TUESDAY APRIL 1, 2012 ARBA MINCH to TURMI
(280 km 160 paved, 120km gravel, 8 hours)
Awake at 5:30 am the horizon was brilliant red over the mountains and by 6:30 the sun was over the mountain ridge (marking the Great Rift Valley), and reflecting over the lake - just glorious! We could hear the birds singing and look at nothing but forest, lake and mountains - not for a minute could you believe that the town of Arba Minch with a population of 60 to 70, 000 was located behind us, but it was there although we could hear nothing but the birds and silence!
The hot shower was also fantastic, but we have to admit that the faint white dusting that covered everything in the room was a question! We don’t know if it’s dust, but it looks more like something coming down from insects in the room’s thatched roof. The rooms are round, just like the traditional Tukul homes here and the double bed looking straight out over the valley view - a wonderful way to wake up. There is a centre tree in the room holding up the high cone shaped ceiling/roof which is made from straws and ropes, woven in a variety of patterns in natural and brown colours - very beautiful. There is lots of furniture, 2 dressers, table and chair, mini fridge, side tables, electric floor fan, and TV (2 channels) on a table made from a tree trunk with branches - very nicely done, The bottom half of the windows has goat skin stretched around the edges with a rope design in the centre. You can also get a massage here and rent motorbikes - this maybe the most offerings of any hotel we have visited so far - most definitely the best view and comfort we have experienced so far. They also provide free WIFI which you can access from the restaurant and deck areas but not the rooms - even though we are right next to the restaurant and central facilities.
Breakfast was a bust - there was a large table who got all the attention and it took 45 minutes before Terry got his ham and cheese omelette and a little longer for 1 hard boiled egg (which was soft). The toast in Ethiopia has been very hard every morning which is quite strange because their bread rolls are so soft and very tasty! Malcolm and Bale picked us up at 8am along with Fitsum who was going to be the Captain on our boat for our trip to Lake Chamo - the most southernmost lake in Ethiopia’s stretch of the Great Rift Valley. The downhill drive to the dock was through large herds of cattle as all the farmers take their cows down to the lake to drink and eat grass for the day, then back to their farms for safe keeping overnight.
Arriving at the dock we also had a Park Ranger (with rifle) meet us - the dock itself looked pretty frail with branches and wood strung together through the reeds but actually it was quite sturdy. There were thousands of ants on every piece of wood and ground, and in the boat as well. Malcolm suggested tucking our pants into our socks to prevent getting bitten by the ants - but since he hadn’t suggested we wear socks today my feet were bare! Fortunately I kept them high on top of my bag and had no problems. We also had horse flies with us while we ere on the boat so we kept swatting them away. Captain Fitsum gave us all a bright orange lifejacket to wear, and since the lake has a large hippo and crocodile population, I’m not sure how useful the life jacket would be if anyone fell in! In fact during the course of the 1 hour boat ride we saw lots of plastic sandals around the sides of Lake Chamo in the reeds - hopefully the owner just lost the plastic shoes and not his life to a croc or hippo!
The boat safari was peaceful and very interesting under hot sunny blue skies with white fluffy clouds over the mountains. Capt Fitsum used the motor to get us to where the huge flocks of great white pelicans, and a few smaller pink backed pelicans were hunting for fish, flying in circles (for digestion) and taking off and landing on the lake. Right next to the pelicans were lots of crocodiles - some were huge and very dark skinned, maybe 70 years old. There were also smaller crocs in the lake and in the reeds on the shore. The hippo pod had very large hippos who lazily would lift their eyes and ears to look at us with disdain before sinking back underwater. We spent a good hour on Lake Chamo and really enjoyed the peaceful safari. We saw quite a few other birds including fish eagles, maribu stork, black stork, spar winged plover, yellow village weaver, Rupell’s starling, red bishop, hadada ibis, pied kingfisher and a huge goliath heron.
