Weekend Warrior

So I've been going on weekend trips, getting out of the city, fresh
air, wildlife, etc. And they have been really great. It feels like
Africa.

They have definitely lived up to expectations. This weekend we went to
Awash National Park. 3+ hours from Addis out in the bush. There was a
hot spring oasis, a volcano, local tribesmen with AK47s, oryx's, and
hotel from 1907 when the French built the railroad, everything you'd
want.

We hired a driver in Addis, recommended from another driver. He had to
borrow a Land Cruiser, but we figured it would be fine, his job was
"driver".

However the reason Ethiopians are such nice drivers in general is
because there are so few of them. The Majority of Habesha cannot
drive, and the one's that do have a lot less time behind the wheel
than your average Californian..

Our driver had never driven off of a paved road before, which made the
rutted roads of the park quite an experience for him, not to mention
us. He seemed more like a guy wealthy enough to own a car making money
on the side, then a driver (he took more pictures than we did). But
the kicker was that the battery connection in the Land Crusier was so
corroded that the car would rarely start the first time one turned the
key. Not to discount the ingenuity of the men of the developing world
in general (Max you can tell them about Rurrenbaque to La Paz), it was
temporarily fixed a few times by hammering a screw between the clamp
and the battery with a rock so the connection could be made, 30K from
a road. And it worked every time, sometimes with a few sparks and a
little smoke, but it eventually worked every time, until we were on
the way home, stopping for dinner in Nazeret one of Ethiopia's bigger
towns. It died completely. We (the four of us, along with a half dozen
other guys who were around) tried everything from pushing the car to
get it moving(as buses passed us on the right), to holding the battery
cable with pliers (not something I was willing to do). But by 8:30 it
was still not working, and as the last mini-buses were passing us
heading to Addis, we were a little worried.

Eventually a "mechanic" arrived on the scene, and with a little copper
wire, the day (or the night) was saved. After a prolonged argument
about how much the driver should give the crowd of people who helped
us, we were off again with no more turning off the engine (even to get
gas) all the way home..