See, here's the problem with blogging. When you're too busy / having too much fun to blog, then you feel guilty. Way to go blog, you ruined my vacation.
Seriously though, my apologies for the long, long delay in writing. Since Ethiopian New Year (September 11), Emma came to visit Ethiopia, and I've spent the last month in Abu Dhabi and Oman.
Well, now that everyone that was reading this has stopped checking it, the pressure to write coherent and entertaining posts is gone. What a great unintended consequence of my blogging laziness :)
It's time for a catch-up post that combines several weeks worth of stuff by comparing Ethiopia and Oman (and a bit of UAE) for no other reason than that I happened to be in both places recently. Sounds like a good reason to artificially compare two countries.
Short explanation of the two comparison points. I live in Ethiopia (which hopefully you know if you're reading this), but most of what I'll reference in the post is from when Emma came to visit (September 18-23) and we hung out in Addis and visited Lalibela / Bahir Dar. I've spent October visiting Emma and her family in Abu Dhabi, UAE. For Eid, they went to India and I went to Oman (October 11-18), where I met up with my buddy Daniel who's also working at the ATA in Ethiopia.
Trekking:
Ethiopia has some great hiking and climbing (comes from being a fairly mountaineous country). I haven't yet spent time in the Semien Mountains (highest mountains in Ethiopia), but the nice thing about Ethiopia is that there's great hiking just all throughout the country.
For example, if you want to quickly escape Addis car pollution, simply minibus / hike up Entoto (just north of town). The view is great, and like many places in Ethiopia, there's a church at the top.
There's also an old palace at the top, which is essentially just a big empty house with occasional signs telling you what the empty rooms used to be.
Our second day in Lalibela (more on that later), I climbed up to the plateau that overlooks the town (seen from below in the picture).
There was also a church up there.
So how does Oman stack up? The rocky cliffs, hills, and mountains (well large hills / small mountains and plateaus since the highest point in the country is only 3,000 meters) give a lot of the country a nature's playground feel. Daniel and I were continually seeing things (even just driving around Muscat or on the highway) and being like, "I really want to go climb that." For example, in Muscat, there are a bunch of what I can only describe as little castle turrets on the top of rocky hills. We were driving by the port when we saw the first one. We immediately parked and climbed up to it. In retrospect, climbing a hill near a major port and taking pictures at the top could probably get you into a lot of trouble, especially when some of those pictures are of the port because "hey, that's a cool view of the port."
Later in our trip, we went out to Jebel Shams, which is the highest point in Oman at about 3,000 meters. First you have to drive up to "the plateau," which is on one side of Oman's version of the Grand Canyon.
During the drive up, it actually started raining...no, pouring, which I did not expect. This was followed by us passing quite a few cars going the opposite direction. We got flagged over at a spot where a bunch of people had parked and were informed that the road was about to become unpaved for the last 10-15 km and that we couldn't make it in a two-wheel drive vehicle (also known as our awesome Toyota Yaris rental car).
Our chariot...
Apparently, most people hire a four-wheel drive vehicle to take them up even when it's dry and with the rain, the road was "unpassable" in two-wheel drive. Daniel and I figured we'd get as far as we could before making a decision and proceeded to ignore the advice / sales pitch. Once we made it to the unpaved part of the road (and the stream of cars going to opposite direction increased), one of the drivers going the other direction flagged us down (well, actually, all of them tried to flag us down, but we ignored most of them) and told us the road was closed due to flooding. Of course, we kept going.
Daniel also took this opportunity to tell me about the car he destroyed driving off-road when traveling somewhere else because the undercarriage of the car hit a rock, which destroyed the oil pan. This combined with the fact that rental car insurance in Oman has a $800 deductible scared the crud out of me. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm probably going to get more scared by the potential financial hit than by danger of actual bodily harm (cheapskate or thrifty? yeah, probably both). Maybe 5 km in, we came to the infamous washed out spot.
After taking a few moments to regroup, we decided not to be deterred. We watched several SUVs cross (to try to figure out the best path with the fewest rocks) and then actually waded across as well while removing large rocks we came across.
Once victoriously across, we figured it would be smooth sailing (well, driving). However, then we came to a steep climb covered in rocks (and due to the rain, mud). This was definitely the sketchiest part of the drive giving the number of large rocks we had to avoid driving over (except with the tires) while continually spinning out. Somehow we made it up.
