Lake Abbé was 8 hours drive from where, I wonder? From Djibouti? If I had suffered that long on a truck in the desert I think would have gone a bit further to the Danakil Depression. Is there some reason you didn't go there? Definitely on my list of places to visit. Thanks for a great story!
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Apparently, someone found room in their backpack for the world's largest thesaurus.
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The world would be a Paradise to travel in a just world, wouldn't it?
The problem with that "train" is its scope: China access to a seaway in order to transport resources from Africa and cheap goods into Africa without any other considerations. Enough to have a shiver...
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That last picture. Try to imagine the night skies across the globe before electricity.
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Stunning photographs. The lake could be a painting. Thank you for an immersive story.
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Loved this article. Writing is great and photos are superb! I am particularly impressed by the clarity of the photos and the sharpness of the colors. Is there a chance we might get info on camera and lens and if any photos were the result of Lightroom/Photoshop enhancements?
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What a beautiful article. My Sunday morning thanks you.
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Lived in Addis in the 1970s . Great moments in my life. There has been so much turmoil. However, things do seem to be going in the right direction. Time to make a return trip.
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A very well-written and balanced article; thank you, Mr. Wismayer! And the photos are excellent as well. As I believe others may have commented, your well-constructed story drew me into your travels, as if I were at your elbow...a trait and talent not many writers seem to have any more. I could almost swear I smelled the peppers and spices!
Please, travel more and share with us, even as a blog site.
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Great writing.
Having traveled myself a lot, I can follow you and imagine colors and smells.
Why not make a podcast of your travels?!
Give us the sounds and your personal feeling of time, anticipation and rhythm...
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I love articles like this but I can’t help to be a bit bitter about how easily Henry and Marcus are able to make this journey. I doubt I or my fellow female world travelers would have as easy a time as they did wandering off the beaten track or finding accommodations.
It’s clearly not something either Henry or Marcus even thought about, and I suppose I can’t blame them for not doing so, but given that only last week this very newspaper published a horrifying article about the dangers and challenges female travelers face, I guess I’d hoped that the “allies” everyone said were so necessary to making the world a more equitable place for all travelers would come from this paper’s very ranks.
I wonder, is it too much to ask that Henry or Marcus or the guy that spent the day circumnavigating Paris’s banlieus a few months ago spare a thought or two about the potential female experience, if only to help us get a bit of the lay of the land too?
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@Max
I would add, some women are older world travelers who would like a peek into ways a senior woman, experienced in solo travel all over the world can do a perhaps modified version of this fascinating journey and stay safe, as safe as a traveling adventure allows. Risk is inherent in travel. That is part of the attraction (to me.) Still, I would love to do some part of this journey without risking life and limb.
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@Max, Actually, a woman--and, especially, two--would almost certainly be fine doing this. I haven't been on this train yet, but I'm a woman and have travelled to Ethiopia (and more than 30 countries in Africa) by myself for two decades, including to places very much off the beaten track, and never had a serious problem. In fact, you're significantly less likely to be in trouble off the beaten track than in the cities.
I'd send my daughter by herself to much of sub-Saharan Africa before I would let her go to a big frat party in the U.S. without any friends. Gender-based violence/assault of a stranger? Way more likely at a party with American college kids than while visiting Ethiopia, especially if you're not doing stupid things like wandering around by yourself in the middle of the night in unknown urban areas or going out drinking with non-Africans (including American/European expats), who are the most likely to cause you trouble.
That NYT article didn't talk about sub-Saharan Africa, and just as well. The risks to foreign women in the region pale in comparison to the biggest risks to health and safety for travelers to Africa, neither of which discriminates based on gender: malaria (and other diseases) and road accidents.
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This piece transported our family back to our own travels in the area some 15 years ago. My partner worked in the Dire Dawa Hospital at the time and I and our oldest son came to visit...nervously waiting at the tiny Dire Dawa airport to be picked up. We spend some time there, meeting his friends and colleagues, and our oldest got to feed the hyenas in Harrar before we set off for the Simien mountains, Aksum, Lake Tana, and Gondar. I have always wanted to go back, but more kids and careers got into the way. I will use this piece to argue that it is time to go back. And btw, khat helps with the oppressive heat in the lowlands and the ever present diarrhea...
One dark thought though - back then American military had given some assistance for renovation of the hospital...I wish our politics would have been enlightened enough to sponsor building this train line and others in Ethiopia and indeed here in the US...fast high-speed trains that run on time like in China and Europe. We have indeed ceased to be a force for progress.
