|
Ethiopia: Abyssinia Adventure - B-22 China Road Bicycle Africa / Ibike Tours |
|||
 |
For decades only the most intrepid person, in a four-wheel drive, or with a donkey, could traverse the mid-section of the country from Woreta to Woldiya, and it would take a week or more. Now-a-days a sedan can cross the 300 kilometers in less than half-a-day -- if you don't stop at all of the photo opportunities, of which there are hundreds. |
 |
|
 |
 Locally,
the road east-west road from Woreta to Woldiya is called the China Road,
because the Chinese built it. Its official designation is B-22.On
the west end it starts on the fertile plains that surround Lake Tana. The
stocks that are cut from the rice fields are carried to the village by hand
(or head), giving the appearance of a creature otherwise only seen on the
pages of a Dr. Seuss book. |
 |
|
|
|
Also in the head-loaded parade are these mega-baskets. Our visit must have
coincided with the season for making them, but not for filling them. We
saw dozens being transported but none with any content. My best guess is
something light and bulky, such as cotton. There is weaving in the area so
locally available rare materials would be a piece of that puzzle. |
 |
|
 |
This sign at the road side
has an informative and thought provoking collection of information on local
activities:: "Stop Deforestation. Start Reforestation. "Biodiversity Program in Amhara. "Alemsaga Natural Resources Tourism Development and Marketing Cooperative Non-Timber Forest Product / NTFP / Selling Center "Organic Honey, Fattened Oxen and Sheep, Dried Fuel Wood, Grass for the Construction of Tukill, Eco Tourism Service." |
||
 |
Several kilometers off the highway is the Awra Amba Community. Its genesis
dates to 1972, when Zumra Nuru, it founder, then age 21, realized his childhood vision of
creating a democratic, self-sustaining society where men and women are equals,
and in general, people are not classified, labeled or put into categories.
For most of its first forty years Zumra Nuru was ostracized and persecuted. He was
thought to be mad and forced to move from place to place -- spending years of
his early life alone in the wilderness. |
 |
|
 |
Perhaps the source of the most distrust is the shunning of the two major
religions in the area; Orthodox Christianity and Islam. The members of Awra Amba
believe in One Creator, but that religion is individual, not communal.
Each individual communicates directly with the Creator. The major principles are:
There is a poster on the wall displaying the major religions of the world. The respect all of them and individuals, in their formation of their personal religion can draw from any and all of these, but the product is a unique religion, or personal philosophy. |
||
 |
Posted in the main meeting room are a number of quotes, some in English and some
in Amharic. Here is a sample from the English: Doing a "woman's job" doesn't change my sex, it changes my ignorance." "Human beings greatest possession is mankind itself; the other is secondary." "Astonishment is just for a day. Don't be barred by hearsay to get invaluable things." "People are of three categories: Great, Average and Lesser. A great person is one who knows and asks. An average person is one who knows but doesn't ask. A lesser person is one who doesn't know and doesn't ask." "In my life I feel the most anguish when I can't help people who are in need." "A selfish person only knows himself/herself, he/she is not conscious of others." "Farming is not ignorant, it is intellectual though the science is ancient." "Two things that cause conflict are bad speech and bad deeds." "Conflict has no root, rather it is what we image. Let us envisage not conflict, but love." "We develop ourselves by working collaboratively and sympathetically." |
|
|
 |
 Not
terribly surprisingly, the facilities of the community are generally puposefully
different as well. In addition to the thoughtful meeting hall, we saw a
couple of well organized libraries, the pre-school had a play structure, the
classroom was colorful and decorated with educational aids, and in the home were
modernized kitchens with fuel efficient stoves, and dedicated injera stones and
covers. |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
A point of pride of Awra Amba is that senior citizens are allowed to retire. It might be described as assisted living where the residents of fed and cared for but they are only expected to do what the want to. One facility of older people is a large room with individual pods built along the side. If the person wants privacy they can pull the current. If they want to be more involved the can sit in their pod and talk to others or they can sit on one of the stools in the common space. |
 |
|
 |
 The main enterprise of Awra Amba is the weaving factory. Both men and women work side-by-side. They have a showroom where their products are available for sale. |
||
 [Graphs are built with incomplete data and are only general representations of the topography.] |
|||
 |
This charts represents
almost 300km (180 miles). If you image is stretched to its full length you
will realize that the grades are not a sever as then appear in this
representation. Even with that we went from west to east (left to right on the
chart) so the climb was even more gradual and broken up. A demonstration of this is the west end, which is quite flat before it starts to work its way into the hills. |
 |
|
 |
 The
kids in this area were quite happy to be photographed.We were happy to sit for a while and take some refreshments. |
 |
|
 |
  At
the entrance to the hills is Amora Gedel, a volcanic plug. It seemed to be a
good photo subject from many angles.
|
||
 |
Heading up the hill, already miles from the nearest building supply store, were seven guys carrying corrugated roofing material. Public transport on this road is fairly regular so it is a reflection on the economy that it made sense to recruit six friends, walk miles to the shop, buy the goods and walks the miles back again, as opposed to one person walking to the shop and paying to have the supply motored to the work site. |
 |
|
 |
Up the mountain is another sign for the Biodiversity Program in Amhara. This one points to the Beekeeping Farming Center. |
 |
|
 |
  The
big town at the west end to the ridge is Debre Tabor. It was frequently on
the cross roads of history. During the early nineteenth century it was in
the proximity of several battles following which is was sacked or burned.
