Latest / The Overland Journal Podcast / Crossing Continents: Ethiopia with Bryon Bass and the Grenadier

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Crossing Continents: Ethiopia with Bryon Bass and the Grenadier · The Overland Journal Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Overland Journal podcast. I am
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: your host, Scott Brady, and I've joined today with my
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: travel companion Brian Bass, and we discuss our recent journey
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: through the country of Ethiopia. I actually picked up Brian
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: in the northern parts of Kenya and we continued up
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: to very intensive border crossing into Ethiopia before exploring the
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Omo Valley at us Ababa, onto Harar and Dera Dawa.
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  Speaker 1: And these are incredible parts of the world. It's one
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: of the most culturally diverse countries that we've ever experienced
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: in our travels, and we really had a lot of
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: learnings along the way and some great stories to tell.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: So we go into our experience in Ethiopia and then
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: leave you hanging at our border crossing into Djibouti. So
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: please enjoy my conversation with Brian Bass. Now at the
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: end of this episod, we actually include another conversation that
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: we had with Mueller from Ethio Trek, who helped us
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: get the vehicle temporarily imported into Ethiopia. So there's a
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: little bit of redundancy in the conversation, but Muller has
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: some great insights and you get to hear it firsthand
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: from an Ethiopian that's helping overlanders to overcome this significant
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: challenge of crossing Africa. So enjoy my conversation with Brian
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: Bass and then if you want to hang around towards
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: the end where we also pick up the conversation with Muller.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: So thanks for listening, and a special thanks to three
• 1:38
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  Speaker 1: three Outdoors, go explore. All right, Brian, so let's talk
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: about Ethiopia. What do you think, I mean, what an
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: incredible country. I mean, just maybe just kind of give
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: the listener a little perspective on the history of that place,
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: you know, just like kind of from the ten thousand
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  Speaker 1: foot view.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, Ethiopia is obviously a big part of
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  Speaker 2: the Rift Valley goes through Ethiopia, and it's it's truly
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  Speaker 2: a significant part of the cradle of human civilization. Some
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  Speaker 2: of the most important early human sites are found in Ethiopia.
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  Speaker 2: We actually visited some of the we did some of
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  Speaker 2: the materials we were able to look at, which for
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: me was kind of like coming home at the National
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: Museum in attus Ababa.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: Well, maybe and maybe give maybe give a little background
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: for the listeners that don't know who you are. We've
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: got two podcasts with Brian.
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: Go back and more.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, maybe we've got more than that back in the archive,
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: but you know, kind of give give the listener an
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: overview of why you are doctor Brian Bass, which in
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: my mind, this is how you've been referred to in
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: previous podcasts, is that you are You're the real Indiana Jones.
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: So tell them why you're the real Indiana Jones.
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: Well, I'm not sure Indiana Jones never talked about, you know,
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: getting stomach issues and in odd places. But uh, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: I have a I have a a BA in anthropology
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: with an archaeology emphasis, and uh and a PhD in
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: archaeology that I got from the University of Edinburgh, and
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: my my main field research was survey on an island
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: off the coast Croatia. But my my area of let's
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: say specialty is prehistory, coastal and marine prehistory really up
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  Speaker 2: to the time that the Greeks kind of showed up
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: on those islands. But then in my professional career I
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: kind of took a different turn and and and left
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: academia and I went into consulting archaeology consulting, so it's
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: it's all regulatory driven. My clients are concerned with a
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: permitting or planning process, and so I assist them with
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: their paperwork and the legal legal aspects of it, but
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: also do the field survey and the excavation when it's required,
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: and so in that regard, I've been able to travel
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: all over the planet, and as part of that, I've
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: had to study up in areas where maybe I didn't
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: have sure such a solid academic background, but had to
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: get up to speed literally in less than a month,
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: on everything you need to know about the history of
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: the South Pacific, for example, or South America, Central America,
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: things like that. So that's kind of a thumbnail sketch
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  Speaker 2: of my background in archeology.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: Well, and what I remember Ryan one of our earlier
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: trips we did in twenty sixteen where we drove through
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: Uganda up into South Sudan and then back down the
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: west side of Lake Turkana, and you and I we
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: had pulled into a campsite and we were starting to
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: set up shop, and the other folks who were with
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  Speaker 1: Stanley and France and these other guys Alex, they were
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  Speaker 1: all working on the g wagons and I was setting
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  Speaker 1: up something to prepare a meal, and you're you're wandering
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  Speaker 1: around and next thing I know, you're coming back with
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  Speaker 1: with early human stone tools.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah. As a matter of fact, I think
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  Speaker 2: we published an article on that Actulian hand axe that
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  Speaker 2: I found, and that's that's sort of one of the
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  Speaker 2: it's one of the holy grails. As a prehistorian, I mean,
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  Speaker 2: you know, we study that stuff. You know, I've never
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  Speaker 2: done any formal archaeological field survey in that area, but
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  Speaker 2: it was very obvious, and especially where we were, and
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  Speaker 2: that's it. That's at ground zero for for early homined
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  Speaker 2: uh activity and evolution, and yeah, I mean.
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  Speaker 1: I mean it was it was just so neat because
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  Speaker 1: you know, part of the conversation is, I'm like, Brian,
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  Speaker 1: how in the world is it that we were able
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  Speaker 1: to find these because you didn't find just the Issulian
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  Speaker 1: hand acts.
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  Speaker 2: You found there was a lot of debris that little
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  Speaker 2: we were kind of up against that it was kind
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  Speaker 2: of like a rock shelter, it was. And obviously the
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  Speaker 2: landscape has changed quite a bit since since the humans
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  Speaker 2: who deposited those materials moved on, but nevertheless, that outcrop
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  Speaker 2: was still there and you can kind of envision somebody
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  Speaker 2: maybe spending the night or two or three, or I
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: don't know, something like a week overlooking what's now has
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  Speaker 2: receded as as Lake Turkana and or some savannahs down below,
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  Speaker 2: some drainages and Yeah, it was that was that was
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  Speaker 2: an interesting That was an interesting time because you know,
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  Speaker 2: for me, I'm looking at that that hand axe and
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  Speaker 2: and then seeing Stanley and Fronts with their tool kit
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  Speaker 2: out wrenching on a Mercedes g Wagon and and for me,
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  Speaker 2: it was like the continuum of of of human history
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  Speaker 2: or the use of tools, development of tools. It was there,
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  Speaker 2: it was right there, Andy.
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  Speaker 1: A willingness to overcome problems exactly. I mean, and that's
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  Speaker 1: just really been the thread of this trip for Ethiopia
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  Speaker 1: in particular. I mean, you and I kind of came
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  Speaker 1: down to the realization that this is really an origin story.
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  Speaker 3: It is in in Ethiopia.
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  Speaker 1: The cultures that we were able to interact with, I mean,
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  Speaker 1: the fact that we were able to go to the
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  Speaker 1: museum in Addis Ababa and and see Lucy, you know,
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  Speaker 1: see party, They're right, They're right there, right there. It's
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  Speaker 1: just it's just an incredible thing to see in person
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  Speaker 1: and recognize just how important Africa was to the development
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  Speaker 1: of human civilization and humankind and the human species. So
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  Speaker 1: really an impressive country. But I guess maybe we we
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  Speaker 1: backtrack a little bit to Kenya because the schedule worked
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  Speaker 1: out where I was I was spending weeks trying to
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  Speaker 1: get permitting paperwork approvals to get into Ethiopia. We'll talk
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  Speaker 1: about that a little bit more, but that was a
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  Speaker 1: total of about a four month process, and the real
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  Speaker 1: sprint was in the end when I needed to go
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  Speaker 1: to the to the Ethiopian embassy. Would ended up being
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  Speaker 1: five times in order to finally get all of the
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  Speaker 1: approvals that I needed to go to the border.
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  Speaker 3: And then you had a big event that you went
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  Speaker 3: to with your partner.
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  Speaker 1: Because you guys work in the Arabian horse field as well.
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  Speaker 1: So in addition to you, in addition to you being
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  Speaker 1: Indiana Jones, you're also a vintner and you and your
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  Speaker 1: partner run what I believed to be one of the
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  Speaker 1: most pre eminent Arabian horse farms and breeding programs in
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  Speaker 1: the world.
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  Speaker 2: So yeah, I'm more like the sidekick really to that,
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  Speaker 2: you know, I mean, that's that's I help out where
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  Speaker 2: I can. Yeah, it's hauling horses, you know, cleaning stalls,
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  Speaker 2: helping trench you know when it rains.
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  Speaker 1: Is clearly the charging the amazing, the amazing out.
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  Speaker 2: To the maximum maximum extent.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, so you had to you had to do that
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  Speaker 1: and that required you to come in towards the end
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  Speaker 1: of the month, and then uh so it didn't really
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  Speaker 1: make sense for you to fly for me to pick
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  Speaker 1: you up in Ni Robi, so it allowed me to
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  Speaker 1: to head.
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  Speaker 3: Further north and I did an incredible trip with.
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  Speaker 1: Avid and with JJ Jonathan that some of you have
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  Speaker 1: heard on the podcast already. JJ works for the State
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  Speaker 1: Department in Kenya. We were able to do a couple
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  Speaker 1: of trips together. But this this journey that we did
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  Speaker 1: was on the east side of Lake Trecana, so the
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  Speaker 1: other side of where you and I found those stone tools,
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  Speaker 1: and we went up through some really incredible terrain, very
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  Speaker 1: challenging terrain, very challenging on the vehicle, and then we
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  Speaker 1: ended up at the lake and we were actually able
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  Speaker 1: to stay in a small village on the lake.
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  Speaker 3: Limited infrastructure.
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  Speaker 1: There was power for just a couple hours at night
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: when they would run the generator, and it really stretched
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: the limits of our fuel capacity. Even the other Grenadier
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: that was with me was diesel, which has a little
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: bit better overall range, and we were both putting in
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: tanks of spare fuel to get through this route because
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: it was just nothing available, or certainly nothing of the
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: quality that we would feel comfortable putting into the vehicle.
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  Speaker 1: So that was a really incredible journey and so fun
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  Speaker 1: to do with Abbed and JJ. And you know, at
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: one point in time, we had come through an area
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  Speaker 1: and Abvid's phone just gets starts getting blown up, and
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: it's the hotel that we had stayed at the night before,
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: and they're like, we just want you to know that
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: there's banditry happening right now. We just got word that
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: there was a bandit attack and we basically came through
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: the region or this area where this banditree it just
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: happened fifteen minutes before. So just incredible that happens that
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: we were so fortunate to be just after this event occurred.
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  Speaker 1: So even though Kenya is an incredibly safe country overall,
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: and I would highly recommend people visit it, even with
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: your kids and your family, you just need to know
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: where you got to go. So I was certainly grateful
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  Speaker 1: to have JJ along, who has a particular set of skills,
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: and also having the local and Avid there as well.
