfered with the instruction that the car would stay here in this campsite and we were supposed to walk in the neighborhood two times three hours. Trips to other campsites were out of scope for this arrangement. We felt a bit cheated as our trip included three days hiking, but we accepted and put up the tents again.
I didn’t feel that queasy this morning but my stomach and the dizziness was still present and I felt weakened. Therefore I chose to stay at the campsite while Jørgen and Jesper went off the beaten track on the first of two walks together with the ranger. I would not risk slowing down the plucky boys too much and my experiences from the Andes where I walked the Inca-trail on “Imodium” anti- diarrhea pills told me to stay off this walk.
I spent the morning reading my book, writing the diary and watch the birds that passed by. The sun intensified and at 11 am when Jørgen and Jesper returned the temperature reached 30-35 degrees Celsius. The air was windy and the weather was actually quite pleasant. We got some lunch and had a chat with some tourists from ustralia and Germany. They were the first white people that we met since leaving Gonder.
Jørgen and Jesper continued on today’s second walk at 1 pm while I was reading. A few hours later the weather was sweltering hot and I decided to go for a walk, partly to make the most of the day and to test if I was in shape for walking. I really want to walk some hours with the guys tomorrow.
My trip was directed at the canyon on the other side of the road where I had spotted a perfect viewpoint. On my way I said hello to some herdsmen.
The view was unspeakable beautiful. I was able to see mountains far away and deep below me I could just discern the reflection from corrugated iron roofs in the distance. A pair of large birds passed below me. It was fascinating to watch birds from above.
The mountains were brown of withered grass and without snow. In a few months the heavy rains would fall, and everything would turn green. I guess this must be an even better view. The rains are really heavy in this country; during June and July some 1,000 mm are falling in Addis Ababa.
On my walk back to the campsite I saw two deer watching me carefully. Above me eagles were circling and in the distance I could hear baboons call. In the afternoon Jørgen and Jesper returned a bit disappointed of the fact that the route was very similar to the one they walked yesterday.
The cook began to prepare dinner while we talked about today’s trip. Suddenly the cook’s helpers started an intense hunt on an alarmed old rooster. It was rather entertaining and in a few attempts the rooster was caught and it made our mouths water. While we talked we enjoyed the sunset and shortly after the dinner was ready, even though the rooster was a bit tough.
After dinner we walk in the dark and took great pleasure in watching the starry sky yet another evening. We didn’t see the moon, which made the stars appear more intensive. What a beautiful sight. The Big Dipper was upside down and the North Star point downwards. We spotted satellites crossing and felt a bit pathetic standing here without our girlfriends in such a romantic moment. We lit a candle to get a campfire atmosphere before we turned in relatively early that evening.