This morning we were at Addis Abeba, in Ethiopia, and we left to the South of the country, this itinerary will lead us to discover some populations, who still live according to ancient traditions, and also some natural beauties.

At 7.30am we are ready to go, we know Jimmy who will be our guide for the next few days; we load what will be our car for the whole tour, a Toyota Land Cruiser, just for a change a Toyota!

In Addis Abeba, as in other African megalopolises, there is unimaginable traffic for our standards, especially on weekdays; in reality the problem is not only traffic, but also how they drive, it would be really difficult to drive here for us.

Addis Abeba is huge, it has about 8 million inhabitants and many others are moving here from the countryside, they are also building many new buildings; if they do not even build new roads they risk not moving anymore.

It takes us about an hour to get out of Addis Abeba, as we move forward there are fewer and fewer houses, fewer shops and fewer businesses; the landscape is very beautiful and very green, really a sight.

At one point, on the roadside, there are goats, sheep, cows and overloaded donkeys, that carry, on the back or on carts, anything.

ethiopia africa arba minch exploringafrica safariadv

The roads leading South for now are better than those we found in Lalibela; about Lalibela, it is the city of Jimmy, who is happy to know that we liked his city very much.

We really like this part of the country, some mountains in the distance, green meadows dotted with trees and flowers, some farmland, small traditional villages and little traffic; it's really relaxing.

At one point Jimmy stops the car near a bridge and makes us get off, we walk the bridge on foot to be able to see the rushing river flowing below; the water is the color of the soil, it is probably the water of the rainy season, but it certainly also contains some minerals that help to give this color.

We take some photos and then go back to our car and continue our journey.

Shortly after we arrive in Tiya where there is a site, declared World Heritage by UNESCO, where there are some finely engraved funerary stelae; they have been dated between the 13th and 15th centuries but nothing is known about the population that created them.

Ethiopia on the road - tiya stelae

Many bodies have been found at the stems, buried in a fetal position, and various jewels and objects, that are now found at the Ethnographic Museum in Addis Abeba.

This is not the only point where these stems have been found, there are several archaeological sites in this area, where they are still digging to unearth the stems, objects and buried bodies.

There is also a small museumwhere some photographs of the other sites and some recent excavations are displayed.

The local guide is a young guy who speaks good English, he is very kind, helpful and hospitable, he is happy about our interest and explains many things to us.

When we are about to leave, after having bought a sort of terracotta, pumpkin and goat skin lunchbox, we ask him if we can put our Exploring Africa sticker on the gate, where many others are already found; he happily takes the sticker and attaches it to the gate and then asks for another one to put in the museum, too funny!

Jimmy sees the scene and he also asks us for two stickers to put on the car; well from now on we are branded :)

ethiopia africa arba minch exploringafrica safariadv

We continue our journey, we are in the land of the Gurage, they are farmers and still use ancient techniques, such as the wooden plow pulled by oxen; many of their traditional houses are quite large, circular huts, with a sloping thatched roof.

In this area the landscape is very beautiful and green and, as we proceed, we are descending in altitude, and the more we go down, the more there is variety in crops.

We stop for lunch in a nice little restaurant, we order and enjoy a bit of relaxation, we have already traveled almost 200 km today and another 200, or maybe more, are waiting for us to reach Arbaminch.

We continue our journey through cultivated fields and wild vegetation, the sun is shining and the sky is blue with some white candid clouds, a marvel for the eyes.

At one point we see a lot of people in the street, we wonder what's going on; Jimmy explains that they are celebrating a funeral.

They walk in procession following a truck with several people standing, we don't understand where the coffin is, maybe on the truck, but we don't see it, who knows; the fact is that they occupy the whole street, and no vehicle can pass, we have to wait.

The curious thing is that we look at them, a little curious, because it is a funeral very different from ours, even though they are Christians, and they look at us curious and take pictures of us, almost taking no interest in the funeral.

At a certain point we stop at another bridge, also here flows a rushing river, that feeds the Abaya Lake, to our right is a waterfall that pours into the river a lot of water; even the water of this river has an earthy color.

ethiopia africa arba minch exploringafrica safariadv

While we are on the bridge taking pictures of the waterfall and the rock formations smoothed by the power of water, a clan of baboons crosses the road not far from us, in this area there are the olive baboons.

We continue and shortly after, to our left, we begin to see Lake Abaya, it is the second largest lake in Ethiopia, after Lake Tana.

Jimmy looks for a vantage point to be able to stop so that we can take some photographs; the mirror of water is really big, but the ocher color of the water makes it look more like an expanse of sand than a lake.

We are close to Arbaminch, we understand that we are arriving in a city as traffic increases and there are so many tuk tuks in the street.

We cross the whole city, that actually consists of two different cities, Sekela and Shecha, and finally we arrive at the Swayne Emerald Hotel

ethiopia africa arba minch exploringafrica safariadv

Data di inserimento: 
Tuesday, September 17, 2019