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@kostja I totally agree. China is providing needed infrastructure. The US at best funds anti-terrorism programs. Which do you think affect more people positively? I visited Ethiopia a couple of years ago. I felt so happy to be in that amazing country.
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Fascinating article. Thanks for sharing your journey with us. My thanks also to Marcus, the photos are awesome. I'm particularly captivated by the final image, the galaxy spread above the tents. Simply magnificent!
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Why no map in this article?
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Reading the comments I realise that almost everyone is referring to their past experience and how this article makes them feel nostalgic. I am struck that no one has mentioned the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative that has made the new train network possible. The future of Africa is being shaped by the Chinese, and that for me is the big story.
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@Shyam Chaudhri An astute observation. You might want to check out this article regarding the rail-line.
https://www.scmp.com/business/banking-finance/article/2170549/botched-chinese-railway-project-africa-warning-belt-and
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@Shyam Chaudhri
That's been the story for nearly 50 years. Back in the 1970's I spent months in East Africa, including two trips, weeks-long, each, traveling around Ethiopia and Eritrea, then undivided by a border. An American woman, alone, speaking little Amharic, I was a curiosity and found everywhere friendliness and heard from many about the welcomed efforts by the Chinese in Ethiopia and also in Tanzania. The only criticism was that they stayed together and, unlike me, did not venture outside their linguistic comfort zones. There was also a wondering what China was and would be getting from the gifting of infrastructure so far from home. Whatever, it was welcomed and seemed not to be accompanied by cultural transformations that do often accompany American investment help.
Fascinating article; thank you for it and the glimpse of that beautiful, though drought-stricken, country.
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@Shyam Chaudhri
That this rail is a Chinese project was the first thing I thought about as I read this article. A rail network through Africa...all the better to move rare earth, mineral, and metal extractions from Africa to China, my dear. No wonder the station has warnings about 'disruptive locals'.
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In 1969, I visited my Peace Corp boyfriend in Somalia. He took his two-week vacation & we traveled by thumb,and bus through Kenya and Tanzania. On our return back to Nairobi, we took the 30 hour ride on East African Railways.
The train was the old-fashioned one that you see in 1930 movies—compartments with facing upolstered benchs that opened up to beds. We brought our own food and Fanta.
It was a 400 mile trip through the bush. It was SLOW and peaceful; passing sporadic villages along the way where the villagers came to greet us as we chugged along— the windows opened for bigs to fly in.
Lazy. Drousy from the heat;swaying to the rhythm of the train. It was a deep meditation.
50 years ago, we were rock stars because for East Africans has seen few White people.
We got to read and pet and doze. A remarkable trip.
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Wonderful story but where are the photographs of the old train relics in that shed? I would have loved to have seen them.
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Very enjoyable read and photographs.
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This is the best travel piece I’ve read in a long time. Thanks for the beautifully written evocative piece and the photos. My sister has been going to Ethiopia for years now by herself, and she was just there 2 months back. I think now that I would love to visit Ethiopia too and see some these places before they disappear into modernity.
I think it would be interesting for the Times to do a follow up article in a few years to see how much these places change. I fear the Chinese will be taking over Ethiopia too, as they have been doing in other parts of Africa. They are the new colonizers - and no less exploitative than the European colonizers were. Sadly, African governments are giving away their resources and assets for temporary help with “infrastructure” - the modern day equivalent of baubles and beads.
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All this contrast between a "sterile" modernity and "local color" is a bit patronizing; people living there might actually prefer a bit of sterile modernity to all the raving hyenas beloved by tourists.
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@C. Sorley
You are so right, we all long to visit and experience some distant place that's different from where we live.
I live 30 minutes drive from Times Square, which 99% of the world's population wants to see, visit, and experience. Times Square is a boring old place for people that live in NY/NJ/CT.
Last spring we were visiting several National Parks out west. While making reservations I spoke to a young lady that lived outside of Denver that was saving money for months to visit NYC last summer. When I told her we were excited to catch a glimpse of the Milky Way in the super dark Death Valley, she casually mentioned she sees it every night from the deck on her parent's house :)
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When I visited Harrar in 1967, it was like a city from the Old Testament. Saw the hyenas at dusk.
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Interesting piece and great photography.
I've spent quite a bit of time in Africa.
And one thing, khat is not a mild herbal stimulant.
It's often used more as a recreational drug that can be troubling.
I know, I tried it in Kenya and Uganda years ago.
