Lake Hawassa - Haile Resort

Sunset at Lake Hawassa

Itinerary Day 21: Arbaminch-Chencha-Hawassa 

After breakfast, we will start driving north to Awassa en-route visiting different villages and some of the most beautiful Rift Valley Lakes. After a short drive from Arbaminch, we will make detour to the mountain village of Chencha, the home of the Dorze people. The Dorze people, renowned cotton weavers whose tall beehive shaped and bamboo woven dwellings are among the most distinctive structures to be seen anywhere in Africa. As we finish our Cehncha Village visit, we will continue our drive to Awassa en-route visiting Welyta at Sodo and Alaba at Tenbaro. After check in to Haile Resort, located on the shore of Lake Hawassa, you can relax along the shore of the beautiful Rift Valley lake or take a relaxing walk, or relax in the swimming pool.

Leaving Arba Minch and starting on the road home.

Journal:
At breakfast we meet a couple of American pilots working for a a private charter company. One used to fly fighters off of carriers.  Sounds like they are keeping pretty busy moving executives and dignitaries around Africa and the Middle East. It's a pretty clear indicator that there is a lot of money and economic activity flowing in and around Arba Minch. 

Arba Minch to Hawassa

 We check out of the Paradise Lodge and begin the drive North.  This is the beginning of the end. Two days to drive back to Addis Ababa and then the flight home.  Tonight we'll be staying at the Haile Resort  on the shore of Lake Hawassa. This luxury resort is a destination in and of itself, so we want to get there for lunch and leave time to enjoy the resort.

We already visited the Dorze a couple days earlier, so they were off the itinerary for today. The only stop enroute was at a Muslim village known for the decorative painting of their thatched roof homes.

Neither Sigrid or I can remember the name of the village or the people who live here.  Perhaps indicative that the trip is winding down and we are ready to go home.

Haile Resort:

Named for the famed long distance runner and Ethiopian hero Haile Gebrselassie, the Haile Resort lives up to its billing as a luxury resort.

 Several restaurants, good food, spa, swimming pool, beautiful facilities, and a room with a view.

Brick oven Neapolitan style pizza and a cold beer hit the spot for lunch.

 Yohanes and Alxe found more fishing line in Arba Minch, so we give it another shot at Lake Hawassa.

I again set up Yohanes with a hand line, and start throwing  flies around. There are fish here - the kingfisher and cormorants are finding them - but no luck. My trophy in Bishigara will be the only catch this trip.

Nice sunset, and with WiFi in the bar and cold beer on tap, I make a small dent in getting the blog updated.  

Editors Note: I intend to pre-load and schedule automated blog posts with the daily itinerary for our Ethiopian adventure. For those interested, this may be an easy way to follow along. Since we will not have internet access for most of the trip, my hope is this will make it easier to add some pics and journal commentary if and when we run across an internet connection. If there are no pics or commentary, you'll just have to wait until we get back. We'll see how it goes.

Thanksgiving Day at Nechsar National Park and Lake Chamo

Itinerary Day 20: Thanksgiving at Arbaminch-Nechsar National Park - Lake Chamo 

In the morning, will have a game drive around the Nechsar National Park. This national park, with thrilling landscapes of mountains and lakes is one of the most attractive parks in the country. We will have the chance to see different mammals which inhabit the park including, the endemic antelope, Swayne’s Hartebeest, Gerenuk, Grants Gazelle, and Burchele Zebra. In the afternoon, we will have a boat cruise over Lake Chamo to see some of the biggest African crocodiles. Hippopotamus, and many beautiful aquatic birds including the lovely Kingfisher and African Fish Eagle.

Journal:  As I write this the blog is hopelessly behind, due primarily to the absence of adequate internet for much of the trip.   Decided to leap ahead and post our Thanksgiving Day now, and will continue to fill in the sizable journal gaps as time and internet availability permits.

Awoke on Thanksgiving Day thinking about the great Thanksgiving Day feasts we've enjoyed with friends and family in the bay area and in Chicago.  We'll miss the meal and the camaraderie,and the meal, and the meal.  But... we still had a great day in store.

The plan was to pick up a boat captain and a "Scout" (always required in the National Parks - think armed park ranger), drive to Lake Chamo, take a boat tour across the lake, a nature hike in the park on the other side, and see what there was to see.  As it turns out - there was a lot to see.

 On the drive over we saw these Guinea Fowl by the side of the road.

All I could think was how they would look roasted and stuffed in lieu of a turkey. On arrival at Lake Chamo we found our boat and the captain poled us out.