[What? You expected pictures of these accomplishments? Taking pictures would have been tempting fate.]
Another few kilometers in, we reached the top of the plateau, and the road turned back into asphalt, which leads me to conclude that the purpose of not paving the entire road is simply to create jobs for the Omanis who drive people up in SUVs.
On the plateau, we passed the Omani who had originally told us we needed to hire his four-wheel drive vehicle to get up, and Daniel felt we'd earned the look of respect on the guy's face.
Of course, then I was terrified of damaging the car on the drive down the whole time we were up on the plateau, but by then it had dried up, and the drive isn't so bad when it's dry.
It was getting dark by the time we got to the plateau, so we set up camp for the night. The next day, we actually climbed Jebel Shams. The first third of the hike we actually couldn't find the path so we just sort of headed in the direction we knew the peak was. Eventually, we connected with the path. This might be a good time to define "path." Since the terrain was so rocky, there wasn't a clearly identifiable path the way I tend to think of one, so they've painted little flags on rocks to help guide you. Here's the last one at the top.
Sometimes the frequency of the flags diminishes to a point where you have to search fairly extensively for the next one. This was especially true on the way down when we got to the part we'd skipped on the way up, which happened to coincide with when it got dark. Also, we each took four liters of water when six to eight would probably have been more appropriate, so we were pretty thirsty near the end. Needless to say, the last part of the hike was somewhat unpleasant.
Overall, the hike is really great, though. The views are fantastic and there's a good mix of hiking and low-difficulty climbing.
Me at the top.
Random views from the hike and the top. When we got to the top, it was actually cloudy (and the top was in the clouds).
Confession time: The south peak that we climbed to is actually the second tallest point in Oman. The north peak is about 10 meters higher and is off limits with a fenced off radar station on top of it. The north peak is also a significantly easier / shorter hike since we were probably 80% of the way to the north peak at the halfway point to the south peak and since there's actually a freaking road up to the north peak. From that point in the path, getting to the south peak involves a lot of scaling up a peak just to scale down the other side of it. In all fairness, the fact that it's easier to get to the north peak is probably why they built the road / radar station there. While the very top is fenced off, I'm definitely getting as close as I can to the top of the north peak next time.
Clearly this comparison is going to take more than one post since we've only covered one category, but hopefully this one will at least get me back in the habit. Until next week (I promise...probably). Cheers!
Seriously though, my apologies for the long, long delay in writing. Since Ethiopian New Year (September 11), Emma came to visit Ethiopia, and I've spent the last month in Abu Dhabi and Oman.
Well, now that everyone that was reading this has stopped checking it, the pressure to write coherent and entertaining posts is gone. What a great unintended consequence of my blogging laziness :)
It's time for a catch-up post that combines several weeks worth of stuff by comparing Ethiopia and Oman (and a bit of UAE) for no other reason than that I happened to be in both places recently. Sounds like a good reason to artificially compare two countries.
Short explanation of the two comparison points. I live in Ethiopia (which hopefully you know if you're reading this), but most of what I'll reference in the post is from when Emma came to visit (September 18-23) and we hung out in Addis and visited Lalibela / Bahir Dar. I've spent October visiting Emma and her family in Abu Dhabi, UAE. For Eid, they went to India and I went to Oman (October 11-18), where I met up with my buddy Daniel who's also working at the ATA in Ethiopia.
Trekking:
Ethiopia has some great hiking and climbing (comes from being a fairly mountaineous country). I haven't yet spent time in the Semien Mountains (highest mountains in Ethiopia), but the nice thing about Ethiopia is that there's great hiking just all throughout the country.
For example, if you want to quickly escape Addis car pollution, simply minibus / hike up Entoto (just north of town). The view is great, and like many places in Ethiopia, there's a church at the top.
There's also an old palace at the top, which is essentially just a big empty house with occasional signs telling you what the empty rooms used to be.
Our second day in Lalibela (more on that later), I climbed up to the plateau that overlooks the town (seen from below in the picture).
There was also a church up there.
