I have written two versions of each item so if you are in a hurry read the short version. If you like detail skip the short version and read the long version further down.
Short Version:
46km avg speed 14km/h...that says a lot. A whole day of 4x4'ng!. From the town of Turmi we followed dusty tracks through near desert to thick scrub, had to work out some issues with group dynamics and spent a lovely night near a river in the Mago National Park
Long Version:
146km avg speed 14km/h...that says a lot. A whole day of 4x4'ng! I woke up around 6:15am to the sound to men hammering and wheelbarrows being pushed (they have to fill up the water tanks for the showers and toilets by hand!). As the sun rose the sounds of birds filled the air. I had another shower (ah the luxury!) and went off by 7am i think with no one having breafast. WE had orginally hoped to take a ferry across the Omo river which would save us a lot of time. However the owner of the ferry had gone up to Addas for the Ethiopian New Year and so unforutnately it was closed and so we would have to make our way all the way by very bad dirt road, most of it jeep track. Simon had become quite sick overnight so I drove (we alternate). We were on our way Mago National Park up North. We passed through rocky hills, very arid save for a few bush and some gorgeous pink flowers growing from the baobab like trees. At around 10:30am we reached the junction to Murille and the dirt road became a sandy jeep track. Tension between Deon and Taryn led to me swapping with Taryn, Taryn driving the cruise and me being navigator for Deon who was NOT changing cars lol. Simon C was by this stage an almost lifeless passenger but we had him on antibiotics and hoped for the best. It appeared to be some sort of sinus problem.
The road conditions varied alot with us making our way around fallen trees, through sandy trails and thick bush. The trees above were home to weavers nest. We also spotted some large buck hidden in the bush. Some areas were almost devoid of vegatation with heat around 35'c + in the shade...and there was no shade :P. Further along we spotted some large black hornbill, called the Northern Highlands Hornbill i think.
At around 11am we entered a hunting concession area on the banks of the Omo River. I spotted a leguna and wanted to swim but the staff informed me that there were crocodile. Instead i put my head under the tap to cool of. The vegatation along the river was beautiful with large, shady trees and lush growth a stark contrast to the sandy, semi arid area we had been driving through. The lodge was quite interesting if just for it architecture with the walls along the river being made of the skulls of various buck.
After we left we continued now encountering a few ground squirrels who scurried across the road in front of us. Chu-Chu once again proved useful as he guided us through the bush, the crisis crossing jeep tracks making navigation difficult despite the gps. Huge Termite mounds, some 3m high, some now the home of birds, dominated the landscape and i wondered who might have once lived in such a place. We saw few guinea fowl amongt the many acacias.
As we drove along we spotted our first local in hours, sore a few mini tornados in the distance, and very interesting parasitic plants that seemed to drape themselves over a host tree. At about 12:15pm we pass the village of Ducas set on a rise and as a result missed our turn (navigating by gps) and we had to to make a short backtrack.. The landrover (not being a Landcruiser) smothered us in dust we sucked up on the sandy road and force fed it into the cabin through vents under the seats. There was absoloutely nothing we could do about it and i had to admire Deon and Taryn for driving this vehicle that was unreliable, unstable, and uncomfortable...I should mention again that its bascially landcruiser and only landcruiser on the highways and byways of Ethiopia and the tour operators only use Landcruiser...for a reason!
Something was said that allowed me to broach the subject of the teams concern for Deon and this led two a 2 hour conversation that i tried to have in a very constructive manner. Bascially the team was concerned about team dynamics and wanted Deon to communicate more, whether for personal space or for any issue he might have and not to just walk away or ignore questions and such. I also listened to his side of things and noted everything down so we could all learn from it. I thought it was very constructive. There was one incident that was very concerning. We were going through some bad sand and Deon stopped in the middle of it. I mentioned to Deon that one should not stop in sand but maintain a constant speed through it. He ignored me and stopped a second time at point i mentioned to him again best practices driving through sand. Afterwards he told me to get out the car as he was not having back seat drivers! This all in front of our guide Chu-Chu who must have been wondering what was going on.
Around 1:30pm the road narrowed and the vehicles pushed their way through thick and high scrubbed getting scratched along the way.. The dust in the landrover was incredible with Deon and I literally getting coated in dust. Fortunately when we stopped to wait for the other team i took a nice shower i jerry rigged before praying. The landscape changed afterwards to vehicle high grass and we spotted duk-duk and Eland, some patches of grass being burnt black.
Finally around 3:30pm we started driving through Mago National Park and crossing the Mago River we entered a wooded area alongside which would be where we could camp. Checking out the campsite we saw monkeys in the tree with meter long, fluffy black and white tails which reminded Simon C of an old man. We took the opportunity to wade in the river to escape the 35'c + heat. After our brief tour we headed up the steep hillside to the park HQ but alas the guy in charge was not there and despite having Chu-Chu no was was able to help.
We were forced however to hire a guard for what reason i cant tell
as he spent the night in our campsite sleeping. We decided to return
the following day instead. We set up camp with Simon C near
derilious, simply lying on the mat while a huge Chacma Baboon kept
coming every closer to him. In the end Simon asked for help having
no strength himself and we got him into a tent. Chu-Chu was also
still not well and he too took himself off to the tent and sayed
there till the next morning. I was rather hungry so i turned the
crumbs from the rusks into a kind of delicious museli.
Later Taryn cooked a SUPER hot curry which set us all on fire but
was nice in its own way. Deon made his trademark fire with Taryn
enjoying sawing and chopping the wood with great enthuasism. While
supper was prepared the camp next to us,s containing a large of
spanish tourits, got rather rowdy, destroying the tranquility with
loud music and dancing. While having a cup of hot choc we noticed
the light of the fire reflecting off some eyes in the undergrowth.
The eyes grew bigger as the creature came closer, perhaps for the
warmth or perhaps out of curiousity.We waited a little and then
shined the powerful beam of the torch onto it and found to our
amazement and excitement a rare several cat.
After helping with the dishes i headed to bed, having to get up an
hour later to put on the flysheet of the tent when the first drops
hit. However the threatening rain never materialised. I drifted off
to sleep, leaving Deon and Taryn to have a serious discussion
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