(The story of our adventure through the eastern and northern sides of Africa overland in our Landrover in 2007.)

By Lorraine and Neville Karg

Tuesday 31st July 2007 Awassa

We had a lovely night and left early in the morning before the main group was up. We made our way to Awassa which is a lovely town next to a big explosive crater lake. We set up camp to dry out after the cold and wet, at the Wabe Shebelle Hotel #2 in park-like surroundings next to the lake. It is like being in a veritable game-reserve. All kinds of birds, the grivet and the Abassynian Black and White Colobus monkeys everywhere. Litterally everywhere. They are in our tent, all over our washing, in our Landy and making huge pests of themselves. Nev started to throw things at them to scare them off and a man came and said, don’t hurt them, look, they are just hungry. So we capitulated against better judgment and gave him stale bread to feed them. They took it gently out of his hand, but that didn’t stop them bothering us. Another man came and threw stones and eventually they left afterdamaging our washing. But we packed our nicely dry tent, and have decided to sleep in the room tonight.

We are going to the village to blog and spend the afternoon relaxing around the lake.

Monday 30th July 2007 Herero Farm, Adaba

We left the Herena forest, somewhat disappointed and returned to Dinsho HQ where is was freezing and wet, so we left Brian fixing his brakes which broke on the way, and Willy fixing his battery which was bubbling ominously and made our way towards Dodola where we intended to sleep in an ‘hotel’. We got back to the vaste plains, near Adaba, of commercial wheat and couldn’t resist trying our luck at getting a place to camp in the farmyard. It is quite difficult to communicate, as most do not speak English, but we managed to find someone in charge and quizzed him about the farm. It is a government farm, one of four in the area of 40Km radius, but not joined, each of 3700Ha of gently sloping fertile land. They plant wheat, [reap 3-4tonnes/Ha and get R3000/tonne] or barley [reap 3-4 tonnes/Ha and get R2000/tonne]. They also do dairy and fatten cattle. They rotate the crops with rape. They do not plant maize as they are at 2500m and have rains April to Sept, high altitude and cool temps. They fertilize with liquid urea by plane and plant with DAP. The locals each have between ½ and 3Ha per person. That is all we managed to get out of him, apart from permission to camp anywhere, and the offer to stay in their guest house.

We had the workers and their families asking in very broken English what we were doing there and if we intended investing.

Sunday 29th July 2007 Lower camp site, Herena Forest

The temp went down to 2.4 deg C with on-off sleet during the night, so our wake-up was somewhat chilly, especially with the slight breeze. But the sky looked like it was clearing and we packed up, dodging the mud, loaded up the guide and left to go south and down in altitude to 2300m, to the Herena Forest area of the national Park. We saw the Ethiopian wolf again, canis simiensis, a beautiful jackal-like dog with rufus fur, white markings and a bushy black tail. It was calling its mates with a sharp, high pitched, bird-like sound. As we dropped in altitude from the breathless 4119m the vegetation changed from short, tiny-leafed plants and mosses (similar to Losotho) to bushier vegetation to gnarled moss-covered trees to tall creeper-covered woodlands. Descending the twisting road in low ratio saved our brakes, but we are feeling for the Landy as it has to climb all the way back up again tomorrow, as this road, built by the Russians is the only way back, and the highest all-weather road in Africa.

On reaching the forests at the bottom the rainfall is heavy and mosses grow on the trees. Large areas of forests have been cleared by the locals. We went for a walk and it rained in the afternoon again. The soils are deep volcanic, and very fertile with streams everywhere.

Saturday 28th July 2007 High Camp site Bale Mountains

We left Dinsho headquarters for the Bale Mountain campsite high up in the mountains, well known for the endemic birds and the Ethiopian wolf. We traveled up from 2600m to 4119m along a spectacular pass with magnificent scenery. The poor Landy was gasping for breath in thin air. It is amazing how much less power in the high altitude and Ethiopian diesel doesn’t seem to be of the same quality as south, and all vehicles smoke a lot more. The road wasn’t great, but we did the 85Km in 3 hours and arrived at the bitterly cold campsite in sleet and rain, which carried on intermittently for the rest of the day. Nev nd I went on a short walk and saw an Ethiopian wolf which weighs up to 16 Kg, about 2X the size of our jackal. They live in packs of 3 to 13 but only one of the females breeds per year, and they take it in turns. They live off Giant Moor Rats and other rodents. We saw other footprints, which the guide said were cattle. There are 40,000 people which live in this reserve. What chance do the wild animals have?

Friday 27th July 2007 Dinsho, Bale Mountains

Fascinating agricultural land here, massive flat plains of grains mainly wheat. This is land like the Kaarkloof Valley but 100 X as extensive, and more fertile since the soils are of volcanic origin. This area is worked almost to its full potential and the locals are not lazy as in most other areas. We have seen the occasional tractor and combine, but most work is done by a one-man two-ox wooden plough (no metal at all). We have seen from the Landy that sowing is done by hand, (we have not seen how they cover the seed, but could be by driving the cattle through the field), weed control must be done mechanically, but we have seen them pulling weeds by hand, reaping by sickle, and winnowing by women in front of their huts (the straw is made into a stack for their livestock). They get two crops per year and plant wheat, barley, teff, peas or beans. The plains are marked off in about 3Ha lots and form a pretty pattern across the land. This is working well, but amazing to go back in time to the European middle ages before the industrial revolution. The main form of transport is horse and scotch cart. Germany and Italy seem to be involved, judging by the signs we could read. Most writing is in a type of Arabic.

We arrived late at the Dinsho headquarters of the Bale Mountain National Reserve, and set up camp in the really chilly drizzle. We made use of the communal lounge and sat around a lovely warm fireplace until retiring.

