The Road South to Arba Minch
Trip Start
Feb 20, 2007
1
3
38
Trip End
Jun 2007
Arba Minch,
Ethiopia
Monday, February 26, 2007
Shashamene is a large enough, ugly, unwelcoming town that sits at the crossroads of the two major East-West and North-South roads in Southern Ethiopia
A Dorze Elephant Hut
. It is also the spiritual home of the world's Rastafarian community - there is a large Rasta settlement on the edge of town which we didn't visit, but I hope to later in the trip. Haile Selaise, the great Ethiopian emperor, was born Ras Tafari, and was believed to be the king of Africa that the Jamaican people were waiting for. Jamaican people have repatriated to this settlement, and are the only people in Ethiopia who are legally allowed smoke ganja.We had about another four hours driving after lunch (we covered about 500km today, which would have taken me two long, dusty, bumpy days by bus), and the scenery got better and better. Anyone who believes Ethiopia to be a desert, or scrubland would do well to see what I saw yesterday. The land grew greener and greener, with grassy fields, banana trees, and lush vegetation all around us. Rolling hills melted into the beautifully blue sky, and the lives of the people grew simpler and simpler as our car rolled on. From Shashamene onwards we saw no houses (in the Western sense), or tin roofed shacks for that matter. Every home was a sort of circular hut, with a conical roof. The walls at the base were made of thick branches, often sealed with cob (a mixture of mud and straw), and the overhanging roofs were thatched. They stood about 3-5 metres tall and had a diameter of 5-10 metres. Many had paintings on the outer walls, and some had a decorative charm at the peak of the roof.
To be honest I was quite surprised to see that everyone lived in these houses - I hadn't realized that life was so consistently simple for people outside of the famous tribal regions. We visited a friend of Ragu on the way, and were invited into one of these huts, which was fascinating. Inside there was the remains of a small fire, a wooden container in which coffee was ground, various simple cooking utensils and a bed
A tree, a gazelle, and a huge bird
. This family was well off, and had another home next door, a rectangular affair, topped off with a corrugated tin roof (the ugly symbol of wealth here, and in all third world countries). We were shown their land, which had banana and coffee trees, as well as cabbage and sweet potato growing.All along the way children wave and smile at us, which was lovely, except that about half of them held out an outstretched hand, looking for money (even from a moving car), a culture that is apparently common all over the country. Whenever the car slowed down we were chased by children who screamed "Highlander" after us, which was not a reference to my Celtic routes, but instead the name of a brand of popular bottled water. It was not water they wanted, but a game to them, which still saddened me to see this as being their mode of interaction with the faranji, instead of the smiles and hellos I received all over Asia.
We stopped a half hour before arriving at our final destination, Arba Minch, to stretch our legs by Lake Abayo, the second biggest lake in Ethiopia. The lake has a rusty reddish-brown colouration from some chemical in the soil underneath it, and the colour contrasted exquisitely with the surrounding green mountains which were fading into the soft evening light
Baboon!
. We saw a hippo coming up for air not ten metres from where we were standing. Our enjoyment of this lovely scene came to an end abruptly when a guard with a gun over his shoulder came over to us telling us to leave unless we paid him a bribe.Arba Minch is a pretty standard small Ethiopian town, with one main street and side streets leading off from it. It's blandness is redeemed by the wonderful views of the green mountains around and of Lake Abayo in the distance. We found a pretty basic hotel with filthy rooms and a trickle of a cold shower to go with each room.
Today we went to Nechisar national park in the morning, which is situated about 5km from Arba Minch. There we drove for four hours on one of the worst dirt tracks I have ever seen, passing through spectacular scenery varying from dense bushland, lush forests, and golden plains of grass and occasional trees which reminded me of those you see on African wildlife documentaries. We rose over a ridge between the red Lake Abayo which we saw last night, and Lake Chamo which was a lovely blue, with wide swirls of aqua green throughout it. We saw, and duly snapped photos of Grant's gazelle, Burchell's Zebra, Guenther's Dik-Dik (a tiny antelope, standing only about two feet tall), a family of Greater Kudu, olive baboons, vervet monkeys and a warthog that charged across the road in front of us
Burchell's Zebras
.This afternoon we drove to a village of the Dorze people, who live on a mountain about 50km from Arba Minch. They are famous for their weaving, and their "elephant huts" (about the height of a two story building), made from bamboo and thatched with bamboo leaves, so called because they look a little like an elephant (deliberately, in honour of the many elephants who used populate this area). We burst a tire on the way up, which was somewhat of a blessing, as we got to leave the car for a while and walk. On my way I chatted to a nine year old boy who had exceptionally good English for his age. He showed me a family of baboons in the forest by the road, and his house, and the banana trees his father grows.
Once the car was back on the road we drove on up to the market in the main Dorze village, which was an incredible experience. The market was held on a large green patch of land, and was covered with hundred of people. There were no stalls, but instead people sat on blankets and sold barley, hops (to make their local beer and spirit - I tasted the later, it was like a strong schnapps), bananas, coffee, spices, cabbage, sweet potato and locally woven blankets. What was most wonderful about this market, however, was the children. As soon as I entered a beautiful little girl smiled and said hello, and asked me my name
Grant's Gazelle
. She walked along with me, and a few seconds later I felt her hand reach for mine - to hold it. Soon after I had a small boy holding my other hand, and then another girl on the first arm. By the end of our visit I had two children holding each hand (two or three fingers each!), and one on each arm, plus about another ten behind, following. I felt rather ridiculous, but was greeted with welcoming laughter and smiles by the adults I passed.Next we went up to visit a Dorze home, where we saw inside one of the elephant huts. They have a bed in there, a cooking area, a fire and about a quarter of it is kept for cattle. The huts take three months to build by two men, and last for up to seventy years. They grow shorter every year, because of termites eating their base, and occasionally have to be moved (they can be lifted off the ground entirely) because of this very problem. We were also shown how they make their local bread, from the false banana tree. I have never felt so welcome in a community of people after visiting them so briefly as I have with the Dorze people.
Tomorrow we drive to Jinka, where we will be in the heart of the Lower Omo valley, and will start to see the famous tribal people of the region.
