Lower Omo Valley
Oh No… We’re still in Addis Ababa. However, we do hope to be taking a bus to the Kenyan border tomorrow morning. So hopefully, we will be in Nairobi by the next time we get in touch.
We spent last week down in the South of Ethiopia in the Lower Omo Valley. It was pretty rough. We hired a banged up old landcruiser that broke down at every bump on the dirt roads and on the surfaced ones even the smelliest busses overtook us as we bounced along at about 5 miles an hour.
Our 4 am starts were rewarded with amazing visits to some of the tribes of the Lower Omo Valley. We met people of the Banna, Hamar and Mursi tribes, all wonderfully colourful. Many tribesmen and women wear animal skin clothes and drip with elaborate jewellery. Exposed skin is decorated with paint and etchings. We did feel as if some of the people we met dressed and waited for tourists to earn a good living but all along the way we met very ornately dressed people just going about their days.
As always, the best times were when our landcruiser broke down. Then we had a chance to smell the trees and flowers, to admire the butterflies and to engage with the people we met along the roadside. Otherwise we spent our days like the rest of the toursists, sardines in hot 4 wheel drives, being ferried from one (slightly artificial) photo shoot to another.
We also took a boat on Lake Chamo and saw some enormous hippos and crocodiles. It was so much fun. The lake was absolutely choc o’ bloc with crocs! From our safe steel boat we also saw large flocks of pelicans, storks and flamingos, flying like pink sticks with wings.
And now we’re back in Addis, preparing for the hard five day trip to Nairobi. It’s two days on good roads to the border. The bandits of Northern seem to be less of a problem on the road to Nairobi but we will still try to join an armed convoy. From the border, it’s another three days on bumpy dirt roads to Nairobi.
Best of Luck to the Cork Hurlers!
Let us know how things are at home - send us an email or reply to a message here.
Malachy
We spent last week down in the South of Ethiopia in the Lower Omo Valley. It was pretty rough. We hired a banged up old landcruiser that broke down at every bump on the dirt roads and on the surfaced ones even the smelliest busses overtook us as we bounced along at about 5 miles an hour.
Our 4 am starts were rewarded with amazing visits to some of the tribes of the Lower Omo Valley. We met people of the Banna, Hamar and Mursi tribes, all wonderfully colourful. Many tribesmen and women wear animal skin clothes and drip with elaborate jewellery. Exposed skin is decorated with paint and etchings. We did feel as if some of the people we met dressed and waited for tourists to earn a good living but all along the way we met very ornately dressed people just going about their days.
As always, the best times were when our landcruiser broke down. Then we had a chance to smell the trees and flowers, to admire the butterflies and to engage with the people we met along the roadside. Otherwise we spent our days like the rest of the toursists, sardines in hot 4 wheel drives, being ferried from one (slightly artificial) photo shoot to another.
We also took a boat on Lake Chamo and saw some enormous hippos and crocodiles. It was so much fun. The lake was absolutely choc o’ bloc with crocs! From our safe steel boat we also saw large flocks of pelicans, storks and flamingos, flying like pink sticks with wings.
And now we’re back in Addis, preparing for the hard five day trip to Nairobi. It’s two days on good roads to the border. The bandits of Northern seem to be less of a problem on the road to Nairobi but we will still try to join an armed convoy. From the border, it’s another three days on bumpy dirt roads to Nairobi.
Best of Luck to the Cork Hurlers!
Let us know how things are at home - send us an email or reply to a message here.
Malachy
1 Comments:
I travelled to Lower Omo Valley from Addis in october 2005 and it was amazing. We hired a 4x4 for 95€/day driver/guide included.The service was excellent. The company was wondutours. The owner is Wondwossen, a really nice person who will take you wherever you like.
If you are thinking about going to Ehiopia I really recommend it. There are some inconveniences because tourism is something new there and people is not used to it. But that is part of the charm.
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