We always knew the drive from Axum to Debark was going to be tough.
I guess we just didn’t realise exactly how tough.
Andy wanted us to leave by 6am to save time which we did. I
started out sitting up the back of the minivan but by the time we stopped for
breakfast at Inda Silasie, I was feeling lightheaded and shaky and felt like I
needed to vomit so I had to move up the front. Not a good start to the day!
Luckily whatever it was only lasted a couple of hours. I wonder if it had
something to do with the altitude?
All sorts of domestic animals wandered across the road in no
particular hurry, many not at all road conscious which was probably because
barely any vehicles go up or down this road!
It’s a windy, dirt road, with
barely enough room for one vehicle at times, that drops off drastically down
the cliff face. But the views are incredible.
A bulldozer had to clear a path
for us at one point as they’re upgrading the roads with the help of the
Chinese.
We saw signs estimating a 3 year project with a completion date of
October 2012 – we’re assuming they’re following the Ethiopian calendar
(currently 2004!) We came to another point where we had to wait for a bulldozer
to clear the road, but it appeared to be filling the road instead of clearing
it! We then had to get pushed through it as we got stuck in the
not-so-well-cleared path.
In spite of the time it took to clear it, only 3
trucks were backed up behind us – no other vehicles were in sight – there
really aren’t many vehicles on this road! Andy told us two buses run once daily
from different places and we did see a bus come from the opposite direction at one
point and wondered how it would manage.
It started to rain and a strike of lightning came down what
appeared to be right in front of us in one village which terrified and
subsequently scattered the locals. We went over a bridge where the water was
flowing so fast underneath it that even the locals came down to look at it. At
one point we saw a strange sight out of the window – a group of about 20 people
walking up the road together holding a single large piece of red tarp above
their heads, trying to dodge the rain. Waterfalls sprung up everywhere and the
road was flooding.
There were so many times I thought we’d get bogged but we didn’t
as Andy is such a careful driver. But then we came to a section of road that I
swear was not a road but rather a waterfall or rocky river bed! Andy was doing
really well but eventually his tyres started spinning and we got bogged in the
mud.
We all got out to push, getting our feet wet and muddy but eventually got
the van free.
Karen went over to a part she thought was shallow but as it turns
out it was deep mud and she ended up losing her thongs in it!
Walking back to
the minivan, we washed our feet in streams of water running down the ‘road’.
Andy stopped shortly after as the protective underbody had come loose. A local
helped us out and Andy reattached it with some rope before getting back in and
driving on. It then proceeded to fall off several times and Andy kept
reattaching it until he got fed up with it and then just threw it onto the
roof.
On other sections of the road we had to remove rocks and a local armed
with an AK47 and one with an axe and sickle helped us out.
Then we got fully bogged. We tried to push the van out but it just
got more and more entrenched. The tyres were more than half covered as were the
axles, and the exhaust was almost underwater.
Villagers brought us 2 spades and
a pick axe and helped us try to dig it out but to no avail.
A few of us came up
with the idea to dam the road to stop the river running through it. ‘Operation
Dam’ then began with everyone collecting huge stones and damming the water to
flow off to either side of our van. We were using our hands and feet to create
mud and rock walls under Garrett’s guidance (you can tell he’s an Engineer!)
It
actually worked as we pretty much stopped the water flow to the van. Next, we
had to dig out the front and rear axles. Then with locals pulling on a rope
from the front and us pushing from behind, we finally got it out.
So one hour
later, we were on our way, and once we left, we were rewarded with magnificent
views - layers of mountains with mist hanging over them and lush green valleys.
Photo courtesy of Andrea & Garrett
Photo courtesy of Andrea & Garrett
The delay meant we could now arrive into Debark after dark and
Andy warned me he didn’t have any headlights so he’d speed up slightly to try
and get there before nightfall. I joked that we had headtorches if needed but
as it turns out, we needed them. I waited until the last bit of light had gone
before turning mine on to try to make it last as the road was bad and it took a
long time to get anywhere. My headtorch was the brightest so I was leaning out
of the window, shining it on the road.
We climbed up the side of the mountain
and it started to get colder. We stopped to put on more layers. The fog then
started rolling in and I started to get pretty nervous. The van was sliding and
we were precariously close to the cliff edge. Needless to say, we could barely
see anything. I thought about pulling over and spending the night on the
roadside but there wasn’t really anywhere to stop and some locals told us Debark
was only five minutes away so we pushed on incredibly slowly. We could see some
far off lights which was reassuring. We were close. We could do this. Slowly. And
we finally made it and found the Simien Hotel. Relief. Andy told us it’s the worst
drive he’s ever done. He’d done it before, but only in the dry season – and for
the record, he said he’ll never do it again – at least not in the rainy season!
Photo courtesy of Andrea & Garrett
I was shaking for a long time afterwards but was happy to have
dinner at the Simien Hotel restaurant as we didn’t have any lunch. I didn’t
have any breakfast either as I felt sick in the morning so I was pretty hungry.
Draught beer, vege soup and macaroni with tomato sauce never tasted so good. We
were amused to find our menus mistakenly labelled as the ‘Semen’ Hotel.
We then
went to bed pretty early after such a long day though we woke up at 1.30am to a
lightning show – it lit up our entire room and the thunder boomed overhead. I
for one was glad to be snuggled up in bed right then and not on a cliff edge somewhere
on that perilous ‘road’! Never again.
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