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  Speaker 4: Having multiple vehicles was a good thing.
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  Speaker 1: So we were really fortunate to be able to go through
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  Speaker 1: that region and see that region without any incident.
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  Speaker 2: So yeah, I mean, I mean that's how it is
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: in a lot of places. It is on the planet.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, you need to usually have your radar on,
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: and it could be just making sure somebody doesn't cut
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: you off on a highway driving across North America. We're
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: just paying it ttention to the clothing that people at
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  Speaker 2: a checkpoint are wearing and kind of knowing.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and you and I talked about that earlier. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: you know, it's to me, it's now become natural. But
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  Speaker 1: you know, there are times when someone that looks like
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  Speaker 1: an official is flagging me down to stop, and I
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: will not stop. There's a couple criteria that I have
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: for that in my experience. Other people will have different criteria.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: This is not to say that this is gospel. I'm
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: not saying that this is like a principle of overlanding.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: This is a personal principle. But for me, if there's
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: not a motorcycle or a vehicle clearly visible, especially if
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: there's if it's just a single individual out on the road,
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  Speaker 1: I will usually not stop because there's not enough visual
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: cues to reinforce their authority or the genuineness of their authority.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: If I start to see any mismatching of uniform, I
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: also will not stop. I do slow down, I do
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  Speaker 1: make I do acknowledge them, and.
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  Speaker 3: I do wave. You always remove yeah, remove the shade.
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: The shade.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, especially you and I rolling down the road.
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  Speaker 1: It's like, you know, we already are going to raise suspicion.
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  Speaker 1: So which again, on that last trip, we ran into
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: all kinds of trouble and Kenya.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, they were.
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  Speaker 1: They were very convinced that we were there under different auspices.
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  Speaker 1: And and this this one comandante was he was pretty
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: pissed that we weren't disclosing, disclosing our mission.
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: They didn't like.
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, he didn't like your sport.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: It was the sport that raised all yeah, to raise
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: all the suspicions with them when when they saw the
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: titanium spork. But so, yeah, I normally will not stop. Now,
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: if you see a vehicle that's got clearly police markings
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: and everything else and they're indicating for you to stop,
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: you better stop, and we do.
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: Uh.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: But even on this trip there were times that we didn't.
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: We didn't stop.
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but they they were. It was the circumstances were
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: clearly the outliers. I mean when you see consistent uniform
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: people wearing camouflage, that that's that's of the same type.
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: I mean, I'm also looking at things like are they
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: do they have their trousers bloused into their boots and
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: do they see rank insignia? Is is uh? Is somebody
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: walking out, you know to meet you at a checkpoint?
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: And we could clarify these are checkpoints, not really roadblocks
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: per se. Usually it's a string or something across the road.
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: Are they walking out?
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  Speaker 3: Uh?
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: You know, do they have a firearm at the ready
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: or they just kind of the one the one private
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: who's told to go out of the shade and we
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: make contact with the car, and those are those are
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: some of the things that were that we're looking for
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: as visual cues.
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we look, and we will look very closely. We're
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: just a single vehicle, so the risk profile for us
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: is much higher. So we're we're pretty cautious and the
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: reality is is that I would much rather have to
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: explain myself after they send a vehicle after us, you know.
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: And of course if a vehicle comes to pull you over,
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: slow down to below the speed limit, put on your
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: hazard so that you've acknowledged that you know that they're there,
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: but then wait until you find a safe space to
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: pull over.
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: You got it.
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: We had that happen too.
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right.
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: Actually, that's right near near.
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: That's right, right, Yeah, we did. Yeah to tell that story.
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean yeah, I think it was hard to
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: tell because they were in an unmarked car where they
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: were in a highlux, and then some of the people
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: in the back of the highlux were not in uniform.
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: It might have been a mix of local police and
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: the customs officials. But next thing we knew they were
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: they were driving right up alongside, right up alongside of
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: of the grenadier waving a little paddle. They were that
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: that had a stop written on it, and so we
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: slowly pulled over. But there was a lot They.
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: Also had guys with guns and uniform.
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: They certainly did.
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: They made it.
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: They made it great traffic there. It was the middle
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: of the day, it was on a main road, uh
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: and and with a lot of vehicles around, and so
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: we we did pull over, and it turned out, you know,
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: they just wanted to make sure. I think people were
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: just interested in the fact that we're driving around in
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: this new vehicle that nobody had seen with with the
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: UK registration on us and uh.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: They were very they were very serious about us pulling
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: over and UH and they were they were They looked
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: like they were pretty.
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: Aggressive when they first got out of the vehicle.
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: But we were lucky because we were there with Buller,
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: who will introduce here in a second, but he's an
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: Ethiopian and he was able to quickly communicate with them.
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: We provided the documentation that they required to show that
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: the vehicle had entered Ethiopia legally, and then everything was fine.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: There was lots of smiling.
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: And handshakes and fist bumping, right, but it's always important,
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: you know, to start out those contacts with with your
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: sunglasses off right and with a smile and a wave
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: or even you know, a salutation in the local language.
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: That goes a long way to de escalating something that
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: might take off.
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: And if you're a little if you're still a little uncertain,
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: I mean some of the other things that you and
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: I do. I mean that the sunglasses off is really
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: important because it allows for that human connection, that eye contact,
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: even if they have their sunglasses on. The Other thing
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: that it does is it prevents them from wanting to
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: take your sunglasses. I've had that happen where you know,
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: you're wearing a nice pair of shades and they may
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: see that as being the ticket to you being able
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: to go free. Is you giving them your sunglasses that
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: they've now decided that they like, So I always tuck
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: them in the center console because I happen to like
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: my sunglasses. So thanks either, so you know, take the
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: sunglasses off, make eye contact.
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: The other thing that you and I do, and you have.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: Good discipline around it, which I appreciate, is you only
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: roll the window down. You know, probably around two thirds,
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: I would say is a good starting point. The more
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: official and the more established the stop, the further I
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: will roll the window down, even to include it being
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: down all the way, so it shows that I'm not
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: putting a barrier between them and myself. But if things
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: are a little uncertain, or the person is of junior rank,
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: or there's limited number of people, or they seem to
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: be like casually assembled, then we do keep the window
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: at about half or two thirds so that people can't
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: get up, so that people can't can't get into the
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: vehicle quickly, they can't reach in, grab the keys, whatever
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: they're going to do it.
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: Is one thing that's cool about the grenadier.
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: The keys are actually on the other side of the
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: steering wheel, so you wouldn't be able to reach in
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: and grab keys.
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: It would be difficult, Yeah, especially on the right hand,
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: to be.
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: Pretty much, it'd be pretty much there be pretty much
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: impossible for them.
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: But it's it's important to point out that that we're
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: just talking about contacts with local local police and customs
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: that really over the course of the day maybe we
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: would have multip all of those, but the rest of
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: the time we're driving along and and just having a
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: great time.
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: Oh totally.
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: And and uh, you know, experiencing the culture, experiencing the scenery,
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: the geology, everything, and but this is a part of
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: traveling this part of the world and it can't be overlooked.
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and it And for me, it's you know, like
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: all these lessons that I've learned, is that they come
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: from a failure, They come from from a bad experience
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: in the past.
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: That now keeps it very top of mind for me.
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: And that was when I had that attempted carjacking in
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: Central Asia, and the biggest mistake that I made was
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: having the window down all the way. So you know,
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: when you're you're in a situation where you feel like
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: you want to deep a little bit of protection, don't
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: roll the window down all the way, you know, and
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: still allows them to reach through and shake your hand
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: or fist bump or whatever. But and it doesn't look
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: like you're trying to you know, don't crack it just
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: an inch, So then that looks like you're.
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: Being Yeah, yeah, you're being a little little crafty.
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: But yeah, yeah, it can be seen as rude or
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: I think so, I think at that moment, you are
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: not the person in authority, that's right, if they're legitimate,
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: it will be the person approaching the vehicle, that's right.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: Documentation, Well, let's start off by introducing the third character
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: to the story, which is Moeller, and he runs an
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: organization called Ethio Trek and Moller is very well connected
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: in Ethiopia and he is currently considered to be the
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: very best choice for assisting an Overlander in getting a
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: full drive or an adventure motorcycle into the country of Ethiopia.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: They are currently not accepting Park Karnes. They're currently not
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: issuing temporary import. Ethiopia has recently had a civil war
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: that is still in process but dying down, and as
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: a result, they had gotten very insulary as a country
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: and they basically were shutting down tourism. During this whole
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: period of time when this happened, which was shortly after
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: the civil war in Sudan, there were no overlanders that
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: were stuck at the border, oftentimes for days and days
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: and days. There's a story of some motorcyclists that were
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: actually at the border for eleven days trying to get
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: through and they ultimately could not. So fortunately there is
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: now a process to actually continue driving north from Kenya
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: into Ethiopia, and then currently the only option is either
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: to exit via Djibouti or exit via the maybe soon
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: to be recognized buturrently unrecognized Huntreyette of Somali land, So
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: there are two options to ship out of if you
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: want to try to make it further north. For me,
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: the goal was to make it north of the Horn
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: of the Horn of Africa to have a proper crossing
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: of the continent. So it was really critical that I
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: get through Ethiopia and then into Djibouti.
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: So Mueller.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: I contacted three different folks that were supposed to be
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: able to help with this stuff. Muller responded within thirty minutes. Professional,
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: great English, and in our experience with him, professional across
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: the board, very.
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: Well spoken, speaks German as well. Crazy.
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: They were able a couple of times to break into German, right,
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: you know, when when I had to talk with him
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: without anyone in the area knowing what it is we.
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: Were talking, that's right. So that was very cool.
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: And you know, and he's also you know, he's young
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: and enthusiastic and very open and and fun to be
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: with too.
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: Like he's just a cool he's a cool cat. He's Rastafarian.
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: He seems to know in every small village anywhere, he
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: knows somebody there, you.
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: Know, as a fixer, or he knows a tour guide,
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: or he knows somebody, and that's that's just really key.
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: But he was quick to reply, he was very clear
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: in what needed to be done. And that was again
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: four months ago when I made that initial contact. But
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: it was a long process and it costs around one
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: thousand dollars to pay all of the fees that are
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: required with all of these different ministries in order to
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: get these letters of approval, and then ultimately you end
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: up with a package of documentation that goes to the
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: border at Moyale and it's waiting for you when you
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: when you rock up. And you know, we we checked
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: ourselves out of Kenya.
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: I mean, we had a nice drive up, but that
• 24:51
  Speaker 3: was really great, Yeah, it was and it was a
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: great road in Kenya. We got to see that bitch
• 24:56
  Speaker 3: and crater.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it looked like it was a mark which is
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: like subsurface water that had superheated and exploded the surface
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: and it is perfectly beautifully round crater.
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: So we got to do.
