A full nights sleep in a proper bed was just when I needed, I even woke naturally before the alarm so I feel very refreshed. We have an interview with a government spokesperson at 11am so even time for a nice relaxed breakfast.
The interview is at the Ministry for information, sounds like department from Harry Potter, which is the same place where our permit was handled, so we know this building well by now.
We then made it back to the hotel to meet a worker who wouldn't talk to us over the phone, but gave us some great details about who to see and where to go over the next few days. Then the long drive south to the Wolletta region (spell?). The spelling of place names can vary greatly. They change and develop over time.
I thought the trip was going to be dirt road, but so far it's actually mostly tarmac, but the stench of diesel is overpowering. The traffic in Addis is quite bad, the major roads congested at most times of the day. Now we are heading out this road has hundreds of haulage trucks transporting all sorts of things around the country.
Addis is high up on a mountain, so we are now heading down the valley and seeing beautiful countryside, with mountains in the distance, schoolchildren and locals walking along the side of the road with donkeys / mules carrying loads. Every now and then we pass a village of mud huts and brick buildings, with people selling food at the side of the street.
As we head further out we start to see fields of crops although they mostly look dry and burnt. Some areas look OK, on closer inspection we realise that this is due to the irrigation that has been installed in some areas to help use the rains better, this seems to be working.
A few huge greenhouses appear every couple of miles, these are for growing flowers which is big business for export here. I'm told Somerfield has a big deal with one grower here. A lot gets grown here as Ethiopian labour is cheaper than Kenya, and cheap in general. Then we see row upon row of greenhouse, it is the largest in the country and is right beside one of Ethiopia's rivers. The problem is that these greenhouses takes large amounts of water from the river. I'm also told they use pesticides that are damaging to the soil.
The driving is interesting, lots of horn tooting, but in quite a nice, “watch out I'm coming” toot, rarely in an aggressive way. You do have to watch out for animals wandering / bolting across the road, as well as people carting their goods around as cars overtake lorries. This game becomes much more interesting after dark. . . .
After 4-5 hours driving we stop for the night at a nice, and very quiet hotel.
We are travelling with Tsiget (pron. See-gay), a reporter from the BBC French Afrique service. She is Ethiopian but grew up in Bordeaux. She now lives in Ethiopia and works as a freelance journalist. It's been nice listening to her stories in the car on the drive down.
Food prices here are very good, for instance, tonight's meal for four people including 6 beers came to the grand total of £12.50. So don't worry, I'm looking after the licence fee.
Tomorrow, 6.30am breakfast and then to drive a bit further for a packed days filming.
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