After 2½ weeks in Addis, I was ready to leave. Waking early to travel, is common here and today is no different with a 4am start, ready for a 6:30am flight. I am joined at the airport by Alex, Marcel and Rene as the four of us are packed and ready to take on the Simien Mountains. The departure area appears more busy, congested and disorganised than usual. It would appear that the computers are down. Never mind, there is always paper and pen! Even at an airport, frequented by people familiar with other cultures and the necessary safety systems in place, everyone's personal desire to check-in takes priority. My very British attitude to queue jumpers emerges as I stand with elbows out and stare at people with no effect. I try to explain to a marshall as she encourages me to move back, that I am standing in the way of people walking around the outside and pushing in. No effect. I feel like a drug dealer that will get stopped any second, as my bag is a collection of medicine, that I have been asked to distribute to the many volunteers, I will visit on my way back to Abi Adi.
A few hours later, we are resting in the departure lounge and learn that the flight is delayed due to "fog" up north. That'll be a first. Thankfully there is an Ethiopian lady who has been living in London for 5 years who explains all for us. She shares her feelings with us about being back and confirms our opinions about what is holding Ethiopia back from development. A man walks through pushing a trolley of cake and pepsi. No announcement, but it would appear common knowledge that this should initiate a scramble that, I am not ashamed in saying, reminds me of a pack of chickens in a corn-fest. What is left by the time I stand up to collect my share is on the ground: trampled, broken and sticky. No matter, there are a collection of shops to purchase food from, once I have persuaded the scanners I wish to eat sensibly. Except you can only buy food if you are travelling international. Is that usual?
Time is passing. We go through all the travel games we know and decide sleep is a better option. As lunch approaches they send us to a restaurant to eat for free. Still "hazy" at our destination. 4:30pm, 12 hours after I woke, we are told that our flight is cancelled we should return tomorrow for 10am. Actually, after a few phone calls, it is does not affect our plans greatly, but a group of tourists on a tight schedule have to abandon their plans for Gondar and move to Axum without passing Go.
The following morning, the airport seems a different place as we are whisked through. No free cake but we do leave on time. The only surprise is that we will fly in a Focke Wulf, which is a small propeller driven plane. I have heard stories about them being less than smooth but I have no complaints. Within less than an hour, I am back up north where I belong in a hot, dry climate. I later find out that the fog from yesterday was a sandstorm that had affected all of North Africa.
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