So how does Oman stack up? The rocky cliffs, hills, and mountains (well large hills / small mountains and plateaus since the highest point in the country is only 3,000 meters) give a lot of the country a nature's playground feel. Daniel and I were continually seeing things (even just driving around Muscat or on the highway) and being like, "I really want to go climb that." For example, in Muscat, there are a bunch of what I can only describe as little castle turrets on the top of rocky hills. We were driving by the port when we saw the first one. We immediately parked and climbed up to it. In retrospect, climbing a hill near a major port and taking pictures at the top could probably get you into a lot of trouble, especially when some of those pictures are of the port because "hey, that's a cool view of the port."
Later in our trip, we went out to Jebel Shams, which is the highest point in Oman at about 3,000 meters. First you have to drive up to "the plateau," which is on one side of Oman's version of the Grand Canyon.
During the drive up, it actually started raining...no, pouring, which I did not expect. This was followed by us passing quite a few cars going the opposite direction. We got flagged over at a spot where a bunch of people had parked and were informed that the road was about to become unpaved for the last 10-15 km and that we couldn't make it in a two-wheel drive vehicle (also known as our awesome Toyota Yaris rental car).
Our chariot...
Apparently, most people hire a four-wheel drive vehicle to take them up even when it's dry and with the rain, the road was "unpassable" in two-wheel drive. Daniel and I figured we'd get as far as we could before making a decision and proceeded to ignore the advice / sales pitch. Once we made it to the unpaved part of the road (and the stream of cars going to opposite direction increased), one of the drivers going the other direction flagged us down (well, actually, all of them tried to flag us down, but we ignored most of them) and told us the road was closed due to flooding. Of course, we kept going.
Daniel also took this opportunity to tell me about the car he destroyed driving off-road when traveling somewhere else because the undercarriage of the car hit a rock, which destroyed the oil pan. This combined with the fact that rental car insurance in Oman has a $800 deductible scared the crud out of me. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm probably going to get more scared by the potential financial hit than by danger of actual bodily harm (cheapskate or thrifty? yeah, probably both). Maybe 5 km in, we came to the infamous washed out spot.
After taking a few moments to regroup, we decided not to be deterred. We watched several SUVs cross (to try to figure out the best path with the fewest rocks) and then actually waded across as well while removing large rocks we came across.
Once victoriously across, we figured it would be smooth sailing (well, driving). However, then we came to a steep climb covered in rocks (and due to the rain, mud). This was definitely the sketchiest part of the drive giving the number of large rocks we had to avoid driving over (except with the tires) while continually spinning out. Somehow we made it up.
[What? You expected pictures of these accomplishments? Taking pictures would have been tempting fate.]
Another few kilometers in, we reached the top of the plateau, and the road turned back into asphalt, which leads me to conclude that the purpose of not paving the entire road is simply to create jobs for the Omanis who drive people up in SUVs.
On the plateau, we passed the Omani who had originally told us we needed to hire his four-wheel drive vehicle to get up, and Daniel felt we'd earned the look of respect on the guy's face.
Of course, then I was terrified of damaging the car on the drive down the whole time we were up on the plateau, but by then it had dried up, and the drive isn't so bad when it's dry.
It was getting dark by the time we got to the plateau, so we set up camp for the night. The next day, we actually climbed Jebel Shams. The first third of the hike we actually couldn't find the path so we just sort of headed in the direction we knew the peak was. Eventually, we connected with the path. This might be a good time to define "path." Since the terrain was so rocky, there wasn't a clearly identifiable path the way I tend to think of one, so they've painted little flags on rocks to help guide you. Here's the last one at the top.
Sometimes the frequency of the flags diminishes to a point where you have to search fairly extensively for the next one. This was especially true on the way down when we got to the part we'd skipped on the way up, which happened to coincide with when it got dark. Also, we each took four liters of water when six to eight would probably have been more appropriate, so we were pretty thirsty near the end. Needless to say, the last part of the hike was somewhat unpleasant.
Overall, the hike is really great, though. The views are fantastic and there's a good mix of hiking and low-difficulty climbing.
Me at the top.
Random views from the hike and the top. When we got to the top, it was actually cloudy (and the top was in the clouds).
In these pictures you can kind of make out the radar tower on the top of the peak in the background.
Clearly this comparison is going to take more than one post since we've only covered one category, but hopefully this one will at least get me back in the habit. Until next week (I promise...probably). Cheers!
Great to ready more about your adventures ^_^ That place looks like tons of fun!
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