summer to november in 25 hours...
on Tara's Ethiopian Adventure (Ethiopia), 29/Jul/2010 13:29, 34 days ago
I just returned to Ethiopia after 5 weeks of almost perpetual sunshine in England. It was amazing! ... I don’t remember ever having such a long spell of perfect weather back home before and it certainly left me with very rose tinted memories of my time there. 5 weeks went by so quickly and were filled with long summer days, family, friends and loads of cakes as I made my way from one special event to another! Soon enough I was packing up and heading back to Ethiopia. I left my parents house at about 8.30am (BST) on a lovely sunny Sunday morning and arrived in Addis (after an 8 hour transit in Dubai) around 9.30am (BST) to a wet and miserable Monday morning in Addis. Welcome to Africa! I couldn’t believe how cold it was! My friends had warned me that Addis gets very cold in the summer but it felt like I’d suddenly arrived in mid November and I was totally unprepared. After long hot summer days I was now greeted by a week of nonstop rain and it was now getting dark at around 6pm. The rain wasn’t even of the tropical variety that hits hard but is still fairly warm and dries up quickly...instead it was cold and persistent and grim. Wednesday lunch time some friends and I headed to a local restaurant for lunch fully kitted out in several layers, scarves, hats and waterproofs ( I was even wearing some wellies I brought over from UK) and we were so cold we felt like we could be in a ski resort! The worst bit is that there are no warm houses to dry off in when you get soaked to the bone...no central heating...and clothes take days to dry. Brrrr! Thankfully not all of Ethiopia is like this at the moment. Ambo is normally a couple of degrees warmer and a bit drier. The Afar region is unthinkably hot at the moment with temperatures averaging in the 40’s (celcius)... But here in Addis it remains cold and wet... and I’ll be here until next Wednesday while I take part in an intensive language course. I never thought I’d be in Africa longing for the British sun! Perhaps today will be a little warmer?! Here’s hoping!