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@Futbolistaviva Thanks! Regarding khat: well, one doesn’t necessarily exclude the other. It does act mainly as a mild stimulant (and by mild I mean like caffeine on steroids), but it is certainly used as a recreational drug. The greatest (and most obvious) damage is caused by sustained, long term use though. A lot of the people living and sleeping on the streets of Hamar are there as a result of this, at least in part. But it’s also a very accepted habit in many countries in northeastern Africa and the Middle East.
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I am riding a metro from VA to D.C. while reading this beautifully written article. My mind was wholly there and it makes me feel long to take the same ride when I travel to my homeland to visit my families.
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Another fascinating story about a train in today's NYT (the other is the "Beer and Pizza Line" in NYC), as only the NY Times can bring to its readers, but once again, no map of train's journey. Let's get it together!
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@Isle
Over the past few years, I've noticed a dirth of maps in the NYT. It's too stark of a change from my youth to be anything other than an editorial decision.
The paper seems more interested in telling stories through emotions rather than facts. Numbers, proportions, geographic relationships ... these are all shirked in the pursuit of anecdote and pathos.
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@Isle You must have missed it, but my version has a map.
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@Isle There is a detail map, in the article, showing the location of detail on the continent. What are you talking about?
Arthur Rimbaud, that great French poet, was reputedly the 3rd European to set foot in Harar, in the 1880s, and the first European to operate a business there, namely as an agent for the export of coffee. (Ethiopia is the "birthplace" of coffee). As a young, gay man, he had reputedly led a rather wild life before settling in Harar, where he was living when the cancer that killed him at age 37 was first diagnosed. Rimbaud's home in Harar was bought by a merchant who re-decorated it so that it is no longer recognizable as what was his home. That house has now been turned into the Rimbaud Museum. But I'd like to think that whatever made Rimbaud happy in Harar is still there - and am planning a trip to find out. This train sounds wonderful - thank you for bringing its story to us with such evocative photos.
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@CEJNYC the house is well worth a visit, it includes photographs of him and of Harar going back to Ras Makonnen’s era.
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@CEJNYC I spent several days in Harar almost 20 years ago. At the time, there was limited signage for would-be tourists, but I'll never forget the hand-painted sign indicating "Rambo's House."
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@CEJNYC Elisabeth Eaves wrote a lovely piece about Rimbaud's Harar for the Times a few years ago - well worth checking out if you haven't already had the pleasure: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/01/travel/where-rimbaud-found-peace-in-ethiopia.html
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Thanks for a great piece - writing and photos both. I’ve been to both countries but not explored beyond the main cities. I can use this article to convince some companions to travel there with me!
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@Grace Coston Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it. 😊
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Thank you, Henry and Marcus, for your vivid writing and images, I hope they will inspire others to visit Ethiopia.
My wife and I traveled on the former train from Dire Dawa to Addis Ababa and return in 1968, when we were Peace Corps volunteers, teaching in the remote village of Grawa, on the slopes of Garamuleta mountain southwest of Harar. We stopped at Awash, admired the camel trains and ate at the hotel, which was a favorite holiday spot for French people from Djibouti. Your article made me glad to know that most of the culture we experienced still exists. I hope the rich array of gorgeous birds we saw--Takazze sunbirds, firefinches, blue rollers, maribou storks, Egyptian vultures and more--are still around, they were a magical part of the journey.
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We stayed at the formerly famous Awash Hotel next to the train line. While it had lost all the train business (the old train line had been closed for years) it retained an atmosphere and charm of its former glory.
Thanks for this wonderful article and pictures of a truly marvelous train journey.
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@Mike O'Brien Thanks Mike! Glad to hear that you enjoyed the article - and wow, that must have been quite the journey back in ‘68!
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Lovely article! Having wandered around both Dire Dawa and Harar, it brought back fond memories.
Most significant fact about the new train line and its terminus - they were built with substantial Chinese aid and investment. Another sign of the receding, unambitious West, more interested in shoring up its fading glories at home than involvement in and commitment to the rest of the world. Thus an Ethiopian train station becomes a metaphor for the diminishment of the West and the inexorable, energized rise of a new order.
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Took the old train to Dire Dawa in 1972. Hard wooden seats back then. I was the lone "farenge" in my car. I remember my amazement at the Afar tribesman sitting a few seats away, with his long, curved dagger tied at his waist. I sensed from the way he looked at me he found my foreignness equally exotic. Thanks for sharing!
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Wonderful account. There are plenty of maps to find if you google them. I wanted to see pictures of the fourth holiest shrine. But, words paint a better picture.
