@brittarnhild
We just came home from a weekend up in the mountains. My weekend bag is unpacked and I have started to pack a hand luggage suitcase for two days in Oslo, a couple of work meetings. The big suitcase is still down in the basement though, waiting to be packed for an upcoming travel to Ethiopia, leaving on Thursday, back home ten days later. But even though the suitcase is still hidden in a cupboard, my packing, or rather preparations for packing has already started. And it starts like a travel abroad always start - with a pile of books and maps.
A bookpackage from amazon came in the mail the other day. Two books and a map. I will start one of the books tonight; In Ethiopia with a Mule by Dervla Murphy.
For many years Dervla Murphy has been one of my favorite female travel writers, or let me put it correct, The Favorite Female Travel Writer. Three years ago I had already booked a ticket to London with my husband and two daughters when I discovered Dervla was going to give a speech at a Traveler´s Tale Festival at Royal Geographical Society. I managed to get a ticket and spent a morning in Traveler´s Heaven. Inside Royal Geographic Society! Listening to Dervla Murphy talking about her life! Buying signed copies of Dervla´s books.
I have collected Dervla Murphy´s books for many years, still I don´t have them all. And In Ethiopia with a Mule was among those I did not have. Not until a few days ago that is :-)
I have flipped through the book already, it was the first thing I did when it arrived, and I was pleased when I discovered the map where Dervla traveled. The book is from 1968, and the map of Africa has changes since then. Dervla started her travels in Masawa, a Red Sea city of Eritrea, continuing to Asmara, the capital of Eritrea, before it went on over the border to Ethiopia. I have been to Eritrea twice, both times visiting both Masawa and Asmara. Now I will have the pleasure of reading about Dervla´s impressions and adventures there before we, Dervla and I, continue to Ethiopia together.
It was in Massawa in 2001 I had one of my "I will always, for the rest of my life, remember this" moments. We were a small international group with people from Eritrea, India, Denmark and Norway. After a long, hot day, visiting projects supported by Norwegian Church Aid, we were in Masawa, having dinner at a fish restaurant. It was still hot, Masawa is one of the hottest places on eart, we were sitting outdoors, on siple white plastic chairs, a plastic table between us. The oven where the fish was frisd was also outdoors, close to where we sat. A kind of well built down in the earth, a fire going on deep down, the walls of the well hot enough to fry the fish. While we were waiting for our meal to get read, our fish to fry, one of the men, a Norwegian, in our group, told us the history of the area, Queen of Sheba, the Aksum empire, the cradle of coffee. Under the stars in Masawa I felt like part of something huge, something important.
One day I HAVE to write my travel book,
but right now I have some great reading ahead :-)
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