APRIL 28, 2012 BALE MOUNTAINS & SANETTI PLATEAU, ETHIOPIA

April 28, 2012 BALE MOUNTAINS, SANETTI PLATEAU - WILDLIFE SAFARI

 - what a great day!  We started with breakfast (fresh papaya juice, boiled eggs, scrambled eggs and the always excellent coffee grown right here in Ethiopia) at 6:30am and left around 7:15 - the objective to leave early in the hopes of seeing the Abyssinian Wolves which are endemic to Ethiopia with about 500 in the entire country and 400 in the Bale Mountains.  Malcolm’s record to date has been 10 in one day - so we were hopeful!  They had originally been classed as Red Fox and Red Jackal - but ultimate scientific classification is that they are the wolf family and are now classified as Abyssinian Wolf.

The road here in the town of GOBA is a 4 lane divided highway - dotted yellow line at the side showing the lane for the horses, donkeys, donkey carts and people walking, and the center two lanes for vehicles.  In reality the donkeys, horses, carts and people rule the road and the vehicles have to wind around them pipping their horns to get everything and everyone to make way!  We turned right out of the Wabi Shebele hotel and soon came to a piece of rope strung across the highway which a local fellow dropped so we could cross.  This is apparently private land on the way to the Bale Mountains and the rope just seems to be there to signify that.  The next piece of rope across the land was the start of the Bale Mountains National Park and there were two Rangers here - we had to show our entrance tickets, purchased the day before at the HQ in DINSHO - then off we went continuing the ascent towards the top of the Bale Mountains.

This showing of tickets is very important, and around 2pm that afternoon we met a group of 4 (from South Africa I think) staying at the same hotel as us, who were not very happy.  They are on a self drive tour and were not aware that the tickets had to be purchased in Dinsho - so when they tried to enter the Park they were turned around and had to drive back to Dinsho to buy them - close to 3 hours for the entire round trip!

As the Land Cruiser climbed the steep road (dirt road as soon as we hit the Park Gates) there was a stream of people, donkeys, horses, cows and goats heading down the mountain towards Goba - the donkeys absolutely loaded down with firewood - from eucalyptus grown on their own property then cut and brought into town to sell.  The donkeys were extremely heavily laden and the day before we had actually seen one exhausted or sick donkey lying exhausted at the side of the road with his sacks still strapped to his back.  The Ethiopians work extremely hard and the poor horses and donkeys are expected to do the same.  Some of the animals that we have seen look well fed and healthy but others look very skinny, and the same can be said for the cows.

The road up into the Bale Mountains crosses all the way through the Park to another village - so during the course of the day we saw about 6 buses chugging their way slowly up the mountain, along with a few vehicles.  As the buses come they are playing loud local music with speakers on the outside of the bus, so you can hear them coming for quite awhile before they arrive - especially when they slowly strain to climb the mountain roads.  Sometime (maybe around noon) we also saw a young boy and girl (in their teens) at the top of the mountains with their bag over their shoulder walking towards Goba (where we came from) several hours later when we arrived back into Goba they were walking into town - they had been walking for the whole day.  

As we climbed higher we could look back into the amazing massive valley below - a very fertile valley checkered with varying colours as the crops changed from one field to the next.  On the mountain were lots of Acacia trees including the red flowered nagenia abyssinia and acacia Abyssinai endemic to Ethiopia.

The Bale Mountains has the 2nd highest peak in the country, Mt Tullu Dimtu,  at 4377 metres (over 14,000 feet) and that’s where we would summit today - but by vehicle not by foot!  This road is the highest all year road in Ethiopia - the surface is covered in the red volcanic ash from the area.  In the Simien Mountains (where we were just 4 days ago - it just seems like a lifetime ago) the highest road is at 4400 metres, but it is closed during the rainy season.  In fact over 60% of Ethiopia is 1600 metres and above - so a very high landscape.

We saw lots of birds on the safari including chestnut naped spurfowl (Francolin), alpine chat - lots of busy little birds flying just inches above the ground or shrubs, wattled ibis, red winged starling, yellow billed ducks, blue winged geese, spot breasted lapwing (with bright yellow legs), ruddyshell duck, black headed siskin (really pretty), wattled crane, buzzrds, steppe eagle (sitting on the ground), lammer geier (bearded vulture), common kestrel, cranes, ruddy rail plus several more that I didn’t catch the names for!  It was a really relaxed day and the views were fabulous - this truly fits the name SANETTI PLATEAU - it was hard to accept just how high we really were because after climbing the mountain at the top it was miles and miles of rolling hills.  There were everlasting flowers everywhere, thousands of red hot pokers in bloom (larger and more yellow flowers than we have at home in Sechelt), and masses, simply masses, of giant protea- which can grow to a hight of 10 to 15 metres during their 10 year life.  The proteas we saw were so healthy, some just seedlings starting to grow and  other very tall  Many dead proteas having reached the end of their life cycle with their huge trunk/stem collapsed and doubled over on itself.

