I forgot to mention in my previous post that the roads, so far, in Ethiopia are almost as bad as those in Madagascar and Zambia, sometimes just as bad so travelling relatively short distances takes time but the scenery is beautiful so it makes up for the bad roads.

After our hippo cruise we departed Hawassa and backtracked through Shashanane and made our way to Senkelle Swayne’s Hartebeest Sanctuary where we picked up a park ranger and went looking for the Swayne’s Hartebeest which is endemic to Ethiopia. The sanctuary is 58 sq.km and consists of wide open grasslands. The sanctuary, located in the Oromia region is dedicated to the protection of the Hartebeest which at one time numbered 3,000 animals but has dwindled to about 800 due to poaching.

After a total of about 10 hours of driving covering less than 300 km we reached Arba Minch just after sunset. Arba Minch is bordered by mountains and is home to two of Ethiopia’s largest Rift Valley lakes, Lake Chamo and Lake Abaya. Our lodge was perched high on a hillside and had amazing views of the lakes and the distant Nechisar National Park. We were disappointed we missed the view of the lakes with the sunset behind us but we did get sunrise views in the morning.

Our original plan was to take a two hour boat trip to view the abundant crocodile population in Lake Chamo but we have seen many crocs so decided to cut this portion out so we could hopefully arrive at our next destination before sunset and with some time to unwind from what we knew would be another long day of driving. It’s not just the condition of the roads that are a challenge. Some roads aren’t too bad but the roads are used as a walkway for herds of cattle and flocks of goats and there are literally thousands of goats and cattle that block every step of the way along your journey.

 

We arrived into Addis Ababa on the 26th, had a snack and had an early evening.

The next day we prepped for the next 9 days of driving, relaxed a little and then headed out for some very excellent traditional food and entertainment at a restaurant nearby. The food and entertainment was superb and we were looking forward to more good food throughout the rest of our journey.

Before hitting the road in the morning we needed to get a SIM card and data. When we arrived in Addis we figured we had all day Sunday to look after this and save time on Monday when we were heading off to Hawassa.

The only telecom provider in Ethiopia is Ethio Telecom (government owned) and they are not open on Sundays. Damn!

We were picked up by our driver, Sophie, at 8:45 Monday morning and off we went to the Ethio Telecom office to get our communications lifeline organized. It was your typical government-run organization and after 45 minutes of discussing our needs, a photo of me for their records, passport info and only 4 days of data (data plans work from the 1st of the month to the last day of the month, not for one month from the day you start). I left the office with 1 GB of data and was assured their network was 4G.

Traffic was horrendous and this city of 7 million is very spread out and suffering the same auto pollution and traffic issues (chaos) as most African cities. It was about 10:45 when we finally hit the outskirts of town.

We had three stops planned before our final stop for the night in Hawassa.

Tiya, an ancient stelae (grave marker) site and UNESCO World Heritage Site. Adadi Maryam, an ancient rock-hewn church and Melka Kunture, a prehistoric tool making site.

Luck wasn’t on our side. Melka Kunture was closed for “renovations” and a large funeral was being held at Adadi Maryam so we couldn’t visit that site so we had a short 1/2 hour visit at Tiya.

We arrived at our hotel just before sunset. We had a very late lunch so after we checked in we had a beer and some nuts, skipped dinner and decided to crash early after a long day of driving.

Hawassa is located on the shores of Lake Hawassa and our hotel room balcony had a nice sunset and early morning views of the lake.

The next morning we drove a short distance to the local fish market to check out the catch of the day then proceeded to a boat launch for a one-hour “hippo viewing” tour on Lake Hawassa, saw a few hippo heads and then headed back to start our journey to Arba Minch, our next stop.

Wow, our seven weeks in Madagascar sure flew by but we are looking forward to our next and last three weeks exploring Ethiopia before heading home to Vancouver. We departed Antananarivo October 26th for a 4 1/2 hour flight to Addis Ababa. Tomorrow we head off for the southern Ethiopia part of our travels.