Bye Bye Ethiopia

At the beginning of the tour it was explained to us that we separate the garbage into three buckets, organic that we bury, re-usable that we give to the locals and burnables that we burn daily on the basis that we either burn it or it ends up in a landfill.  

The re-usable bin made me curious as I could not believe that our empty bottles, packets and general waste that we dispose of daily would be of no use to anyone, how wrong I was. I have seen fights break out over the bin bag full off empty plastic bottles as we leave camp, this morning I watched a group of camera shy Ethiopian women in ethnic dress form a rugby scrum over what we left.  

During today’s ride I saw this taken to a new level, the local Ethiopians who have been doing an incredible job of keeping us supplied with drinks and helping out with problems clipped a Dik Dik just after they passed me on the road. A Dik Dik is a large domestic cat size antelope. The knock from the car didn’t kill the animal outright so they jumped out and slit its throat to let it die painlessly. He was then skillfully skinned at the roadside all the useable meat was butchered on the spot and the hide in perfect condition was kept. Had we not crossed into Kenya and left the boys behind today I would be chowing down on what looked like some incredibly tender meat tonight. Nothing goes to waste!