On the way back to the dock we passed three locals standing in the water at the shore with their fishing net - throwing the net to catch fish - I wonder how many of the fishermen meet up with a crocodile unexpectedly! There was a huge one swimming by us just offshore from them. We also passed a couple of fisherman on their traditional flat boat with paddles rowing across the lake. The rafts were made from a very lightweight wood (like balsa wood I think). We said our farewell to Capt Fitsum (or so we thought) but 10 minutes later we were well and truly stuck in a mud hole on the track back to the road - so while we exited and stood to the side, Malcolm raced back to fetch the Park Warden and Capt Fitsum plus another couple of folks to help get us out of the hole. Several locals also arrived along with their 4 dogs to watch the performance. The dogs had not seen this activity before and kept barking at the wheels as they rocked backwards and forwards in the mud hole!
It didn’t take too long before we were back on the road driving through large banana and mango orchards with huge bunches of bananas on the roadside waiting to be picked up by the trucks who buy them wholesale and then take them to Addis Ababa to sell on to other wholesalers. We also stopped to take a look at the beehives high up in the umbrella acacia (Acacia Abyssinica) - there were 27 beehives in this one tree - amazing! Lots of villagers, children and animals wandering along the road - the inevitable ducking and diving, weaving and wandering all over the road to get past and through in the Land Cruiser. Some of the men were carrying their gorad (panga or scythe) as they headed out to the fields.
Soon we were into completely different culture as we entered the drier fields of the Derashe people growing sorghum and moringa trees (called cabbage tree since they eat leaves as a vegetable). The Derashe women wear a head dress and a two tiered skirt. Then after the bridge, we entered the lands of the Konso people known for their land terracing tradition - all of their land is terraced in an effort to retain their soil from run off and erosion. Today we were scheduled to see the Erbore people (known for their jewellery made from tin caps, watchbands, bottle tops etc) but that has been cancelled - we can’t get through because of flooding on the road. We had now entered the OMO Valley but would later enter the Lower Omo Valley which we had been told gets very hot.
Our first stop in the town of KONSO was the new KANTA LODGE which we had a chance to look in the TUKUL style circular rooms before enjoying a lovely lunch of tomato soup and spicy spaghetti bolognese. Well, at least Jan did, as we waited a long time for the food to arrive and the fish and chips that Terry ordered never did arrive. The waiter was mortified when he realized that he had forgotten to put the order in to be cooked. Water is scarce here and they bring it all up to the Lodge by truck from the town a few miles below. The grounds are covered with beautiful flowering shrubs, there is a large terrace under a huge giant fig tree with lots of shade from the hot sun, and the colourful buntings were still hanging from the trees celebrating that on April 28th (2 days prior to us arriving) there had been a huge celebration to announce KONSO as the 9th world heritage site in Ethiopia by UNESCO for the terracing of the hills to protect from soil erosion and increase agricultural produce - it has always been done this way in KONSO for centuries.
After lunch we were off to visit a KONSO village at altitude 1650m, taking along with us the local guide. The village is made up of several generations - the oldest generation family have their homes built in the middle, the next generation circle their homes around the oldest, and the building continues in circles going further out from the centre for each generation. They also erect a pole (tree trunk) for each generation - not carved or painted like in the Pacific North West by our native Indians. These are simply a dead tree trunk tied together - there were 9 generations here, so a grouping of 9 different size generation poles. The smallest village of KONSO people is around 3,000 people and the largest 10,000 - the total KONSO population numbers around 300,000.
