The battle of the fleas!

I felt so sorry for Francois last night! I think he managed to pick up a bunch of fleas at the scruffy Sheriff Hotel in Moyale a few days back as he woke up this morning and we counted more than 70 itching bites all over his body! He struggled and fought with the tiny buggers all night, when I figured that they must be hiding in his sleeping bag as we slept on two different beds in Moyale and I was flea-free. So in the middle of the night, we kicked his bedding out and shared mine and that seemed to help a little.

Thus, the mission for today: FUMIGATE! But unfortunately not an easy thing to find this in Addis Abeba and all we could find was insect killer spray for mosquitos and flies – eish! Back at Holland House we sprayed the tent and his sleeping bag, but I am still a bit hesitant to allow the sleeping bag to return to the tent so wish us luck for tonight :o)

While hunting for the fumigator we also bought some supplies. Amongst others we could not resist something for the sweet tooth and we left with the following bag of fizzers – which means we can each have one for the rest of the trip :o) hehe

We also did another oil change this afternoon and then headed off one more time to get some more anti-itching cream as ours are now pretty much depleted after the battle between Francois and the fleas last night. We got two different brands and will try both to see what works best. We also tried again to find a place where we can buy local sim cards, but it is really really impossible to find. So we will have to try our luck at Internet Café’s in the next few days.

Here is our camp while Francois is busy with the oil change:

Here at Wim’s Holland House we have met two American women that will be travelling South through the Omo Valley. We bought their Egyptian Lonely Planet Guide from them which will help us a lot in Egypt. Other than that there haven’t been any other travellers. Unfortunately the legendary Wim, the owner of Holland House, is in Holland at the moment for a back operation so we are sorry to have missed him. Here Francois is enjoying a beer in the bar:

Tomorrow we will start heading North towards Lalibela and we will take about two nights’ sleep to get there. And tonight I hope that the battle with the fleas are over, but we are going in with enough spray to at least shock the buggers into a light sleep – wish us luck!