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: That, did our land cruiser spotting that's right, very variant
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: you can imagine along the road.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: And then it was really critical to have the vehicle
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: full full on fuel when we went into Ethiopia because
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: we knew that benzene or unleaded fuel was going to
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: be in limited supply in the country, which will well
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: maybe we even talk about it now. I mean, Ethiopia
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: is an island nation in the sense that it is
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: not connected to the water, to the ocean, so it's
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: an island within a continent where they're completely isolated from
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: access to shipping. So they have to ship everything in
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: and out of Djibouti, which is incredibly expensive. They don't
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: produce their own oil, they don't have their own refineries.
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: All has to be trucked.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: It all has to be trucked in from the port
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: in Djibouti. I mean that's how Actually where we're sitting
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: right now, the Indian Ocean behind us, you know, the
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: Gulf of Aden, and just beyond the horizon here is
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: the country of Yemen. So this is a very dynamic region,
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: especially in the current state. So the fact that Ethiopia
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: has to send how many how many fuel trucks did
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: you we just in that one parking area there a thousand?
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah. When you think about you know, one truck maybe
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: having two you know, trailers attached to it. Yeah, yeah, incredible. Yeah.
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: And and of course that that plays out on the
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: other end on the Ethiopian it died with with fuel shortages.
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: Just availability of of unleaded fuel was a real issue.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: So we came in full full on fuel. We arrived
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: at the border. I think we were through the process
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: in Kenya, what do you think about forty five minutes.
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and then we got stamped out.
• 26:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and uh yeah, we.
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: We we entered that gray area, which I think can
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: happen a couple of times.
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: We're now in the no man's land.
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: Where where we were passports were stamped out, but the
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: vehicle was and the vehicle was also vehicle stamped out,
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: but we were not technically stamped in with all the
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: paperwork into the the Ethiopian side of the border.
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah we did get yeah, that's right.
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: So then so we we get through that process and
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: the people from Ethiopia were still supposed to be there,
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: but they had.
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: Gone Friday Friday, and they were friendly enough. I mean,
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: they just said everyone's gone for the day. You have
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: to come back tomorrow morning.
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: So we were lucky that the Kenyon officials were like,
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: he remembered us minutes maybe, you know, and they know
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: they know the problem, so they're like, don't don't sweat it.
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: You can drive back into town and go to a hotel.
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: So we were like, we were we were in we
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: were in no country at all, because we at that moment, yeah,
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: we we had you know, we had used our single
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: entry visa to Kenya.
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: They had stamped us out.
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: That's right, we were stamped out, so we really couldn't
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: even go back into Kenya. The vehicle had been stamped
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: out with the carnage of the vehicle was also illegally
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: in Kenya, but they were they were cool.
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: They're like, yeah, you can go to the hotel.
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: It was maybe a kilometer is the most. Yeah, So
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: it was it was crazy. I guess the only thing
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: we still had active was our insurance. But you know,
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: the uh, the challenges of the borders. But then the
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: next morning, I mean we were there right when they
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: opened up.
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Then that process took maybe two I think it
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: was about two hours forty five minutes or something like that.
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: Like at about three hours we were We stopped once
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: we got through that border section on the side of
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: the road, just to kind of regroup and do a
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: session of deep breathing and adjusting ourselves and then pressing on.
• 28:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: So when you get to the border, you've got these
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: letters that you've received from uh, the Ethiopian embassy. So
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: how the process works is you contract with Moller. Moller
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: writes a letter from his tour company, which is a
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: registered certified.
• 29:13
  Speaker 3: Tour company in Ethiopia.
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: He sends a letter with your information and some additional
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: copies of like passport vehicle information, and he sends that
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: to the Minister of Tourism, and then the Minister of
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: Tourism then sends a letter to the ambassador at the
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: Ethiopian Embassy in Nairobi requesting that they verify all of
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: our documentation who we are about the vehicle.
• 29:44
  Speaker 3: And then they will write a letter. Then that goes
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: to the Minister of Customs back in Addis Ababa, and
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: then the Minister of Customs once they have everything done,
• 29:55
  Speaker 3: once they're satisfied with everything, and then they send a
• 29:58
  Speaker 3: package of paper work to the border at Moyale. So
• 30:02
  Speaker 3: the reason why it takes so much time at the
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: Ethiopian Embassy in Nairobi is that the process changes a
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: little bit. So I came in with the paperwork that
• 30:13
  Speaker 3: we thought was going to work and they said, oh,
• 30:16
  Speaker 3: the guy's gone for the day, come back tomorrow. So
• 30:18
  Speaker 3: I came back the next day.
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: I finally got a hold of the right guy and
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: he says, oh, you need to have this thing.
• 30:24
  Speaker 3: So then I get to have.
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: To get a hold of molar has to create that,
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: which took another day, and then I came back in
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: the morning with that and they said, okay, come back
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: in the afternoon, we'll have.
• 30:32
  Speaker 3: The letter for you.
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: So then I came back in the afternoon and they said, I,
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: we can't give you the letter because the ambassador he's
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: out sick for the afternoon, but he'll be in in
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: the morning. And then I came back the next day
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: and he says like, ah, He's like, we're so close.
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: He says, but I need to have this other letter
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: from you where you're describing why you're going to Ethiopia,
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: that you're a tourist, with the information of your car
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: in there, and you need to sign it.
• 30:55
  Speaker 3: And I'm like, can I just do that right here
• 30:57
  Speaker 3: in my own pen?
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: And he's like, yeah, that's fine, And so I wrote
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: it out in a n.
• 31:04
  Speaker 3: I wrote it out.
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: I wrote it out in penn handed it to him,
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: and then that afternoon I came back and it actually
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: was was signed.
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: Off and good to go.
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: And then I sent you know, that letter, a scan
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: of that letter to Moeller, who then sends it to
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: the Minister of Customs. And so we did make it
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: through the border. It took some time, but it wasn't
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: that bad. I mean, two in two howers in three
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: quarters or so is just not It's just not it's
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: not that bad. But then we were in Ethiopia. That's right,
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: you know, And we we were both a little uncertain
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: about how the security situation was going to be in Ethiopia.
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: There just wasn't there wasn't good information. It had been
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: classified as a Level three country, which the State US
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: State Department advises against traveling to.
• 31:57
  Speaker 3: But it's a big country.
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: And I had gotten some better RESI you know, kind
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: of resolution or or a detail around where.
• 32:05
  Speaker 3: The areas of concern were.
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: And then I put together an itinerary and I sent
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: that to the State Department, and then they had some suggestions,
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: and I also sent it to some other Ethiopians that
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: I knew that could say you really don't want to
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: go to this area or whatever, because we wanted to
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: go to Lollibla in the north, and pretty much everything
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: was just like, don't do that.
• 32:24
  Speaker 3: I guess people are flying in.
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was.
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: The drive driving was just there was some express kidnappings
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: happening and some other issues that had come up recently.
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: So we had to make some adjustments to it our itinerary.
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: But we were super lucky because Mueller happened to have
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: just completed a big tour of the Omo Valley and
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: it coincided with us right rolling in at the border,
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: so we were we drove for maybe two hundred and
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: fifty kilometers or so that day up to where we
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: were going to stay in Console, and.
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: So yeah, that's corret.
• 33:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and.
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, why don't you talk about kind of like rolling
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: into there, what we saw on that, you know, the
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: anthropologists and you get.
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: Started right the anthropologists. Yeah, I mean there's a there's
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: an area in Console that has been designated by UH
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: the UNESCO as a Cultural World Cultural Heritage Site and
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: you can see the terracing and some of the villages
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: as you're driving up into the mountain and you were
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: commenting on that, Yeah, yeah, yeah, it reminded me of
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: like when we crossed over into Uganda, where there's just
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: this immaculate landscape that looks it looks like something out
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: of of prehistory in that it's just traditional villages. There's
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: no plastic anywhere, there's no crash anywhere. The terracing is
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: is is immaculate. You can see different types of UH flora,
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: you know, different plants that they're they're growing and using
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: for crops, and then then you see the villages where
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: they're super tidy. You can identify huts of a certain size,
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: and then a larger one that might be something for
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: the community, and then another specialty uh, specialty structures and
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: maybe for storage and things like this. And that's what
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: we were passing through. And I didn't actually know that
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: that that's what we were seeing at the time. I mean,
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: we weren't. We didn't have a big paper map open
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: in front of us. But then then we got to
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: Console and and met up with Mueller and and then
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: he had organized for us to go and visit one
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: of one of those villages, and and that was that
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: was just an incredible, incredible incredible Also from the aspect
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: that it's it was the equivalent to to having people
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: that you don't know just sort of show up at
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: your house and walk around your front yard, walk around
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: your backyard, and then stroll through your house. I mean, really,
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: that's that's what's going on. But everyone was super friendly,
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: The kids just loved it. You could see that that
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: tourists go to that location, but nothing related to tourism
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: per se was visible other than the fact that we
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: were there with the local guide who speaks the language,
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: and then Mueller coming along. He had organized the local guide,
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: and and that was that was just really really an
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: incredible experiences to kind of see it. You had a
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: chance to drink some of their local beer, we eat
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: some food that they were preparing. It didn't get sick,
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: by the way.
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: It was like beer and protein shake all in one.
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: It was pretty chewy beer. But it was an experience.
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: And then I had some of that. You know, they
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: pull these these leaves out of the trees and it's
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: like a major source of their fiber and vitamins. It's
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: incredibly nutrient dense. I don't remember the name of it.
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: No, And it was with some uh, with some potato
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: they had cooked it with. But it was something akin
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: to like like sautained spinach.
• 36:04
  Speaker 3: It looked like it with.
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: Maybe some onion or garlic or something else in there.
• 36:09
  Speaker 3: It does taste, it tastes good.
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: And and they weren't cooking it for us, they were
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: just cooking when.
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: They were they were And I just kind of threw
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: caution to the wind when they gave me a bite,
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: and I was like, yeah, well I've got a moodium
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: with me, so yeah, and antibiotics and everything else that
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: I needed. Of course, I didn't need any of it.
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: I didn't get sick from that. I got sick later,
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: but I didn't get sick from that. But that was
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: it was so interesting because it's built up on top
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: of these mountains or the hills, and the oldest part
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: of the village is the ring with a wall at
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: the very very top, and then as the village grows,
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: they build more and more concentric rings and that serves
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: as a form of security. So when you're moving through
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: the village or in these very tight little passageways, which
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: would limit the amount of attack forces that could reach
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: a ring of the village at any one time, and
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: it would, of course it would put them at great
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: risk for having stones and other things thrown down on them,
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: you know, but it.
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: Really had to know. I mean, the little kids obviously
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: know their way around, but you would.
• 37:16
  Speaker 3: Have I was lost the entire time.
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I just following if somebody said I'll
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: give you a million bucks to get back to the
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: land cruiser that we had jumped in, we yeah, there
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: was no way we would have pulled that off.
