Roger Rambler        page 3       Roger Rambler Class Page

The next morning, as we peered from our tents to catch the first warming rays of the sun,  the dawn looked much the same as it had for the last two thousand years.  Mountains to the west were rimmed with early morning gold.  We had an uneventful journey to Port Sudan on the Red Sea. Thatch industry   There are few trees in the Sudan.  Consequently, wood is an expensive commodity.  Houses are constructed from local grasses, which provide ample insulation from the noon-day sun.  On the road to Port Sudan  we passed by a village where not only were the roofs and walls composed of thatch, the fences were also.

We hastened aboard a leaky tramp steamer, which could have been built fifty years before this morning but not twenty years after.  Who knows?

When we arose on the fourth day, we were going through the strait referred to in Arabic as Bab al Mandab.  At any rate it separates Eritrea and Djibouti from Yemen.  Our destination was Djibouti but we only got a glimpse of the place.  Too late, I remembered something that could have saved us a lot of trouble. At the moment, we were visiting, pirates were causing all sorts of trouble in Djibouti.  We were forced to make for Yemen, a place that I had always wanted to vist.  Don't ask me why, for it is mountainous and as dry as a bone.  A gazelle popped up from nowhere as we caught our last glimpses of Africa and set course for Asia.

About three hours out, we spotted the light of the Ras Marshag Lighthouse but it wasn't until early the following morning that we neared port of Aden.  Wouldn't you know it, we couldn't make landfall here either.  It wasn't because of pirates.  A fierce storm was brewing.  We headed for the open sea and safety.   Three days later we docked at Mogadishu, the only city in Somalia and my last choice, as the country has been for centuries it would seem, in a state of chaos.

We lost little time in preparing to leave Mogadishu.   Clean drinking water was in short supply.   We witnessed several indications that all was not well.   student  woman protester    woman and donkey    When sun began to cast long hot shadows, we skirted the city.  As scared as I was, I didn't hesitate to provide my readers with some scenes of Mogadishu that should easily convince you how desparately poor and war torn the country was.

Ethiopia, a country that I had read about, dreamt about and was eager to visit, lay dead ahead.  There was only another two hundred miles to go and we would be crossing the border and entering the fabled land.  I noted that we were now on Osama minus ten plus ten days triple T* and that made me very happy for I wanted more than anything to meet Haile Selassie, the last king of Ethiopia. Another item on my agenda, was to see the Blue Nile Falls.  By the way, Triple T stands for Time-Travel Time.

For reasons that I cannot understand, my thoughts were wrapped up in Yemen, a study in contrast.  For one thing, Yemen is the poorest country in the Middle East.  For another, there seems to be a lot of confidence here.  Aden is now a world-class container port.   The oldest part of the city of Aden is known as the Crater since it lies in the crater of an extinct volcano.  I wonder how far back in TripleT Time, I would have to go before I witnessed the volcano erupting.  On second thought, I told myself, don't go there.  It may have been before there were humans on Earth.  The risk just wouldn't be worth it for if the volcano had erupted before the Dreamtime, who knows what would have happened to me and my friends?

While entering the first foothills of Ethiopia, Al Said began to fill me in on the history of the country starting with Queen of Sheba and King Solomon.  The Queen of Sheba and King Solomon of Israel meet.  The Queen of Sheba was supposedly Queen of Egypt and Ethiopia.  Apparently, there is a possibility that King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba created a son, known as Menelik.  Sheba appears in both Christian as well as in Muslim folklore.  However for some vague reason, she is also linked to Yemen.  It is possible that in olden times, Ethiopia had dominion over Yemen. 

Menelik, it is believed, assumed the throne of Ethiopia and founded the Solomonic dynasty that ruled Ethiopia for almost 3,000 years.  After 225 generations had passed, the reign ended in 1974 with the fall of Emperor Haile Selassie.

In spite of my best efforts, I never managed to meet King Haile Selassie.  With the advantage of foresight conditioned by having already been there once previous to venturing off into Triple T, I knew with absolute certainty that Ethiopia would become the second most populous nation in Africa.   Deforestation would become a problem.  The highland areas, which predominate, made road building difficult and expensive.  However, the scenery was magnificent. and the history is well worth the telling.

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