APRIL 26, 2012 ADDIS ABABA TO LAKE LANGANO, ETHIOPIA

26 APRIL 2012, ADDIS ABABA TO LAKE LANGANO, ETHIOPIA 

Arriving in Addis Ababa from Lalibela on the plane at 12:30 pm, Malcolm quickly had our luggage on a cart and hustled us out to the parking lot.  It was time to say our Goodbyes to Liz and Phil who were heading back to the UK later that night.  They had signed up for the Northern Ethiopia tour only not the Southern Tour and were really disappointed now to not be seeing the rest of Ethiopia.  Another lady from Liz’ company was doing the South - so at 1:45 pm Terry joined with us (what’s the chance to have 2 Terry’s in a group of three?) and loaded into the Land Cruiser driven by Bale, while Phil and Liz waved farewell and headed off for some shopping and sightseeing before their 11pm flight to London on Ethiopia Airlines.

So we immediately headed South out of the airport on the ring road (another road in Africa built by the Chinese) - we would drive 47km until the turn off to Debre Zeit , then on to NOJO where we head South and the major traffic heads East towards Djibouti - a total of 200 km today.  We crossed the Akaki River 30 minutes later which is the boundary between the City of Addis Ababa and the country, but we had already entered the Great Rift Valley earlier at the town of Dukem.  There are towns out of Addis which are occasionally used for Tourists because all the hotels in Addis can fill up - especially in January when the joint African Unity Meeting is held with delegates from all the African Countries.  These hotels include Kuriftu Resort (same as the beautiful resort that we had lunch in at Laka Tana) and Babodaya in Debre Zeit.

We stopped in Debre Zeit ourselves for a late lunch at Dreamland Hotel - a beautiful location with multi level decks cascading down towards Lake Bishoftu.  The lake was formed during the volcanic eruptions 30 million years ago.  We saw several birds while we waited for lunch including the variable sunbird.  We also made good friends with a small kitty - especially when she was fed some of the fish that Terry and Terry ordered for lunch!   I had vegetable risotto and all the food was good, we washed it down with Ambro flavoured water and ice cold St. George’s beer! Unfortunately we didn’t find out until we were driving away that there was internet at Dreamland otherwise we could have sent out the last several days of blog and we expect it to be several days more before we get internet at any hotel.  We will be off the beaten track somewhat so our emails and blog will have to wait.

As the drive continued we passed huge greenhouses producing large amounts of roses for export to Europe. There were vendors selling round baskets with a long shoulder handle to use as water holders, the first time we have seen those. We turned South at Nojo at 4:25pm - we had done 70km so far with another 130k to go before we would be at our hotel for the night, the SABANA Beach Resort on Lake Langano.  We passed a mountain range where the Monks built a Monastery on top of Mt Zequile - visitors can visit the Monastery and they are taken by mule (an approximately 3 hour ride each way). The drive passed Lake Koka, the only artificial Lake in Ethiopia from a dam upstream, and drove along the Great Rift Valley - very different than in Kenya with the massive escarpment and deep valley - here it is just a wide open valley.

We also passed what looked to be a very bad accident between a bus and a truck, both on their sides and people everywhere - but it didn’t look like there were injured around.  We were very quickly understanding how accidents can happen here.  The amount of traffic is reasonably high, but the amount of animals, donkeys, goats, cattle, sheep, and donkey carts absolutely loaded down with wood and sacks of goods, is unbelievable and they are all over the road - most of the donkeys quite happy to stay in place as a truck or bus races towards it without blinking an eye!  There are so many donkey carts going slowly along the road, and puling out to pass each other - at the same time on the other side of the road a herd of cattle might decide to cross, or someone might walk out to pass the donkeys and goats - unbelievable and a nightmare!  It was nerve racking and dangerous driving for everyone.  There were huge green fields with vegetables including maize (corn), and onions.  We saw a large flock of quililas, tiny birds, which can devour crops as quickly as a swarm of locusts.

The second Lake we came to, Langano, has 5 islands in it.  One of the islands is where the original Arc of the Covenant was stored for 20 years during the 16th Century.  We passed another rolled over truck which had been carrying charcoal - everyone was scurrying around endeavouring to repack the charcoal into the sacks it had come out of.  The road we were on is the main road to Kenya passing along Lake Koka, Ziway, Langano and Abijatta.  As we finally turned off towards our hotel the SABANA Beach Resort there were little kids running alongside our Land Cruiser shouting “hello, hello, hello, 1 birr” - 1 birr being the lowest denomination here worth about 6 cents USD.  They were asking us to give them money.  Our guide Malcolm gets very angry and always shouts at any kids that ask for anything and tells them not to beg.  He will also counsel other tour guides who let their guests give the children money, sweets, pencils, anything.  He says that anything should be taken to a school where they will know who has the greatest need of anything that might be donated.

SABANA is a lovely resort - our best hotel yet.  Large very nicely located and furnished restaurant and bar with expansive views of Lake Langano.  The rooms are cottages with two units in each - set in 3 rows back behind each other on the hillside so each has a view of the Lake.  They have one queen or two twin beds on the main floor, and a loft with a ladder up top with two additional mattresses overlooking the main room below.  The bathroom was clean, and lots of hot water and a great shower head.  Unfortunately there were no hair dryers to borrow from the main reception!  There was also no internet.

A quick shower and we returned for sundowners overlooking Lake Langano with the oher Terry before an excellent dinner - our best yet.  Lasagna and pepper steak are what we ordered (Terry U. even had tomato salad first) but better yet followed by a large bowl of ice cream with chocolate sauce.  This was our first ice cream in Ethiopia and we understand the only hotel where we will get ice cream!  Yup - it was delicious!  We were in bed by 9:30 pm (room #404) and slept soundly until 4am!