In the mid-nineteenth century Emperor Tewodros and Emperor Yohannes used Debre
Tabor as there capital, at time. In the twentieth century the town still had
strategic importance because it played a roll ing the Second Italian-Abyssinian
War and changed hands serve times during the civil war between the Derg and the
Tigray People's Liberation front. The towns symbol is a replica of an
ancient mortar. Now-a-days birds are more present than troops. |
 |
|
 |
 A lot of the housing in the highlands is Turkils, round buildings with conical roofs. Depending upon the elevation and the weather, and the available building materials, the walls of the Turkils are either sticks, clay or stone. The roofs are thatched, but not always with the same materials. The curves and angles of the Turkils have an aesthetic that the rectangular buildings don't have. |
||
 |
 Despite the hills around and being at an elevation around 3,000m (10,000 ft), generally the grades on the roads were pretty friendly. Occasionally, the road would drop into a valley cut by a river and we would have to climb out the other side, but these were spaced out enough so that we had plenty of time to catch our breath. |
 |
|
 |
  We
were never very far from people doing something to ponder. Through one town
there were lines of people walking, dressed in white (left). I believe it
was connected to a funeral. With some regularity there were new churches being
constructed (right). In one location the whole community had turned out to
unload rocks from a truck for the church they were building. |
 |
|
 |
  Finely
adorned horses seems to be a characteristic of the higher highlands. We
passed several in this area. |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
Part of the experience is the continuously changing scenery; shapes, colors,
textures and relationships are in constant motion and endlessly beautiful.
The images don't capture the space and depth of the views. In the presences it
is often that next views seems grandeur than the last. |
||
 |
 When we arrived at this cafe it was empty. As we sat there,
in short order is filled up.
Eventually the place was packed, mostly with older boys and young men, Except
for the crowd at the door, I don't think that it was because of our presence.
When we sat down we were told something about bread, but the
message didn't fall into place for a while. Just about the time that the last
seat was taken a tray of warm bread came out. Putting two and two
together, everybody in town knows when the bread comes out of the oven and they
were ready. Though a tad early, we lucked into being at the right place and the right
time to see what must be a regular ritual. |
 |
|
 
 |
 |
||
 |
The chap on the left is the permanent police man. He has a sign in Amharic hanging from his right arm, but he doesn't seem to have a noticeable impact on traffic behavior. |
|
|
 |
 East of Nefas Meewcha the ridge get narrower and the depth of canyons more apparent. At one point the road is built on top of a ridge that originally was not as wide as the two-lane road that is built above it. The road bed is supported by rock retaining walls on both sides and beyond the walls, to the left and to the right are river canyons that are more than 1000m deep. In comparison, a human being is miniscule. This is some of the most spectacular country we seen so far. |
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
Between Debre Zebit, Flakit and
Gashena the ridge transitions back to a broader and flatter topped plateau.
A close examination of an altimeter would indicate that it is not quite as flat
as it appears because the road is slowly gaining elevation. It is often so
gradual that it is imperceptible. It is from Gashena that a side road
leads to Lalibela and points north. |
||
|
|
|||
 |
 From Gashena, for the next 60 km the road climbs gradually from about 2900m to 3500m (~11,500 ft). The grand kaleidoscope of shepherds, turkils, cattle, crops, forests, pack animals, schools and sky draws you along in admiration of the beautiful. Do the people who live here appreciate it? Or are they too overburden with more basic challenges of life? |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
After 60 magnificent kilometers, the road finally crests a what seems to be the top of the world (over 3500m, 11500 ft). There was no place to go that was any higher! Even in full sun the air was crisp and the breeze pushed it towards feeling cold so we dawned the wind breakers. |
 |
|
 |
 Up in the high country the rock turkils blended into the rocky landscape. |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 At
the edge of the plateau, much more dramatically than the climb to the top, the
road started to drop. For much of the next twenty kilometers the road was
cut into the side of the mountain as it wound around and switched back its
descent. At one point a truck had a abrupt meeting with the cliff where it came
up short negotiating a corner.In less than thirty kilometers the climate went from alpine to temperate to topical, with bananas and sugar cane. |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
A consequence of the splendid scenery was that we spent so much time stopping to appreciate it and take pictures that we arrived in Woldiya at dusk. The only thing that was photographed late in the day was a magnificent plate of vegetables and injera. | ||
|
|
|||
 |
|||
 |
Unique Programs To Special Places For Memories Of A Lifetime!
 Bicycle
Africa Homepage
Ibike Programs
IBF Homepage
To
Search
"Hosted by
DreamHost - earth friendly web hosting"
|
|
Please
write