Each home has two levels - the lower ground level is a sub floor, but the main living area is entered through a trap door from the ground level. There is grain storage for the entire community, and some of this saved in the event that the rains fail and there is a drought. The crops they grow include sweet potato, kassava, papaya, khat (chewing leaves which are a stimulant), coffee and sorghum (eating and used for making local brew). The KONSO also have a WAKA , which is a wooden totem to protect themselves from evil spirits (remember Shakira’s song from the 2010 World Soccer Cup in South Africa: WAKA WAKA eh eh! Zsamina zsamina zangolewa - cause this is AFRICA). We walked around the village taking a few photos and talking to the small children who wanted to walk along with us. Most of the adults were hiding from the heat inside their dark huts. All the village, and the huts for each generation, are protected by large stone walls (Ethiopia is not short of a few trillion volcanic rocks or stones) and the entrance between a lower level to a higher level is very narrow - our guide told us that should there be a thief in the village they simply block all the entrances so that the thief can’t get out - they then can easily catch the thief and he is in big trouble!
In the central area of the village there is a large area for the community to gather. In addition to the generation poles, there is also a “maturity “ rock and a “swearing” rock. The maturity rock is quite large and each boy must lift it over his head three times before he can become a man. (Terry decided that it was a good reason for him to still be a young boy!). If someone is accused of doing something wrong, he can swear on the swearing rock that he did not - but if he is lying he will get sick and die!
By 2:30 pm we were back on the road and passing many KONSO people on the roads - it is very easy to tell the women since they all wear very colourful skirts of two layers - the top short layer (maybe 18 inches deep from the waist) on top of a longer layer coming almost down to the ankles - both layers are the same colourful fabric and are gathered - so a very cheerful skirt. We were admiring the beautiful scenery as we entered the lower OMO valley - a huge wide valley surrounded by mountains - and the heat increased even more! We saw the WAITO river which drains into Lake Stephen,, there were large cotton plantations - all the shawls in Ethiopia are woven from cotton. There were pairs of tiny dik dik antelope running across the road and snake eagles soaring overhead. We passed the local people and their outfits were appropriate for the heat at 35C - short shorts (very short shorts), a ball cap, carrying their lunch bag and a rifle slung over their shoulder.
We turned off the road towards TURMI (altitude 800m) - this road is in the process of being upgraded (contract given to an Indian company) and for today and the next two days we drove over a variation of sand, mud, gravel, on the road and down the side tracks which were often easier and less bumpy to drive along. The new road is expected to be completed within the next 12 months - there was no one working on it today since they don’t work from April to September due to the weather. It looked to me like there was an awful lot of work left to do! The shrubs and scrub were very green and healthy and looked more and more like Samburu in Kenya, just a few miles south. However, even though there are some wild animals in Ethiopia much of it has disappeared due to killing and hunting. The current National Parks are shared by wild life and the local villagers along with their sheep, cattle and goats - not a healthy idea. Many of the people in the Lower OMO Valley are nomadic - moving with their livestock and the weather.
The TSEMAY people are semi nomadic and the men wear a short sarong, and red headbands. The BANA people look very similar but the men wear blue headbands., the ladies wear goat skin dress and you can tell from the ladies’ dresses and necklaces (leather with shells) whether or not they are married. The HAMMER people are very handsome - the women with short curly hair covered in butter then powdered red clay is rubbed in to make the hair red. If the lady wears one necklace she is the first wife, if she wears two necklaces she is the second wife or has been married twice). Everyone was walking along the road with a purpose, all dressed traditionally and all carrying sacks and bags of some sort. Lots of naked children playing on the sides of the road, men washing in the puddles of very red water (clean but red from the clay) most not hesitant about standing naked and waving to us as we drove by - even though we were tired and hot after a long day it was beautiful scenery and fascinating people watching!
We reached TURMI and then our hotel for the night, the BUSKA LODGE (owned by DINKNESH, our Tour Operator) around 5:30 pm - tired and hot and so looking forward to a good shower. The rooms are traditional style, circular with two double beds and a bathroom with shower and toilet. They run on solar and generator which is switched on from 6-8am each morning and 6-10pm each night. We met for sundowners and cocktails feeling like new people after a welcome shower, and enjoyed pepper steak along with local GOUDER red wine for dinner. Bed came none too soon and we crashed quickly as soon as our heads hit the pillows!
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