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I have traveled as far as Jijiga ( border region S.E.OF Hara) in 84 up to Harar in 2013.It was rural outside Harar and Jijiga was a small desert town, now it has a University several nice roads,few 3 or so star hotels.The introduction of the rail service has great promise the rgion needs a lot of Agro related products from the parts of Ethiopia further north it is rich in cattle,nuts and Harar's high quality coffee,herbal perfumes,etc.The people are quite enterprising.If enough domestic and international Investors are drawn the country has great promise.As you rightly observed the country has registered significant Economic transformation the trick is how to make things more equitable,build on the good that is achieved, be respectful of each other and further capitalize on the cultural and historical richness of the Nation.If the above is achieved there is no need to be refugee.The same apply to several African and S.American countries.Thank You for capturing what is exotic and beautiful in that part of the world.TMD.
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Thanks for the great article.
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Built by China, I suppose?
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@Skier yes, you are right
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WOW! No map.
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What a beautifully written piece and stunning images. In the character of the writers of old this makes me want to plan a journey there. I feel I have travelled there, thank you!
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@MK Thank you, that’s very nice to hear! 😊
Imagine, no map to show the journey!
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@W lawless
Yes please a map! :)
Can't wait to take this trip. Investment in Africa is rising at a very rapid pace and many places are starting to open up. It's really wonderful to see and will save millions from poverty or the extremely dangerous and sad trip to the EU. Tourism will be a large part of this.
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A friend and I rode the 'old' train to Dire Dawa and back in June of 1972. We also took the bus to Harer. The pictures show that things have changed on the surface but I wonder how much they have changed underneath. Perhaps after the trains have been running for a decade or two there will be real changes along the line.
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Great story. I spent 4 months backpacking throughout Ethiopia in 1996 and feel overwhelming nostalgia after having read your story. Thank you.
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Emerging technologies in conductivity and scaled energy transferrence are making it clear the world's future power grids will consume massive quantities of.... salt. The Chinese are staking out Ethiopia as their colony for no other reason than to have first access to the rich supply of Sodium Chloride in Lake Assal.
In this country we bother all of the day about Trump's latest white noise or losing ourselves in silos about passover recipes and CBD therapies for pets.
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I have long ago learnt that reading well-written travelogues is better than visiting the place, as I will never be able to comprehend and enjoy the intricacies a place has to offer.
The travel articles in the Times are divine.
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Dire Dawa - really? What a marvelous place! I stopped there for the night after a long but very pleasant ride on the old train from Addis Ababa on my meandering way back from US Peace Corps in Malawi.
One stop, where a new friend from the train rushed me off and into an extensive village, to an old woman's house where we shared my first-ever doro wat, which after a few bites convinced me that I was going to die from the heat of the dish, until I continued to eat this magnificent dish as the heat became a comfortable warmth in my mouth.
I had set out for the ancient walled city of Harar, which everyone knew back in 1854 was off-limits to Europeans who, if found in the city, would be killed. But that was the year that my hero, the adventurer, explorer, linguist and ethnographer Sir Richard Francis Burton visited the city, camped outside the hyena gate if I remember his biographies correctly), and was finally admitted.
Harar is also known as the birthplace of Ras Tafari (yes, the religion was named after him, the Emperor Haile Selassie). And the city did not disappoint. What did disappoint was my failure to make the trek up to Tigre Province in what is not Eritrea, but my excitement has peaked reading this wonderful article and knowing that Asmara would be accessible by train in the not-distant future. What a wonderful trip that would be - and another terrific addition to my bucket list.
Compliments as well to the photographer and his/her magnificent photographs.
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@Porter We just traveled Ethiopia by car and plane over Christmas last year. What an astounding place. Yes the Tigre region was amazing...go!...and tourism there is already big, though certainly for the more adventurous. We were planning to return, and now will add this train trip to the itinerary.
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Is this a journey doable by an unaccompanied female?
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@Georgia
[email protected]
Me too!!
@Georgia
I took the train in February 2018, when it was just a few weeks old, from Addis Ababa to Dire Dawa, then back. There were any number of women traveling alone, and I never once saw anyone being inappropriate, and I engaged with any number of people along the length of the train during the hours of travel. Both the Christian and Islamic Ethiopian cultures in transit are highly respectful of women. I compare this by contrast, for example say, with Fez, a marvelous city, but one more challenging for solo women. I genuinely think you would be fine.
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@Georgia The train, absolutely. It’s like any train, anywhere, more or less. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend wandering around some of the alleys alone at night, but then that goes for pretty much anywhere. We met a few single female travelers - all quite experienced, but it’s definitely very doable.
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Beautifully written and fascinating.
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Beautiful, thank you.
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Could have been written by a 19th century British explorer.
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