(^8) from teff flour, but any grain can be used. The flour and water mix is
fermented for several days before being baked into a giant, flat
pancake with a slightly spongy texture. Usually, a variety of small
amounts of stews are scooped onto the injera. When eating, small
pieces of injera are torn off and used as utensils to scoop up the food
using one's fingers.
An entire week was spent in Addis exploring all the city's attractions,
including visiting the famous early hominid "Lucy". Lucy is the 3.2-
million-year-old fossilised remains of a female skeleton uncovered in
- Surprisingly short, she only measured 1.1 metres tall with an
estimated weight of a mere 29 kilograms.
The majority of our time was spent organising visas to Egypt and
Sudan, a long and frustrating process. Performing these mediocre
tasks can make anyone feel transported into another dimension as, in
Ethiopia, time starts at sunrise. Hence an hour beyond sunrise is 1
a.m. Additionally, the Ethiopian calendar is a solar calendar beginning
on either 29 or 30 August in the Julian Calendar, adding to the
confusion. During our visit, the Ethiopians were celebrating the
millennium. Albeit 2007, Addis was a blaze of colour and light as they
celebrated the year 2000.
In Addis, I bumped into Wondey, one of the 2005 Tour D'Afrique
guides. What a small world.