• 37:28
  Speaker 3: No way, yeah, no way.
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: And then every eighteen years, the the the village elders
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: hand over control of our management. I guess of the
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: village to the next generation, and they had little little
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: standards that they had put up that indicate that.
• 37:46
  Speaker 3: And then didn't it put that village at about four
• 37:48
  Speaker 3: hundred years old.
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was pretty crazy. Yeah, yeah, pretty pretty old,
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: pretty old established, yeah village. But it also seemed like
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: some of the old timers are still following us around.
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: You know, maybe they didn't want to totally hand over
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: and over their stripes or something like that. But and
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: then you also had a chance to, uh to demonstrate
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: that that stone and if you can pick it up
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: and then then like throw it back over your head,
• 38:15
  Speaker 2: then you were then you're going to be a warrior, warrior,
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: And then you were now able to if you would
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: like to get married.
• 38:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah you can.
• 38:23
  Speaker 4: You can get a bride, yeah, or too, because they practice.
• 38:27
  Speaker 3: Polygamy amy there.
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: So I mean, I didn't kind of heavy. I didn't
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: know you were going to blow out your back.
• 38:34
  Speaker 3: I didn't know it was heavy. I didn't I didn't
• 38:36
  Speaker 3: know that.
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: I didn't know the bride part, but that we find
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: that out later in the story. But so yeah, there's
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: we're in this thing and basically the tour guide saying, yeah,
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: when you can pick this up as a man, then
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: you're now considered a warrior because you're strong enough. And
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: I'm looking at this rock and I'm thinking, you know,
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: because I I do exercise, and I do try to
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: lift heavy things on a regular basis, and.
• 38:57
  Speaker 4: And I, for whatever, this is heavier than then. And
• 39:00
  Speaker 4: it was so, yeah, way heavier to jury.
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: I mean it was I would probably put it around
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: sixty five to seventy pounds.
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: I would say, so, yeah.
• 39:08
  Speaker 3: Probably around that.
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: And but it's this, it's this round granite stone, which
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: means you don't really get a good grip on it
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: or whatever, you know. And I don't know any stone
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: lifting techniques. I don't have any, so I just like
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: Neanderthal the thing. But what was so funny is like,
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: first of all, what was I thinking saying that that
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: was a good idea that I wanted to lift that
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: thing up, you know, in the middle of a trip,
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: because right, blowing out my back or whatever would have
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: been at like totally a bad, bad thing. So that
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: was stupid thing number one. And then I and then
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: once I agree that I was going to do it,
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: then I realized when I look around that.
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: The entire village show the entire village. You're going to
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: no pressure, no pressure, you know this.
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: Watch this stupid WHA's this stupid bald guy try to
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: try to lift the stone. So yeah, I got I
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: got in my best Sumu position and uh I grab
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: the thing and you know getting you know, for me
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: like that that motion of getting it up onto my chest.
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: That was okay because like that's something that that's a
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: movement I do fairly often. But then you got to
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: shift completely to shoulders and a little bit of a
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: kind of a boost to get it up over like
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: seventy pounds overhead.
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: Then going back throw. This is the part where I
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: assumed something was going to happen, something was going to
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: break some shoulder and puld it off. I did.
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: Was very They was screaming and yelling. And then and
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: then I find out that the tour guide advises me.
• 40:33
  Speaker 3: But now I need to pick a bride. And there
• 40:35
  Speaker 3: was a bunch of jumping women.
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: They were they were all very enthusiastic about this, about
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: this prospect.
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: Right, So how I ended up in a village yea
• 40:45
  Speaker 2: in southwest that's.
• 40:48
  Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, that's right, yeah, you.
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: Know, And it was so cute because I told my
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: girlfriend Tavia about it later, and she was like, she's like,
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: I would have gone over there, fought for it. She
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: was ready to she was ready to jump on a plane,
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: up on a plane. She wasn't gonna she wasn't gonna
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: have any of that.
• 41:03
  Speaker 3: Any of that.
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: But it was just such a it was such a
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: fun experience and just beautiful people, truly wonderful people. So
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: many kids, so many happy kids running around. Yeah, just
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: really special, spot.
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: Friendly, welcoming. I mean, you know, I don't know if
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: I would really be into having people just.
• 41:26
  Speaker 3: Sort of roll through my yeah your Yeah, I.
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: Mean obviously it was arranged and you know, with the translator,
• 41:32
  Speaker 2: they knew were heading that way, but but you know,
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: just really really really special. Yeah. I was so grateful
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: to have seen that and interacted with them.
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: And yeah, and I think for me, Brian, it was
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: so positive and it was so safe, and it was
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: such a profound, profoundly unique experience that I think it
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: just kind of kicked away any of those worries that
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: I had.
• 41:58
  Speaker 3: About the country of Ethiopia.
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: Not that I not that I wasn't going to be
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: vigilant or whatever else, but it like it just felt
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: like it softened that landing so much.
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and because we did actually hit quite a few
• 42:11
  Speaker 2: checkpoints right when we crossed to Ethiopia, and there was
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: a lot of contact. Right within the first hour, I
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: think we hit like four checkpoints that had various customs
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: officials and and and local military police coming out, and
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: and it was just window down, window up, glasses off,
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: glasses back on, you know, here, look around our truck,
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: because that was when they did a couple of times
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: they did want to search around, and a few duffels.
• 42:40
  Speaker 3: And did like that.
• 42:41
  Speaker 2: But then we got to this this area in the
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: Omo Valle ro Omo Valley, and it was just so
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: welcoming and also cooler weather too.
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: It was but just really and at an elevation that
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: you don't have to worry about the malaria anymore. And
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: I mean you and I still stayed on the pocalactics,
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: but like we still took the malarial medications, which we
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: take malaron, by the way, which is not medical advice.
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: It just happened to be the one that which.
• 43:06
  Speaker 2: I know, it doesn't bother me.
• 43:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it doesn't bother either.
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: Multiple trips, so.
• 43:10
  Speaker 3: Once a day you just got to stay on it.
• 43:13
  Speaker 3: And then.
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: From there when we drove up to Arbamentche, and that
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: gave us an opportunity to go to another village which
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: was completely.
• 43:23
  Speaker 2: Completely, completely different.
• 43:26
  Speaker 3: And what what do you think of that one?
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: I mean that one it seemed like it was a
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: little bit more set up for for general tourist contact.
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: They had little.
• 43:36
  Speaker 3: Little more pomp and circumstances.
• 43:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, a little little. They dressed us up in some
• 43:42
  Speaker 2: of their traditional garb, which I thought was kind of cool.
• 43:45
  Speaker 3: I thought it was sweet.
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: It was you know, I mean it's sort of like
• 43:48
  Speaker 2: wearing a certain you know, piece of of head headwear
• 43:52
  Speaker 2: or or or some other outfit when you're in a
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: foreign culture, if that's you know, what the locals wear,
• 43:57
  Speaker 2: and then you demonstrate that you're being respectful.
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: And then the cheetah skins and the leopard skins, that
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: was a little uncomfortable, but you you had an observation
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: though that it looked very clearly like that they had
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: been inventory.
• 44:10
  Speaker 2: They had been inventoried. And and I want to say
• 44:13
  Speaker 2: that probably someone mentioned that too. You could see that
• 44:16
  Speaker 2: they had sort of like sharpie with a number on it,
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: so that they're not doing any any poaching of of
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: you know, the more apex species in that area. And
• 44:28
  Speaker 2: I think that even one of the the guy that
• 44:31
  Speaker 2: we that we had there, who's from that village, he
• 44:34
  Speaker 2: explained that they really don't even wear that that kind
• 44:37
  Speaker 2: of stuff anymore. Yeah, but that was that was a
• 44:40
  Speaker 2: really interesting experience too, because of the structures there. Their
• 44:44
  Speaker 2: dwellings there sort of shaped like the head the coolest
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: of an elephant, the coolest hearts I've ever seen in
• 44:50
  Speaker 2: my life. Yeah, And they account for the fact that
• 44:53
  Speaker 2: they're about twelve meters high, super tall, and they account
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: for the fact that termites are going to start working
• 45:02
  Speaker 2: on the structure from the bottom up and that the
• 45:06
  Speaker 2: structure will slowly get get lower, and so they build
• 45:12
  Speaker 2: them with that in mind, and then they just kind
• 45:14
  Speaker 2: of weave in that the little shoots that come off
• 45:18
  Speaker 2: of the bamboo, like when it starts to come out
• 45:21
  Speaker 2: of the ground. That's kind of what they uses the cover.
• 45:25
  Speaker 4: And they said they last about one hundred years.
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then you can see where they
• 45:29
  Speaker 2: had done some repair. We went in that one where
• 45:31
  Speaker 2: there was this like one little like a pinprick of
• 45:35
  Speaker 2: light coming through. I'm sure that they were fully aware
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: of that. I mean, for great photos, but you could
• 45:41
  Speaker 2: see that. Other than that, it was dark and.
• 45:44
  Speaker 3: Pretty mouey, very very very smoky.
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the eyes of the elephant were the opportunity for
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: a little bit of light to come through for but
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: also for the venting of the smoke. And then kind
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: of where the nose of the elephant would come down
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: would be the entry ands. And you know, for those
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: that are watching on YouTube, you can see the images.
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: But they were the coolest huts I've ever seen anywhere
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: in the world.
• 46:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 46:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And I don't know if there they had an
• 46:11
  Speaker 2: explanation for why. I mean, obviously the elephants used to
• 46:14
  Speaker 2: be in that area, that's.
• 46:15
  Speaker 3: What they said, but why they took that on, But
• 46:18
  Speaker 3: that's you know, yeah, that's what they said. It was
• 46:20
  Speaker 3: just their respect the elephant.
• 46:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but that was also a tradition that went back
• 46:26
  Speaker 2: a few hundred years, if not more. Because we went
• 46:30
  Speaker 2: to another part of that village where, uh, the structure
• 46:34
  Speaker 2: was extremely low, and they said it was one of
• 46:37
  Speaker 2: the originals from that village. The termites had done their thing,
• 46:40
  Speaker 2: but you could still go in it. I think they
• 46:42
  Speaker 2: had turned it into more of a storage facility. But
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: that was that was interesting and then also.
• 46:49
  Speaker 3: We believe that they did was cool.
• 46:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, super intricate, and it wasn't just for for mats
• 46:55
  Speaker 2: and things like that. They they wove those pieces into
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: the fencing to keep well as a visual barrier, but
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: also to keep their animals from wandering off. But it
• 47:07
  Speaker 2: just looked really cool.
• 47:08
  Speaker 3: So we were high elevation the.
• 47:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we were in the pines. There were pines nearby.
• 47:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: And then they also had they had a local beer.
• 47:20
  Speaker 2: You tried that, but then that one was much better
• 47:22
  Speaker 2: that that hard, harder liquor that we tried. I can't
• 47:28
  Speaker 2: remember that. Well, we'll have to dive in.