We had reached the plateau and were driving along stopping to look at the various birds and scenery when Malcolm says excitedly - there are wolves!  Sure enough - a couple of hundred metres ahead on our right were the beautiful Abyssinian wolves - a family of 4!  Bale pulled the Land Cruiser over and we sat and watched taking photos - when they realised we were there they started trotting away from the road up into the hills.  They are not large like the wolves in Canada but smaller with glossy reddish coloured fur - their features are fine and they looked healthy.  They are very attentive - they sit and look around with their ears straight up listening for any sounds.  They feed on the small mice and rhodents and believe you me, there are lots of them!  At times you could look across a stretch of the plateau and see 20 03 30 scampering across the ground in a small area, I think this explains the health of the wolves!  There is also a larger rodent called a Giant Mole Rat which looks just like the marmots that live in the mountains in Canada - with a cheeky furry face that would peep up out of a hole, look at us, then disappear back down and pop up out of another hole to look at us from a different direction!

We continued driving down the road and soon came to another wolf that was very close to the road.  We stopped and turned off the motor and watched him for quite awhile - got great photos and movies before he trotted away, crossed the road in front of us, then disappeared down the embankment on the other side.  It was our very lucky day - during the next several hours and by the time we headed back down the mountain we had seen a total of 21 wolves!  Malcolm was amazed and as ecstatic as we were!  We took a couple of walks across the plateau and would see the wolves climbing the hills or standing watching us from afar.  At one point in a rocky area with some caves we even heard a couple of pups, but we never did see them - their Mother must have kept them quiet or taken them down deeper into their den when she heard us in the area.  It was a wonderful day!

We drove to the top of Mt Tullu Dimtu at 4377 metres, and marvelled at the expansive views, the giant protea, and the huge cloud bank on the other side of the Sanetti Plateau slowly rolling up the mountain side.  At the very top is a microwave tower with a guard all wrapped up to stay warm.  He lives up here on his own for 5 days, then his replacement arrives on a horse - which he then rides back down to wherever his home is.   The wind blows up here and is quite frigid, but beautiful - giant proteas in all directions, and yellow everlasting flowers.  We were incredibly lucky with a perfectly clear blue sky all day long - perfect for driving, looking for animals, and enjoying our safari walks across the plateau.

During one walk Bale set up a picnic for us, and we returned to camp chairs, hot coffee, and a boxed lunch - two huge sandwiches of veal cutlet in two thick pieces of bread and a hard boiled egg on the side - needless to say we ate only one thin cutlet and one piece of bread!  We had our hands tucked in our sleeves and pockets, but they were still frozen with the cold wind and took a long time to warm up.

 Unfortunately there are a lot of folks living in the Bale Mountain National Park - and they have their cows, mules, horses and dogs there as well.  This is not good for the endangered wildlife, especially the endemic species, and at one point we even saw two dogs chasing two wolves.  Malcolm ran after the dogs and threw stones at them to chase them away - but that does not bode well for the future, especially if a hybrid was produced by mating of the dogs and the wolves.

We were slowly heading back down the Sanetti plateau at 2pm when we saw the 21st, and our last, wolf of the day.  What a spectacular day it had been and the weather just glorious.  Unfortunately we burned our faces from the sun and the wind, so later that night we had red glowing faces.  The sun comes straight down (we are close to the equator) so my burn came straight down on to my forehead, nose and top of my checks under my eyes - below that - nothing!  Terry’s face looked the same but the top of his head was red since he had no hat on.  Towards the bottom of the switchback road we stopped and took a walk in the forest area (it has been cut down before but is being reforested now).  We were looking for birds and saw a few, and also a reedback.  Then Bale was going to fill up with gas at the next village, ROBE, so we tagged along with him so that we could get some tonic water if we could fine some!  In fact, Malcolm left us enjoying a cold pepsi in a small coffee house (we were quite the centre of attraction there!) while he managed t find us 4 bottles of tonic - so we were going to enjoy our cocktails tonight!  In this area English is not spoken very much so we don’t have long (or short) conversations with anyone!