Day 6 – Lalibela to Gondar – Charlotte
After leaving Lalibela at the early hour of 6am, we faced the long bus journey to Gondar. Due to the early start to the day, the cafe at the hotel was not yet open, so we hit the road with empty stomachs. However, soon after we set off, we stopped at a small village not far outside Lalibela to have a cup of tea or coffee and a bite to eat. The shop next door to the buna beyt (coffee house) sold samosas and other handmade goodies. Perfect for breakfast. A boy from the samosa shop next door came around and sold us a range of goodies which pleasantly filled our stomachs. The boy who sold us the food, however, neglected to give us change (which although individually wasn’t much, amounted to quite a bit). This was mostly resolved after a long while of our coach driver, Zergai (what a lad), argued with the boy who sold us them. After using the Shintabait (toilet) we were back on the road to Gondar.
Upon arrival to Gondar, we met up with Andy Cunningham, had a quick turn around and drop off of bags before setting off to the market in preparation for the mountains. When we were dropped at the market, we split into groups with separate lists of items we needed to locate and haggle for, before we set off in different directions to complete our mission – to buy supplies for camping at the cheapest price possible.
The first problem which everyone encountered in the market is that we were obviously foreign. This attracted crowds and interest, especially for those of us who had lighter hair, eyes and who were female. Each small group of us attracted about 20 or so children and curious locals who followed us for the duration. This was overwhelming for many (especially for those who had sun burn, as that was a big attraction).
Aside from the stress caused from the crowds, the second problem was the prices. As we were obviously foreign, shop and stall owners tried to sell goods to us at prices that they thought we would be so clueless or rich to know to pay otherwise. This is where the amazing haggling talents of Frank, Kirsty, Katie, Ellen and Sophie came into play, pressuring shop owners into lowering their prices to local prices, and in some cases, even lower. We hope that the prices we paid impressed Griff (Richard) because I know that we all worked really hard.
After the chaos of the market, we went to some shops which sold Western food for us to take into the mountains. Needless to say, everyone was over the moon with Nutella and Pink wafers. We went back to the hotel after getting what we wanted to have a nice, long relax before sorting our bags out to take to the mountains (by the way, one bag between two people for four days is NOT an easy job…well maybe not for the lads).
We went downstairs for our evening meal in the hotel restaurant. By all accounts it was nice for everyone and hilarious trying to catch up Andy on a week’s worth of banter which he missed. After dinner, everyone prepared for four nights in the mountains before setting our heads down for what seemed like the blink of an eye.