• 47:30
  Speaker 3: I don't remember anything. Yeah, I'm kidding, I'm kidding. We
• 47:33
  Speaker 3: had a shooter. We had a shooter of Yeah, it
• 47:35
  Speaker 3: was quite sweet. Yeah, it was not that bad. No,
• 47:39
  Speaker 3: I admit, it was not that bad.
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: And they were all very excited that we were going
• 47:42
  Speaker 2: to try it because that also meant that they could
• 47:45
  Speaker 2: try it with us. And they had that cheer.
• 47:47
  Speaker 3: That's right, So we did lots of cheering. Yeah, I
• 47:49
  Speaker 3: can't remember what the curing yeah.
• 47:51
  Speaker 4: Yo yo yo, yeah yo.
• 47:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: It sounded like very much like a pirate's life for me,
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: which is what it felt like in the moment because
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: I had cheetah on me and I had the garb,
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: and I was drinking the beer and everything else, so
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: that was pretty fun. We had a little little bit
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: of food as well, and they showed us how they
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: made this kind of that was from like the banana.
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: It was like not a banana, It was a banana
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: plant with false banana.
• 48:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but it ended up being more like a tortilla. Yeah,
• 48:21
  Speaker 2: that's what it tasted like. It was crazy cooked it
• 48:24
  Speaker 2: for us right outside, and then they did their traditional
• 48:27
  Speaker 2: singing and dancing and drumming, and that was super cool.
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: I don't know the whole time if anyone was taking
• 48:34
  Speaker 2: photos of me. I just had my phone up reporting
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: all of that. I mean, it was, you know, there
• 48:39
  Speaker 2: was a groove happening.
• 48:41
  Speaker 3: I was trying.
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: I was put on, putting on my best Scottie move,
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: dancing around in there, and then all of a sudden,
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: like this old dude kind of came up, probably you know,
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: somebody else, an elder, and he had a suit, but
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: it was like in the same colors, but it was
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: like next level suit. And then he grabs a spear
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: and he's doing all this spear stuff, and then Mueller
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: grabbed us speer and then I you know, I was
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: doing my best to kind of hop around, but.
• 49:03
  Speaker 2: Then he also broke into some the next round of
• 49:08
  Speaker 2: song and dance.
• 49:08
  Speaker 3: That's right, Yeah, that's right.
• 49:10
  Speaker 2: Well, it was like, you know, he was asleep somewhere
• 49:12
  Speaker 2: off in the village and he heard what was going on.
• 49:15
  Speaker 3: That was so cool.
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: Well, and then we pretty much from there, We just
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: kind of worked our way back up to Addis and
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: then we got to connect with a high school buddy
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: a year yet seen.
• 49:27
  Speaker 3: It twenty years.
• 49:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that was really really interesting for me. I mean,
• 49:32
  Speaker 2: you know, we hadn't other than seeing each other at
• 49:35
  Speaker 2: some sort of high school reunion. I mean, I haven't
• 49:37
  Speaker 2: really interacted with with Teddy at any on any serious
• 49:42
  Speaker 2: level since since high school. Yeah, which wasn't a niche
• 49:45
  Speaker 2: it wasn't yesterday. Yeah.
• 49:46
  Speaker 3: He's a surgeon.
• 49:47
  Speaker 2: He's a surgeon, reconstructive surgeon, and he U some years
• 49:51
  Speaker 2: ago moved his practice and family, everybody. He's originally from Ethiopia,
• 49:56
  Speaker 2: and he moved everyone back to Ottis and he opened
• 49:59
  Speaker 2: up a clinic for that type of surgery. And his
• 50:03
  Speaker 2: house is immediately adjoining and so we had the very
• 50:08
  Speaker 2: good fortune of spending uh not only spending a couple
• 50:12
  Speaker 2: of nights there, but also going out with him to
• 50:17
  Speaker 2: and seeing different things and talking with with Keddy and
• 50:21
  Speaker 2: his wife and one of his best friends who had
• 50:23
  Speaker 2: also practiced medicine in the United States.
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: We were able to help bring help bring some medical
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: equipment that they needed, and I think that was supportive.
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: And then we also really needed to be there and
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: at us anyways, because we had to get our Jibusian
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: visas and e visa is not accepted currently at the
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: border of a land border of Djibouti, so you have
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: to actually go to the embassy in a neighbor neighboring
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: country and to get the visa.
• 50:55
  Speaker 3: And that took us a couple of days.
• 50:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that was a drop it off and come back.
• 51:00
  Speaker 2: And then they also had changed the form.
• 51:01
  Speaker 3: That's right.
• 51:02
  Speaker 2: We had it all filled out beautifully in our REPDF
• 51:06
  Speaker 2: files and and then it turned out that they had
• 51:09
  Speaker 2: changed it. Didn't It looked like the same form.
• 51:12
  Speaker 4: Just it looked the same, It had the same the
• 51:15
  Speaker 4: same different, yeah, exactly.
• 51:17
  Speaker 2: But we and of course the other item on our agenda,
• 51:19
  Speaker 2: it was going to visit visit Lucy.
• 51:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right, and we got to do that that day.
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: So we dropped off all of we came to the
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: embassy the day before.
• 51:27
  Speaker 3: They sat out. It's too late in the day.
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: So we came back the next morning right on time,
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: got everything in and then we had three or four
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: hours to be able to go to.
• 51:36
  Speaker 2: The We went to visit Lucy.
• 51:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's good to the museum. What do you think
• 51:40
  Speaker 3: of that?
• 51:40
  Speaker 2: That was for me? That was just it's it's for
• 51:44
  Speaker 2: It was almost like, I mean I did a selfie
• 51:46
  Speaker 2: with Lucy and having had having studied that as an undergrad,
• 51:53
  Speaker 2: and and just back in those days, you know, we had,
• 51:57
  Speaker 2: for example, I know I mentioned this before about it.
• 51:59
  Speaker 2: I had an anthropology professor who at the starting of
• 52:02
  Speaker 2: the semester said there's going to be one question on
• 52:04
  Speaker 2: our final exam, which you know, in a semester system,
• 52:07
  Speaker 2: it was like three months away, and he said, I
• 52:09
  Speaker 2: am going to ask you to trace and discuss human
• 52:12
  Speaker 2: history from the earliest known finds all the way through
• 52:15
  Speaker 2: to Homo sapien sapiens, you know, the current current iteration
• 52:19
  Speaker 2: of the genus Homo, and you're going to have to
• 52:22
  Speaker 2: know all the sites you're going to have to know
• 52:23
  Speaker 2: all the fines. You're going to have to know, you know,
• 52:26
  Speaker 2: when stone tools came in, when when fire came in,
• 52:29
  Speaker 2: when advances happened, so you're forewarned. And then I go
• 52:33
  Speaker 2: in there and it's like, Lucy, I know you maybe right,
• 52:38
  Speaker 2: And it was just it was really incredible. Actually was
• 52:40
  Speaker 2: it was really uh, it was it was a really
• 52:44
  Speaker 2: good exhibit.
• 52:46
  Speaker 3: I was.
• 52:46
  Speaker 4: It was super They had some support from the French
• 52:49
  Speaker 4: on that a little bit.
• 52:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but also just how they they've updated it along
• 52:53
  Speaker 2: the way, because it's pretty accurate. Yeah, I mean up
• 52:57
  Speaker 2: to up to what we know now. They you know,
• 53:00
  Speaker 2: obviously in a museum, you know, you can print something
• 53:02
  Speaker 2: out and put it on the wall, and as long
• 53:04
  Speaker 2: as you can h the printer, you know, you can
• 53:06
  Speaker 2: kind of update things. But they seem to be right
• 53:08
  Speaker 2: up to you know, the present understanding of human evolution,
• 53:13
  Speaker 2: not just in that area but worldwide sort of the
• 53:16
  Speaker 2: current accepted approach. And then they also had little diagrams
• 53:22
  Speaker 2: that had question marks and things and finds from different
• 53:25
  Speaker 2: spots where they're not sure how that tied in with
• 53:28
  Speaker 2: with some of the earlier finds from Africa.
• 53:30
  Speaker 3: What was impressive to me.
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: And of course I know nothing, but even knowing nothing,
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: the thing that was impressive to me was even though
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: Lucy was not complete, she was complete in the places
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: that she absolutely had to be in order to understand
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: her physiology correct. So the fact that correct that the
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: all of her femur was there, all the way down
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: to where you would see the knee joint and the
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: angle of the knee joint connecting to the lower bones,
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: that there was a huge piece of her pulvis that
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: was still present, and the interface, the interface between the
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: head of the femur in the hip joint, and like
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: these are all things that from uh, you know, a
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: physical perspective would show that she would have been walking upright.
• 54:23
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, no, no, no, no doubt. I mean
• 54:26
  Speaker 2: you can go to your local orthopedic surgeon and then
• 54:30
  Speaker 2: you know that that that specialist, even now, even if
• 54:33
  Speaker 2: they're not familiar with with you know, human evolution, would
• 54:37
  Speaker 2: go yes, well, you know the the fhovia capitis Morris,
• 54:40
  Speaker 2: you know, the head of the femur where it inserts
• 54:42
  Speaker 2: in you know, because of the flare of the pelvis,
• 54:44
  Speaker 2: and and and actually the the shape of of the
• 54:48
  Speaker 2: femur and where it ties in with the tib and
• 54:50
  Speaker 2: the fib and and and and the patella. They you
• 54:54
  Speaker 2: know that this was an upright bipedal individual. Yeah. And
• 55:01
  Speaker 2: then also you know pieces of the cranium, piece of
• 55:04
  Speaker 2: the you.
• 55:05
  Speaker 3: Know, the stuff that had to be there.
• 55:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Yeah, that had to be.
• 55:09
  Speaker 3: With there was there. She's not complete, but there's a
• 55:11
  Speaker 3: lot of her there.
• 55:12
  Speaker 2: Enough where you can you can fill in the blanks
• 55:15
  Speaker 2: because you know what what architecture needs to be connecting
• 55:19
  Speaker 2: in order.
• 55:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, So I found that part to be really fascinating. Yeah.
• 55:24
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• 56:26
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• 56:28
  Speaker 3: Pretty pretty cool.
• 56:30
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, it was a neat It was a neat exhibit.
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: They had quite a bit of kind of early Ethiopian history.
• 56:38
  Speaker 3: You know. I give them a lot of credit for it.
• 56:40
  Speaker 3: I mean it.
• 56:41
  Speaker 4: Costs like the equivalent of a buck to go inside.
• 56:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, if they would have charged.
• 56:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it would have they would have paid it.
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you got your You got your selfie with Lucy,
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: which is that's all.
• 56:53
  Speaker 2: That I know that all my academic settings, you know,
• 56:59
  Speaker 2: kind of came full circle.
• 57:01
  Speaker 3: So cool time.