Thursday 26th July 2007 Wondo Genet

The celebrations at the church finished at around noon today and the silence was deafening. Anyway we had a lovely shower last night in the hot water eminating directly from the mountain, falling in a shoot onto concreted areas demarcated for men and women. The pool was not yet full enough to use so we all simply had a wonderfully hot shower, the first hot shower in Ethiopia. This morning we had another shower and laze in the hot pool. Brian, typically had hoards of young children around him which he was teaching to swim. He attracts kids like bees to nectar, and is always talking to the local kids (whether they actually understand him is in doubt, but that doesn’t deter Brian). The weather was very damp, so we didn’t do washing of clothes as we had wanted to do.

An sms text message via satphone from Beryl and Dave let us know that they had had their radiator fixed but waiting for us for 10 days in Addis Ababa was not an option. I am not sure what they are going to do, so for the time being the three couples will carry on.

The Ethiopian government has blocked all outgoing cell phone text messages. The internet service is slow and unreliable, so the only means of communication is by satphone. I have tried to reach Glynis and Kita, but have had no response from either. We will blog when we have the chance.

We went for a walk up the hill and saw Heille Sallasie’s shower.

We met a man called Paul Snook who had been involved in building the Katze Dam in Lesotho, and is now involved in building a hydro-electric dam in the north east Ethiopia. He says the Chinese he works with are the same as we explained when we were in Uganda.

Wednesday 25th July 2007 Wondo Genet

We left Arba Minch for Wondo Genet, 120Km of potholed tar, followed by 60Km of wonderful tar. I took a photo to prove the Landy was going 100Km/hr, a speed we haven’t done for months. We went past three huge flat plains of arable, irrigable, fertile land, some farmed and some not. This part of the country has huge untapped agricultural potential. Water is plentiful. In other areas the erosion was so bad that the topsoil 2m deep was eroded to a 10m deep donga.

From Arba Minch to here was wall to wall people and most people along the road begged, except near Sodo where there was successful agriculture.

Here in Ethiopia the busses are unique. They all have loudspeakers on top of their roofs (up to three). They play Ethiopian music full blast. At first we thought it was one of our friend’s Landys playing music. Now we realize the busses play the music full blast. Cattle get out of the way, potential passengers know the bus is arriving well in advance and other vehicles get out of their way and the bus driver cannot hear all the noises the busses are making.

Little did we know, having timed our arrival at the hot springs to coincide with the Wednesday cleaning of the pools, that the darling little hexagonal authodox Christian church next to the hotel was celebrating the day of Saint Gabrielle. This involved the regular delivery of busloads of people to the church. The buses blast forth music/sermons which herald their presence long before the arrival of the bus. On arrival at the church the fully white-cloaked women walk, heads bowed, to the church, cross themselves at the gate and join the singing/chanting/drum beating which accompanies the celebration ALL NIGHT LONG!!!!! Beggars sit, lining the path to the church and they receive donations from the devotees. What a noisy night!!

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – A U.N. elections consultant told an Ethiopian treason trial on Tuesday two anti-poverty activists charged with trying to overthrow the government had been acting within the law.

Daniel Bekele, 40, and Netsanet Demissie, 29, are the last defendants out of 131 originally charged in the proceedings that followed post-election violence in 2005 which a parliamentary inquiry said killed 199 civilians and police, and resulted in 30,000 arrests.

The defendants were involved in deploying observers at polling stations in and around the capital Addis Ababa.

Most of those originally charged were freed on July 20 after the government published a letter it said opposition leaders had signed admitting their guilt and repenting.

Defence lawyers say Bekele and Netsanet, who work for ActionAid Ethiopia and the Organisation for Social Justice in Ethiopia respectively, refused to sign and want to be acquitted.

The case has been criticised by human rights groups and donors, who complained that it was an attempt to dismantle the opposition after it made strong gains in elections.

Richard Morgan Chambers, who was assigned by the United Nations to advise the then-chairman of Ethiopia’s election board, testified the pair had “performed in accordance with the constitution and the legal framework of the country”.

Chambers, who was appearing as a defence witness, said the defendants had provided him with “extremely helpful” analysis.

“Their report on the election was balanced and contained the negative and positive aspects. They performed an impressive job as election observers despite the difficult situation,” he said.

The trial was later adjourned to Wednesday afternoon.

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – A U.N. elections consultant told an Ethiopian treason trial on Tuesday two anti-poverty activists charged with trying to overthrow the government had been acting within the law.

Daniel Bekele, 40, and Netsanet Demissie, 29, are the last defendants out of 131 originally charged in the proceedings that followed post-election violence in 2005 which a parliamentary inquiry said killed 199 civilians and police, and resulted in 30,000 arrests.

The defendants were involved in deploying observers at polling stations in and around the capital Addis Ababa.

Most of those originally charged were freed on July 20 after the government published a letter it said opposition leaders had signed admitting their guilt and repenting.

Defence lawyers say Bekele and Netsanet, who work for ActionAid Ethiopia and the Organisation for Social Justice in Ethiopia respectively, refused to sign and want to be acquitted.

The case has been criticised by human rights groups and donors, who complained that it was an attempt to dismantle the opposition after it made strong gains in elections.

Richard Morgan Chambers, who was assigned by the United Nations to advise the then-chairman of Ethiopia’s election board, testified the pair had “performed in accordance with the constitution and the legal framework of the country”.

Chambers, who was appearing as a defence witness, said the defendants had provided him with “extremely helpful” analysis.

“Their report on the election was balanced and contained the negative and positive aspects. They performed an impressive job as election observers despite the difficult situation,” he said.

The trial was later adjourned to Wednesday afternoon.