We are still idling in Addis. The first few days have been frustrating while we contemplated whether to continue on our journey northwards or take advantage of having a reasonably safe storage facility here at Wim's Holland House until October. Initially the main problem with that plan was the uncertainty that the Ethiopian Customs would grant the vehicle a longer stay in the country. Our anxiety over this increased when Juan, a motorcyclist from Spain, found on his return last week that he had not received permission to leave his bike here and has been prevented from taking it across the border to Kenya. Rahel promised to come with us to visit the Customs Authority and we duly photocopied all our documentation and typed and printed letters on our in-house printer. However, we had to wait a while as the "hotel inspectors" were due to visit and Rahel had to be here for them. It wasn't until yesterday morning that she was free.
We happened to mention that my brother, John, is in hospital and we wanted to fly home now to see him. Rahel suggested using this reason for asking the Customs to grant an extension to our permit. A very understanding customs officer said that as long as we extended our Ethiopian visas and left the car key and registration plate with him, then there would be no problem. With that confirmation Rahel instructed her driver to take us to the nearby Immigration building to request a visa extension. An hour later, having sat in barely moving traffic, we were dropped outside Immigration with directions how to find our way back on foot. It turned out to be the wrong place! Fortunately a young woman came to our rescue and explained to a taxi driver where we needed to go instead and asked him to wait to bring us back to somewhere we knew. All in vain: it was nearly 1 o'clock when we got there and no-one wanted to deal with us. The senior official just kept repeating "apply on-line" then disappeared to have his lunch!
We spent yesterday afternoon battling with the fluctuations in WiFi and power cuts due to the thunderstorms trying to make online applications for the recently introduced E-visa. Having at last achieved this, Chris spent several hours researching air fares for flights home, all to no avail as the power was off for 14 hours. With few customers at the bar to watch TV World Cup the generator was not turned on.
All has been resolved today. With a sunny morning we ventured out on foot along the newly paved road outside to visit the travel agents. In no time at all we had bought our return flight tickets to London, leaving on Sunday, 1st July and coming back on 8th October. Hurray!!!
Our prolonged stay in Addis has not been unpleasant in spite of the weather. There is something going on all the time. Outside the gate the huge piles of cobblestones dumped in the road are being transformed into patterned paving by an army of workers. The frequent cars and beer trucks passing along the lane have had to negotiate the lumps of stone with crashes and bangs and shouting at the road workers. There are a variety of birds in the ever increasing shrubbery. The bar and restaurant are busy with locals and ex-pats, especially when the World Cup is shown on the projector screen, and and the other 2 residents (a young German and his local girlfriend) are rather sweet little 'Hobbits' when they emerge every now and then from their cave like room next door to the Enterprise.
Sunday was a very enjoyable day. The weather remained warm and dry. After an almost 'full English breakfast' which we treated ourselves to, I took the opportunity of not having to go out to do some necessary cleaning of cupboards and drawers. Chris had a deservedly lazy day. He was able to watch England win the match against Tunisia 6:1, followed by the French motor racing Grand Prix. In the evening we had company: an English couple from the Isle of Wight and their South African friend, travelling in 2 Land Rovers, came here to eat while they were in Addis for a couple of days. We joined them for a meal and to chat. They were travelling from Cape Town back to the UK following much of the same route we are. It was great to share information and to hear their experiences.
We are quite excited by the prospect of coming home but I know I will miss the African life until we return.
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