• 57:03
  Speaker 4: Well, and then the next morning we were out we.
• 57:06
  Speaker 2: Hit the road. Uh I think at zero six we
• 57:09
  Speaker 2: we we were set out before all the trucks, the
• 57:12
  Speaker 2: track and the traffic. We Uh, well, you went out
• 57:15
  Speaker 2: the night before and and tanked up. Muller knew a
• 57:20
  Speaker 2: spot to tank up. I think you filled up the
• 57:23
  Speaker 2: uh the NATO cans too, everything, and then we we
• 57:27
  Speaker 2: hit the road. And actually the road heading towards Hurrah
• 57:31
  Speaker 2: was was pretty good at first, heading out of town,
• 57:34
  Speaker 2: main trucking route, yeah, yeah, so that was pretty clean.
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: There were definitely areas where you could tell there was
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: a lot of military presence, and we even.
• 57:44
  Speaker 2: Ran into a patrol that was crossing the road which
• 57:48
  Speaker 2: we hadn't seen before.
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: And there were some villages that clearly in my mind
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: showed some civil war type of fighting going on.
• 57:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: I mean they were just like destroyed homes and all
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: of that, and there is banditry in that area, which
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: is why there we was so much.
• 58:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean there was an armored presence there too.
• 58:07
  Speaker 2: There were some armored vehicles APC things like this that
• 58:10
  Speaker 2: were kind of perched just adjacent to the road. I guess,
• 58:14
  Speaker 2: just kind of you know, flex and muscle.
• 58:15
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I think a short course in my mind, and keep.
• 58:18
  Speaker 2: The truckers going and doing their thing. There's also the
• 58:21
  Speaker 2: railroad right adjacent the modern railroads, right.
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a there's an old narrow gauge that was
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: built by the French in the early nineteen hundreds.
• 58:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and then there's now modern the modern.
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: Chinese Electric Railway, which was just completed in twenty eighteen.
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: So interesting to see how history changes and how powers
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: and influence change over the last century, from the powers
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: of the French to the powers of the Chinese in
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: this region. So the road itself was fine, it was
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: in good shape, and that allowed us to get to
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: this ancient It.
• 58:56
  Speaker 2: Got diicing towards the end though of that road. We
• 59:00
  Speaker 2: got there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we were. We're the Grenadier definitely.
• 59:05
  Speaker 2: You know, there were the speed bumps that most villages have,
• 59:08
  Speaker 2: but there were also those those trenches. Oh man, some
• 59:12
  Speaker 2: villages felt like like a river speed and some of
• 59:16
  Speaker 2: them were just impossible to see, even you know with
• 59:19
  Speaker 2: the other one of the passengers, you know, paying attention
• 59:22
  Speaker 2: and uh and then just run it out.
• 59:25
  Speaker 3: I missed one. I got a good.
• 59:26
  Speaker 2: Wallop, center punched that one on that on the grenade eer.
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: I mean, and you know, I always I talk about
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: that with people, is that you can't you can't get
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: get it right one hundred percent of the time, but
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: you need to try to stay focused.
• 59:40
  Speaker 4: Like you and I were not on our phones when
• 59:42
  Speaker 4: we're driving.
• 59:42
  Speaker 3: I mean other than maybe just a.
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: Recenter, a map or something like that, but we don't.
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: We're not on the phones or we're using hands free
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: because you've got to really pay attention as a driver.
• 59:53
  Speaker 2: So and and as as the passenger, nave actually eyes
• 59:59
  Speaker 2: on if you.
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 3: Is, you know, left hand drive country.
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: So the only way I can pass safely is to
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: have your feedback on if it's clear. And we use
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: very clear language, so it's all clear if there is
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: no one coming, and then it's oncoming if there are
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: vehicles that are coming towards us.
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 4: So that way there's not any confusion.
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 2: If I say not clear, but you only hear the
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 2: word clear.
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 3: That's right now it's gonna be.
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it is not a clear form of it is
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 2: not in that circumstance.
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: So yeah, you use it in a way that makes
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: it it very clearly understood. Yeah, so that you know.
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: I always look at it as kind of like Russian roulette.
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: I mean, how many times you want to spin the barrel?
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: If you keep banging on the car often throughout the day,
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: eventually the car is going to going to take a
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: hit that's not going to repair from We're not going
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: to recover.
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean we also would remind each other, you know, hey,
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 2: we're this far away, we're you know, this much time out.
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 2: We're all good, everything's fine. I think we we did
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 2: have some issues. Well, we were okay on fuel at
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 2: that point.
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 3: Because we were able to get that one station. Yeah,
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 3: we topped up.
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and that that was that was pretty key that
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 2: we did that. We didn't just assume and it turned out,
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 2: you know, I mean, I hate to throw everything to luck.
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 2: That That's not how I operated in my life. But
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 2: we we were able to top up and that then
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 2: it proved to be pretty paramount.
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 3: Time later in the story. But what'd you think of Rar?
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: I mean, that was the fourth or fifth most holy city,
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: fourth city, most holy city in Islam.
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they have more than eighty mosques in the old town.
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 2: There's no vehicular traffic in the old town. Yeah, there's
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 2: Italian influence from the colonial period of of how the
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 2: gates are are built out and and and the open
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 2: air market both outside the old town and inside is
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 2: just I mean you could just experience that you could
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 2: and and some of the some of the little micro
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 2: micro mosques, I mean some of them there were mini mosques.
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, really really like a you know, maybe the size
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: of a big closet.
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 3: But incredible.
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: Man, the colors and the yeah yeah, it looked like
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: you you it looked like other than some of the
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: modern T shirts that the men would be wearing.
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 3: You know, it looked like you had gone back.
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 2: And completely completely. And then the spice market, you know,
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 2: I mean that was just that was next level.
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 3: It was just incredible.
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, really really something to see. We also went
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 2: into that that mill. It's like a public mill where
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 2: the milk spices people bring in yeah whatever they have,
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 2: and and you just kind of they weigh the bag
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 2: and they give you this car and then you know
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 2: this little piece of paper that says, you know what
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 2: what your bag weighed, and then you take it over
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 2: to the mill mast and they mill it. And if
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 2: you don't have time, you can say, hey, I got
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 2: you know, twenty kilos of this product, and they might
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 2: actually already have it milled on the shelf and you
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 2: can just grab that bag and and and hit the
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 2: road going right.
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 3: It was right out of like a movie.
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: I mean, just these guys were completely covered in spice
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: and their hair was covered in spice, and the ceiling
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: was covered in spice and you and I were only
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: in there for a few minutes and we were covered in.
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 2: Spice and and whatever other grains they were, you know, milling.
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: And yeah, grains and spice and everything else. Just like
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: what a scene.
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 2: And then and then there was a tailor outside sitting
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 2: there with with I assume it was his son, I
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 2: don't know, but he had an old style sort of
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 2: a singer looking sewing machine. He was repairing people's clothes.
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 2: I mean, it was just bustle and bustle.
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 3: It was.
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: It was absolutely fantastic. It felt totally safe. And one
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: of the things that yeah, it never felt were like
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: not even close no yet.
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 2: Obviously, you know, you go into those situations where there's
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 2: close proximity. I mean people are bumping against you and
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 2: you know, I'm obviously not having my passport and other
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 2: things where they're easily grabbed. But but everyone was just
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 2: really really friendly, super friendly and and and uh and
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 2: you know, we we we just sort of walked in
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 2: on their daily business, you know, going on.
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we were the only tourists there. We didn't see
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 3: any other tourists in Hurrarh that entire day.
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: We were able to go around with a guide by
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: the name of Benyon, and he's another Rastafarian. So it
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: seems like the Rastafarians uh are well loved in the
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: country despite the fact that their their beliefs are so
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: different oftentimes.
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we also visited that location.
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, maybe the original Rastafarian temple.
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that was that was.
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 3: It was.
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 2: It was north of there.
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 3: It was north of the Yeah, gotcha.
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: Well that was yeah, Hurrah was incredible. We got to
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: go there's an old.
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 2: Brewery there that we went to, the Horror Brewery. I
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 2: think it's now owned by maybe or something like that, and.
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 3: It was hopping.
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 2: It was hopp and they had a bingo going on,
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 2: and we were also the only foreigners there as far
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 2: as I.
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 3: Could tell, not that I could see.
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 2: We had a good meal there. That was the other
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 2: thing too. It's just the food that we had over
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 2: the time was was. I mean, everyone said, oh, you're
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 2: gonna love the food. You're gonna love food. And also
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 2: obviously a lot of travelers have complained about about stomach
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 2: issues and things like that, but but it was it
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 2: was really uh, it was really really something. Just the diversity,
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 2: the spices. I don't know what peppers they're using, but
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 2: but some of the where it would start out hot
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 2: and and I kind of have a good tolerance for that,
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 2: but I'm like, it's going to be this is going
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 2: to be interesting, and then all of a sudden, you know,
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 2: half a minute later, it would be gone.
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So which was good for me because I don't
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: like it the food too spicy, but it was like
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: it gave me a good heat, but then you didn't
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: feel like your tongue was burned for the next six days.
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: So yeah, I mean the food was delicious. And of
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: course you eat with your hands, and you're not supposed
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: to eat with your left hand because the left hand
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: is used for cleaning yourself after the restroom.
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 3: So it was a challenge for me.
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: Being left handed, so i'd have to, like by the
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: end of the trip, I finally got it figured out.
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: I would just kind of sit on my left hand
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: until I got started, and once I got started, I
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: was fine, because Maxiamdextrius, I mean, I throw a ball
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: with my right hand, I shoot a gun with my
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: right hand. I'm right eye dominant, but I write and
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: I eat with my left So it took me. It
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: took me some discipline, to some discipline to figure that out.
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: But pretty pretty funny. But I thought Hurrah was great.
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: It was just it was a neat spot. I'm so
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: glad that we took the time to go there and
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: that we listened to Muller's recommendation.
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's on the ancient Spice route. I
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 2: mean it's like one of the connection points from the
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 2: east from from trade that came from from India through
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 2: the Arab Peninsula, you know, all the way into Africa,
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 2: and then also crossroads north and south from there, and uh.
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 3: The camical trains that would the camel.
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 2: Trains would come in and and of course you know Richard,
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 2: Sir Richard Francis Burden went there dressed as an Arab
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 2: trader and speaking you know, some dialect that he had
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 2: picked up along the way, and went and checked that out.
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 3: And you even went to the gate that he entered.
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 2: In, went and did a night shot.
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 2: I went there with with our guide and did a
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 2: little kind of a selfie right at the gates. Right
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 2: you got to area, and.
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 3: Then and then tell me about you feeding a Hyaena.
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 3: How did that work out?
