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Addis Ababa
28.11.2001
SUDAN BOUND!
Dear friends, readers, enemies and others who scan
these pages, we are back on track. We are back up to
strength, we have our Visas and the Weasel has almost
recovered from her harrowing experience. Indeed
after her re-fit at Mitchell Cotts Garage in Addis She
is better than she was when she left Dar es Salaam.
Let me explain......
Two days ago another Land Rover pulled up into the
Debre Damo Hotel in Addis Ababa. A rather lanky
Dutchman and his delightful girlfriend stepped out and
asked us who we were. It turned out that they had been
searching for us for some time, they wanted company to
cross the great deserts of Sudan and the west.
They could not have come at a better time. We had been
at our most despondent. We had lost our other truck,
who is making no effort to contact us, we had no
visas, Sam could not wait any longer and had gone home
and Addis, the new flower of Ethiopia, was becoming
tedious.
Suddenly we had a truck, (The Dutch couple seem very
easy going) to at least link up with now and again,
our visas appeared, and someone in Addis Ababa showed
us a kindness that brightened up our day.
That person was the British Military Attaché. Tipped
off by Sam, he had scanned our Website and sent me an
e-mail inviting us to see the house, inside the
Embassy, where Wilfred Thesiger was born.
We turned up at the 92 acre site and were escorted up
to the Chancery by one of the Embassy Guards, a burly
but friendly Ethiopian called Solomon. He was
impeccably clad in a jet black uniform with a Union
Jack on his sleeve. Atop his head, his beret was raked
as though he served in Pirbright, not Addis. The
British Embassy grounds were granted to the Britain by
His Imperial Highness Haile Selassie in perpetuity. At
some stage, a Whitehall pen pusher (who had probably
never ventured further than the Costa del Sol) decided
that a 95 acre forest was not: "The image Britain
wanted to project". Plans had been made to sell it.
Upon further investigation, it was found that Britain
had no right to sell the land, only to occupy it. And
thus the lush green forest compound had survived the
spin doctor's knife.
(One day perhaps, someone will realise that tradition
and history sell, and keep British Citizens in jobs.)
The Colonel walked us around the grounds, showed us
the historic buildings and politely asked us
questions, he seemed genuinely interested in our
Expedition. He told us of his own experiences on
Ethiopian and Kenyan roads. All too soon, we had to
leave. His last words were.
"I'll be monitoring your reports, if you need help
send me an e-mail, I will act or re-act accordingly"
We were all quite taken by the Attaché's politeness,
interest and hospitality and I managed an invite to
teach him to dive at Swahili Divers before we had to
dash off.
With this dose of History we felt we had to see the
Ethnological museum. This was an old palace, and one
of the exhibits was the bedroom of the Emperor. I
found the palace as fascinating as the exhibits, but
then I have always been a fan of history.
That then brings me back to today when I picked up
our Sudanese Visas, collected our spare passports, and
went to collect the Weasel.
I leave you dear friends, in suspense as to our next
exploits........
Raf
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