What's Amharic for "It's too early?"

Guest post from Tarahumara Haley.

I was unexpectedly called away to Ethiopia and Kenya for work these last few weeks. Not the worst state of affairs, granted (a chance to work in the birthplace of coffee for a self-confessed coffee addict? Yes please!)... though it did mean that I missed out on my team's first official training walk. Also, due to various restrictions on movement, oh, and the at times intense heat, it did make me wonder how I might keep up at least a modicum of Trailwalker-inspired fitness whilst away.

Enter Aberra, a colleague of mine over in Dire Dawa (a town in the Somali region of Ethiopia). An enthusiastic runner, Aberra extended the invite for me to join him and a couple of colleagues on their daily run. "Great," I said. "What time?" "Six o-clock."

My heart sank a little once I realised Aberra meant six in the morning, rather than the evening - my brain, let along my legs, refuses to engage without at least a couple of cups of buna (Amharic for coffee) in the morning, and certainly not that early, in any case; however, since the town's street lighting left a little to be desired, and was certainly not sufficient to light one's way on an evening run, my options were reasonably limited. "O-kaaay... though  be warned," I told Aberra, I'm not the greatest of morning people, so I will be slow (not to mention grumpy)."

In the end I was glad that I dragged myself out of bed on those early mornings. The air was much cooler, the streets much quieter... and when we reached (after a walk-run combination on my behalf - hey, it was early!) the top of the hills behind the town, the views were pretty spectacular. Oh, and on one of the days, we were treated to the sight of a troupe of baboons - not something I normally see treading the streets of Bermondsey. Cars, yes; dogs, sometimes... but baboons? Never. Thanks, Aberra!

Some photos that attempt to capture the moment are below.

The hills behind Dire Dawa, at about 6:30am.

Obviously, you've never really been somewhere until you've
captured the moment in a self-snapped portrait of dubious quality...

More of the view from the top of the hills in Dire Dawa.

Baboons: an unexpected accompaniment to my morning training sessions.
(Note: In the interest of transparency, and lest I mislead you, dear reader,
these particular baboons are ones that I photographed on the road to Djibouti -
the ones I saw on the hills behind Dire Dawa were much more camera shy...)