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I to be honest with you, I'm
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 2: not into tourists things like that. I you know, it
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 2: kind of goes against you know, I'm not I don't
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 2: know the circumstances for it. I've been to things like
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 2: like shark feeding stations, you know, where they throw a
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 2: bunch of stuff in the water and the scuba divers
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 2: can check it out. But then then the sharks are
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 2: you know, you can clearly see they get tuned in
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 2: on that and come to the boat and waiting for
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 2: the chum. And and so I you know that this
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 2: seemed to be something quite similar. And and and Vinam
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 2: are are the guide. We were we were fairly close by.
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 2: We had jumped in, you know, he had his his
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 2: little tiktook driver and he picked us up and it
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 2: was pouring with rain, and yeah, yeah, yeah, he had
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 2: the two pok stickers in the windows. He was he
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 2: was a good driver, actually, you know he was. I
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 2: think he had some fresh fresh rubber on that thing. Yeah,
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 2: he could zip in and out. And uh so we
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 2: got to the location. I really just wanted to see
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 2: the hyena thing, you know. And it was already dark,
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 2: it was pouring with rain. There were a few tourists
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 2: that had shown up or you know, visitors to see
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 2: the feeding or maybe to participate in it. But they
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 2: had gone inside because it was raining so much and
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 2: and you couldn't you know, there were there no light
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 2: and and I pulled out my flashlight and I flipped
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 2: over my little red lens, which is kind of nice
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 2: because then all of a sudden we could see the hyenas,
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 2: but they didn't bug out with this bright light. And
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 2: then the hyaena man actually this is the sun of
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 2: the hyaena man. They said I got to come over
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 2: in the feed him, and I was like, no, no,
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 2: it's okay. I just you know, in a watch. He's like, no,
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 2: come on, you know, they're waiting and look at this
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 2: and that, and you can see, I mean, from what
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 2: I've read, obviously it's been going on for a while.
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 2: So at least this batch of hyenas, you know.
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 3: They're obviously take your face off.
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and they're obviously doing other things too to get
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 2: their their meals, you know, but at least in the
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 2: evening they can show up and and eat there. And yeah,
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 2: so I participated in that, perpetuating that that madness. But yeah,
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 2: I had never gotten that close to a hyaenamore.
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 4: I mean, I mean it was within a foot of you.
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 2: You took that stick, and I didn't put the stick
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 2: in my mouth because I don't know how many other
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 2: people are put in their mouth, but I certainly had it,
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 2: you know, right.
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 3: Like that from your face.
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And I warned that huge female huge. Yeah. And
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 2: I and I warned that hyena that you know, I
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 2: own a many long haired dogs, and it was really mean.
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 3: Is going to have some exceptions.
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And I kept just saying, good poppy, good hyena. Master.
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 2: There was laughing, you know, and you're saying.
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 4: That that was that was, that was.
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 2: It was interesting just to see that there really was
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 2: man well.
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: And then from there we actually got to spend two
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: nights in Hurrah, which was a good break, and then
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: we headed to the border with Ethiopia and Djibouti. And
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: this will kind of be the coming to the end
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: of our story about Ethiopia.
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 2: But we they wanted to keep us.
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 3: Everybody wanted to hold us of civilization. They wanted to.
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: Keep they wanted to keep us around for a while longer.
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: So we're we're driving from Hurrah. There's no Benzene, no
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: unleaded fuel available in any of the states we tried.
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: We actually got to one where they had just finished
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: or what they told us is that we had just finished.
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 1: We actually got the sense that they weren't willing to
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 1: give us fuel because it was two coincidental that they
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: had just run out.
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah the moment that And it's important to know, like
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 2: the local motorcycles and some of the tuk tuks are
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 2: using petrol as a normal gasoline ben scene, so so
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 2: they do carry it on occasion, but it's really in
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 2: short supply because it's got to come all the way
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 2: from the coast, so they can run out of fuel.
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 1: They don't run out of diesel because then that actually
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: shuts the whole country down because all the transportation's done
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: with diesel, and also all the locals tend to drive
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 1: diesel vehicles for the same reason. But yeah, we make
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 1: it to the border.
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 2: Black market fuel was available. We I mean that that's
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 2: important to point out too. I mean, and we had.
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 4: If you're running an old KLR or whatever, you're fine.
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, and you know, we could obviously filter it
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 2: or just kind of eye it up as it's going
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 2: filter just a can that we've just just you know,
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 2: leave a little bit in the bottom. But you didn't
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 2: want to do that to the grenadier, at least not
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 2: at this point.
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: And then we get to the border and we got
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: to get out of Ethiopia, and that did not go
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: so well because.
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 3: There was a an.
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 1: Error on the document that I had identified as a
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 1: potential problem and we were assured that it would be okay,
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: and it turned out that it was not okay. So
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: I think we were on the Ethiopian side about six
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: hours right trying to resolve that.
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah, a lot of back and forth.
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: It was a Saturday, so the offices the ministries are
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: just not open that late Muller was doing everything he could,
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: and eventually we found some resolution through calling another border,
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 1: which then gave authorization to this border to make the
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 1: decision if they wanted to take responsibility.
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 3: For it or not.
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 1: We paid some fines for them to feel comfortable assuming
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 1: that responsibility, and six hours later.
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 3: We about eight o'clock at night.
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 2: Do you think it was dark It was darker any, Yeah, and.
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 1: We finally get out of Ethiopia and then we drove
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 1: through the a relatively short no man's land between the
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 1: two borders. You know, they're not super friendly with each other.
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: They have a they're connected economically because of the port.
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 3: But you know, there's a long history.
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 1: I mean, Djibouti used to be a part of Ethiopia
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: and there was a lot of conflicts, the most recent
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: conflict being Eritrea splitting off from Ethiopia in the late nineties,
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 1: which is the last straw that that isolated Ethiopia from
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 1: the coast.
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 3: So there's a lot of tension in this region.
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 1: There was a lot of military presence on both sides,
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: especially on the Jibusian side. So we finally make it
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 1: out of Ethiopia, and based on what I had read,
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 1: this was going to be an easy border crossing into.
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 2: Fifteen minutes, fifteen minutes, fifteen minutes in and out.
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that's right, and we're gonna we're gonna end story
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 4: there because things was because things got It wasn't fifteen minutes.
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 3: Things got pretty intense.
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 1: So well, in the next episode of Crossing the Continent
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 1: of Africa, you're gonna try to hear the story about
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: how Brian and I were detained at the Jibusian border
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 1: for many, many days, and that will be the next
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 1: story coming up in the Overland Journal podcast. Any other
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: thoughts You've got Brian on on Ethiopia overall.
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 2: Well, I'm gonna put my hat on now because it's
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 2: it is quite sunny at least in this location, beautiful country.
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 2: If to be honest, what we experienced was was I
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 2: appreciate and respect, for example, our our US State Department's
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 2: warnings about you know, regional regional issues, conflicts, no go zones,
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 2: I even you know, my I used medjedicist and they
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 2: were very clear that that Anythiopia there are certain areas
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 2: where they they will not be able to come get
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 2: me if I have medical issues. And we'll also talk
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 2: about that at a later day too. The equipment that
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 2: we had with us in case there were some medical issues.
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 2: But uh, and we we took every last warning, caveat
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 2: everything to heart. We didn't we didn't assume, oh, this
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 2: road's so great, We're just we're not going to have
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 2: those problems. We aren't those travelers. But but at the
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 2: same time, we only Anythiopia were treated just as beautiful,
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 2: like like honored guests. And whether it was these Unesco
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 2: villages or just the people on the streets. I mean,
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 2: you know, we obviously have our guard up a little
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 2: bit more than than if we were just going into supermarket.
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 2: You know, back where we're from.
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 3: We didn't we didn't go into the Civil War areas.
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 2: No, no, But at the same time, you know, we
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 2: were we were greeted everywhere and and uh, people were
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 2: very interested in in the Grenadier.
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 1: And they aren't able to see a lot of tourists recently.
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 2: No, no, that was yeah, yeah, and you know, they
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 2: there was a lot of interest in that, you know.
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 2: I mean, even for example in Hurrah, there are kids
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 2: that came up and they just wanted to do selfies
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 2: with these tourists, you know, and and uh, you know,
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 2: I think that that we also saw some we also
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 2: saw some some strife and and people that are living
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 2: in circumstances that I'm sure they would not want to have.
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 2: And that's I think that's that's that's important to see
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 2: and to appreciate and to try to you know, for me,
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 2: that gives me more more more energy when I leave
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 2: those areas to try and do good and try and
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 2: help out, you know, my fellow human to the best
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 2: that I can, and even make those circumstances better and
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 2: inform people like this through through different for like this
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 2: that that it's a we had a great time and
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 2: it was.
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 3: A very very incredible country.
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 2: Our experience was was really excellent. And and not just
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 2: because they have good beer and good food, but it's
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 2: because they have good people.
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 3: And incredible history.
• 1:17:23
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's these the only kingdom in all of
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 1: Africa that was never conquered by an outside power.
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 3: They got close.
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 1: I was also the first major battle between an African
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 1: kingdom and the Europeans that that the African Kingdom won, and.
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 2: I gave a lot of the nations they could do that.
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 1: So just Ethiopia is truly unique and I loved every
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 1: moment of it there and I and I really want
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 1: to go back. There's a lot more of it that
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 1: I want to see. So we certainly encourage people to
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 1: do that. And Brian, thanks for being along for me
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 1: in that segment. Of course, we got little bit more
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 1: to talk about with Djibouti, and we thank you all
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 1: for listening, and we'll talk to you next time. All right,
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 1: So I'm with Mueller, Marlin, with Seth Ethio Trek and Muller.
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 1: You have been a huge help throughout this adventure. I
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 1: wouldn't be in Ethiopia right now without you and your support.
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 1: So I just thought it would be good to spend
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: a couple minutes talking about the kinds of things that
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 1: we really needed your help with while we were here
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 1: in Ethiopia. And of course the first thing was just
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 1: getting into the country with the vehicle. So now I
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 1: applied for an eVisa, so did Brian, and we got
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 1: our e visas in a couple of days, so that
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 1: was very easy. But then from Nairobi, so if you're
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 1: traveling north, let's say you're going from Cape Town and
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 1: you want to get to Djibouti and ship out of
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 1: there to Europe, you've got to come into Nairobi. And
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 1: then I spent a couple of days in Nairobi. Well
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 1: I actually ended up spending in Nairobi. But you need
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 1: at least a few days in Nairobi, probably three or
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 1: four days to get this authorization through the vehicle to
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 1: get into the country. So talk a little bit about
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 1: what kind of what should people be prepared for to
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 1: get their vehicle into Ethiopia.
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 6: So the first thing that they have to think of
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 6: is to get the you know, full decments of the
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 6: vehicle and once they sent us all the decments of
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 6: the vehicle and their evisis.
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 2: Yes, plus their passport copies.
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 6: We will then apply to the Ministry of Tourism. And
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 6: that's where we get the first letter. Uh, that's a
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 6: reperative letter. So my company writes a letter to the
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 6: Ministry of Tourism and we get a letter supportive letter
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 6: from the Ministry of Tourism, and.