I forgot what the captain's real name was....

... we all called him "Captain Obama".

First stop - Crocodile Cove

There be monsters here.

We're told this where you find the largest crocs in Africa, and I've no reason to doubt it. They're the biggest I've ever seen by far. Some looked as long as the boat. Still... I was thinking... tastes like chicken... maybe - instead of turkey... stuffed croc kinda sounds good.

More sightings on the cruise across...

Fish Eagle

We watched him snatch a fish but didn't get a great shot

Hippo

Pelicans

Pelican air ballet

Giant Monitor Lizard

On the other side we disembarked and hiked up over a dry hot rridge. Then it got even better.

We found the herd of Burchelles Zebra we hoped to see. They strolled right by us. We watched and walked with them for almost an hour.

click to biggify

Sigrid could not get enough...

I don't know how many hundred of pictures she shot. This is just a sampling.

All in all, it was pretty frggin' amazing...

 ... and a truly great day.

But I still missed my traditional Thanksgiving Dinner.

Roasted chicken legs, processed mashed potatoes and a side of spaghetti was as close as I could get. 

I know...



Editors Note: I intend to pre-load and schedule automated blog posts with the daily itinerary for our Ethiopian adventure. For those interested, this may be an easy way to follow along. Since we will not have internet access for most of the trip, my hope is this will make it easier to add some pics and journal commentary if and when we run across an internet connection. If there are no pics or commentary, you'll just have to wait until we get back. We'll see how it goes. 

Jinka to Arba Minch - Konso and Dorze People

Itinerary Day 19: Drive from Jinka to Arbaminch

"In the morning, we will start driving back to Arba Minch with brief stops to visit different villages". 

 UPDATE: As we have been rearranging the itinerary day by day I've copied the relevant itinerary descriptions here. These entries from the November 17 and 23 itineraries:

"...we will drive to Turmi en-route visiting different cultural people and their villages which include the Konso and the undulating landscape of Konso area. The Konso are famous for their old and unique terracing and unusual engraved wooden statues of Konso grave markers."

"...we will make detour to the mountain village of Chencha, the home of the Dorze people. The Dorze people, renowned cotton weavers whose tall beehive shaped and bamboo woven dwellings are among the most distinctive structures to be seen anywhere in Africa."

Journal - Afternoon:

After departing Eco Omo we continue our exploration of the Omo River Valley. Today we visit two ancient cultures coping with burgeoning tourism and the economic development in the region.  First the Konso People.

Konso:

We found the stone terraced Konso village to be the most interesting architecturally of any we visited. 

Konso girl

Konso garden - sorghum grains and hops

The village is notable for the rich variety of grains, fruit, and vegetable in the terraced gardens, their use of  advanced crop rotation, and the generation tree that dates the age of this village in centuries.

Dorze:

The Dorze People are known as expert weavers. They weave their houses and fences out of inset (false banana tree) and bamboo. They weave their baskets out of grass. They weave scarves, hats and other items out of cotton.

 Okorno

Our village guide, the chief/spokesman Okorno Dorze wore dreadlocks, western clothes and spoke excellent English.  He walked us through the village with an easy going manner and well practiced patter. The Dorze are sophisticated in the ways of tourism and seem to pull off the trick of taking advantage the tourist trade without losing their identity. They maintain accommodations for tourists within the village and have several low key displays of pottery, weaved scarves, hats, etc. for tourist consumption spread throughout the village tour. They also have a cheesy shield, spear, jaguar skin and headdress ready to spring on unsuspecting tourists willing to make fools of themselves (see picture at top of post).

 Konso girl making gojo bread

At the end of the tour we were invited to sample the gojo bread we saw being baked earlier and offered shots of areke that was distilled in the village. Yohanes informs us the Dorze make the best areke. 

Who am I to argue? I had three shots. 

We filled an empty water bottle with areke in the hope of bringing some back to San Francisco. After the areke shots we were directed toward the stalls offering handcrafted scarves, pottery, and carvings.Surprisingly, we purchased more stuff than at any other village. Pretty sharp those Dorze.

Dorze scarves

Editor's Note: I intend to pre-load and schedule automated blog posts with the daily itinerary for our Ethiopian adventure. For those interested, this may be an easy way to follow along. Since we will not have internet access for most of the trip, my hope is this will make it easier to add some pics and journal commentary if and when we run across an internet connection. If there are no pics or commentary, you'll just have to wait until we get back. We'll see how it goes. UPDATED