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 2: That boss goes to.
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 6: The Kenyan Embassy, and then the Kenyan Embassy gives us
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 6: a supportive letter again to the Customs Commission.
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 1:19:58
  Speaker 6: And we then go to the Customs Commission with our
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 6: letter again to the Customs Commission and a supporative letter
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 6: from the Ministry of Tourism and the letter from the.
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 3: And then so what my experience was, I needed to
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 3: show up with just a few minutes.
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 2: I just sold that.
• 1:20:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: So when I was at the embassy in that rob
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 1: I came in with copies of my passport, copies of
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 1: my e visa, copy of Brian's passport, Brian's visa, we
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 1: had the photo copies of the Karne the vehicle registration
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 1: document as well, and then I came in with the
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 1: letter from the Minister of tourism that you arranged. And
• 1:20:55
  Speaker 1: then I also had to create my own letter indicating
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 1: why was I going to Ethiopia, where was I going
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 1: to travel, and information about learners travel itinerary, information about
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 1: the car. And then it took me five times going
• 1:21:09
  Speaker 1: to the embassy, back and forth, and eventually I get
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 1: the letter from the embassy that basically they have verified
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 1: that I am who I say I am, and that
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 1: I've provided all of this information. And then I sent
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 1: that to you. Yeah, and you took that to the
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 1: Ministry of Customs.
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 3: Right, Yeah.
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 6: And I had to take that to the Ministry of
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 6: Customs with an additional letter from my company directly to
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 6: the Customs Commission. So and instead of I mean, so
• 1:21:37
  Speaker 6: as to process this, you need to have a license
• 1:21:40
  Speaker 6: of true company in Ethiopia. Yeah, and you also have
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 6: to know how you do these things a process. Yeah.
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 6: And so far my company sem an Echo Trek or
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 6: Setpia Trures is the one doing this.
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 1: You know, you're definitely the one doing it the most often.
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 1: I mean I'm not recently, I have not heard of
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 1: anyone doing it other than you, And I think it's
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 1: partly because you're kind of picking responsibility, yes, or you've
• 1:22:09
  Speaker 1: vetted me out a little bit as well. You're making
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 1: sure that I leave the country with the car, so
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 1: you're The communication with you has been so effective, really
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 1: good back and forth communication.
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 3: So first of.
• 1:22:20
  Speaker 1: All, thank you for that. And then the second thing
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 1: that I realized when I got into the country was
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 1: you have so many unique cultures, so many diverse cultures
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 1: within this country, and many of them in order to
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 1: be able to access those cultures, you need to have
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 1: an intermediary that can introduce us to the local guide.
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 1: So I wasn't expecting that, but it was such an
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 1: advantage of having you involved because you happen to be
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 1: down in the same region, so you were able to
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 1: take us to these incredible cultures and will of course
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 1: share some video and stills of that. But I mean, Brian,
• 1:22:58
  Speaker 1: what do you think of those some of the those
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 1: cultures that we saw in the beginning.
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 2: I mean, it was just incredible, and it's not just
• 1:23:05
  Speaker 2: the the cultures, but it's also the cultural landscape. I mean,
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 2: we visited a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Area and and
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 2: just to have access to that respectful access to that
• 1:23:19
  Speaker 2: because really, when you when you think about it, we're
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 2: going into the area where they're living cookie where basically
• 1:23:25
  Speaker 2: we didn't really go into any of the specific bedrooms
• 1:23:28
  Speaker 2: or anything like that, but we were certainly walking around
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 2: the village and we had not only the local guide
• 1:23:35
  Speaker 2: that Moller arranged, but also a village guide you know
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 2: that or two that followed us around and just kind
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 2: of made sure that, you know, everything was going going well.
• 1:23:46
  Speaker 2: And and uh, it was really it was really, it
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 2: was really incredible, and and it was you know, we're
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 2: grateful that that we had that experience and that we
• 1:23:55
  Speaker 2: have access to interact with with fellow humans.
• 1:23:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm so in pressed by the cultural diversity within Ethiopia.
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 1: So there, I mean, there are so many different tribes.
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 1: I mean, you do, in many cases share a common language,
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 1: but even within those villages, they have their own languages.
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 6: Yeah. So in Ethiopia in general, we have more than
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 6: eighty four ethnic groups with their own language, with their
• 1:24:24
  Speaker 6: own culture, and you know, with their own lifestyle.
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 6: And fortunately the route that you came from Oyale, Yeah,
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 6: that was the.
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 2: Best route to see some of the tribus. Yeah.
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 6: So from the eighty four ethnic groups or the tribes,
• 1:24:42
  Speaker 6: more than fifty four live in the southern OMOVELI okay,
• 1:24:47
  Speaker 6: so that's the direction that you came in and man
• 1:24:51
  Speaker 6: to see the chance to see some of you know, yeah,
• 1:24:53
  Speaker 6: the cribs.
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 1: The road was incredible. It was all just so impressive.
• 1:24:58
  Speaker 1: And now you're overland vehicle of choice. What do you
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 1: drive when you're out in these remote areas well?
• 1:25:07
  Speaker 6: The Toyota right, yeah, yeah.
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 1: I mean I'm we're a huge fan of you drive
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 1: this an h J seventy six, so a very durable,
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 1: simple vehicle. And it seems like you've had no issues
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 1: with them.
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 6: I have never had issues. We never had a Yeah, I.
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 3: Mean you even stopped carrying a spare like no spare.
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 6: Tire you No, I didn't, I don't know anything. But
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 6: I also have you know, I just bought them. Yeah,
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 6: very kidding, but is definitely the best.
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 3: They are the best.
• 1:25:45
  Speaker 1: They are the best for Africa, for Africa, and it's
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 1: probably been fun for you to see. I mean, this
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 1: is the first Grenadier in Ethiopia. Yeah, what was your
• 1:25:52
  Speaker 1: first impression?
• 1:25:53
  Speaker 6: Well, this is an amazing car. I mean I have
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 6: never seen the spectacle in Ethiopia before. It's a big car, right,
• 1:26:00
  Speaker 6: huge car, and uh, you know all the specifications and
• 1:26:05
  Speaker 6: the beatons inside the car there.
• 1:26:08
  Speaker 3: It's good for traveling in Africa too.
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 6: Yeah, so I was I was actually thinking that my
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 6: uh L three hundred is the best vehicle. Yeah yeah,
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 6: but I saw this, so this is also a great vehicle.
• 1:26:21
  Speaker 3: I mean, it's nice to have more choices.
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 2: Sure, yeah, that's so.
• 1:26:25
  Speaker 1: Then the last thing, the last interesting challenge that we
• 1:26:28
  Speaker 1: had to overcome as a team was the availability of petrol.
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 1: Now I have experienced that in many of my travels,
• 1:26:35
  Speaker 1: but this was a unique situation where because of your
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 1: command of the local language and your your understanding of
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 1: the culture, you were able to expedite us.
• 1:26:45
  Speaker 3: Getting access to fuel.
• 1:26:47
  Speaker 1: It probably would have taken me hours to sort that
• 1:26:49
  Speaker 1: out and probably more money too. So you you were able.
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 1: Why are they do you know why they're experiencing a
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 1: shortage of petrol? And and uh and how how can
• 1:27:00
  Speaker 1: people overcome that challenge?
• 1:27:02
  Speaker 3: What recommendations do you have?
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 6: So in Ethiopia, we've got older cars, older minibuses that
• 1:27:10
  Speaker 6: you saw on the road, and we also have many
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 6: tooktooks from India. So all these vehculus that you saw
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 6: on the road, they actually use petrol. Yeah, so you
• 1:27:21
  Speaker 6: saw on a gas station. It's a very long line
• 1:27:23
  Speaker 6: of the toktooks and veculus, so we had to wait
• 1:27:28
  Speaker 6: those vehculus to get filled up to get ours. So
• 1:27:33
  Speaker 6: while you're on the road, right, Yeah, you just have
• 1:27:36
  Speaker 6: a certain you know, goal to make in a day.
• 1:27:40
  Speaker 3: You have to go quickly.
• 1:27:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so you can't wait on that line that we
• 1:27:45
  Speaker 2: take hours.
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 6: Sure it might take hours or you know, more than
• 1:27:48
  Speaker 6: thirty minutes forty minutes. So there is actually a huge
• 1:27:52
  Speaker 6: but not well shortage of petrol in the remote areas
• 1:27:59
  Speaker 6: of the country. But for that you should have you know,
• 1:28:05
  Speaker 6: some extra uh, like we have forty letters that that
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 6: helped it lot, even though you didn't use it.
• 1:28:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we didn't have to use it, but it was
• 1:28:15
  Speaker 3: nice to know.
• 1:28:16
  Speaker 6: Yes, it's always it's always a good area to have
• 1:28:19
  Speaker 6: some more petrol on board.
• 1:28:22
  Speaker 2: And knowing your fuel consumption as well, I think is
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 2: really important.
• 1:28:25
  Speaker 1: Yes, assumption went up a little higher with you with
• 1:28:28
  Speaker 1: following you.
• 1:28:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you're a very good drive. You're a very good driver.
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 4: Thank you.
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 1: So you know, we're going to kind of wrap up
• 1:28:42
  Speaker 1: the interview now, but that's actually what you and I
• 1:28:44
  Speaker 1: need to do. We need to hop in the Grenadier
• 1:28:46
  Speaker 1: We're going to go find some fuel, some benzine, and
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 1: get the truck ready because Brian and I need to
• 1:28:51
  Speaker 1: leave at six o'clock tomorrow and we're going to go
• 1:28:54
  Speaker 1: to this incredible city of Hurrah out in the desert.
• 1:28:59
  Speaker 2: So we're gonna be depressed.
• 1:29:00
  Speaker 3: I can't wait. I'm just sorry that you're not going
• 1:29:03
  Speaker 3: to be there with us.
• 1:29:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:29:04
  Speaker 1: I mean, so anyone who's considering going to Ethiopia, if
• 1:29:08
  Speaker 1: you're going to be driving up Africa, it's possible. You
• 1:29:11
  Speaker 1: just need someone like Mueller that can help you overcome
• 1:29:14
  Speaker 1: these significant bureaucratic challenges. It's it's an established process, but
• 1:29:19
  Speaker 1: it requires someone with his expertise. So I didn't even
• 1:29:23
  Speaker 1: know if I was going to be able to get
• 1:29:24
  Speaker 1: into Ethiopia. And I've been communicating with Moler now for
• 1:29:27
  Speaker 1: well over two months, and we slowly figured out the process,
• 1:29:32
  Speaker 1: and now we're in Ethiopia, enjoying this incredible country, and
• 1:29:38
  Speaker 1: we can't wait to share more of our adventure with you.
• 1:29:42
  Speaker 3: Thanks brother,