A real African Weekend

As a Dubai rebound, the boys and I decided to head to Awash National Park for the real African experience.

Awash is located in the lowlands 225km east of Addis Ababa. The Park covers an area of 827 squared km, at an altitude of 900mtrs. In the middle of the park is the hovering dormant volcano of Fantale.

Thus on Saturday early morning, covered in Mosquito repellent and stuffed with Malaria pills, we packed Yens' 4x4 Vitara with food and drinks, and Femi, Sjoerd, Jens, Fetlourk and I head off for the 4hr drive to Awash.

Jens' Thrustworthy 4x4

The drive was amazing, we drove through fields, mountains, lakes and volcanic landscapes.

The drive was nevertheless not only interesting for its scenery, but also for its diverse assortment of animals, vehicles and people one had to avoid while driving. The following have turned up in the middle of the so called 'highway' while driving at 100kms/h :

- trucks driving on the wrong side of the road
- people
- cows and buffaloes
- sheep
- goats
- donkey and mules
- people on bicycles
- herds of camels

- and a giant iguana!!

These made what would be a 3hr relaxing drive become a 4hr tedious, obstacle race (even worse than the Egyptian Donkeys and the crazy taxi drivers).

The weirdest is that many people would kick their goat or cow into the street as soon as they see a car coming. The reasoning would be that they would try to get more money out of the unfortunate person who gets to kill his/her goat or cow......

This was not all, while driving on the uneven, bumpy, muddy and stoney road of the park obstacles included:

- Amazingly Coloured Butterflies

- Birds such as Guinea Fowls, Chicken looking birds, Blue Birds

- Ethiopian Kudus

- Salti's Dik Dik (just like tiny deers that walk in a funny way!! and very hard to spot!!! I only managed to see them when I was driving.... as they jumped right infront of the car!!)

- Rabbits

- Big Baboons (which Sjoerd mistook for a panther)

- Warthogs (really cool animals!!!!!)

- Giant Turtles (I got to experience this while driving!!! these were the most annoying, as instead of moving when they see a car coming, they would duck and stay right where they are, in the middle of the road!!! The guys though had a good laugh carrying the giant turtle to the side of the road.... how often do you get to do that?)

How do we get it out of the way???

We got to have a Maltese Style picnic next to the Awash Valley, and to walk next to the splendid Awash Waterfalls.

The breath-taking waterfalls

Enjoying a beer by the gorge

We then rented a guard with an AK 47 and headed off to the Filwoha Hot Spring. These turned out to be turquoise Blue pools (something i haven't seen till now in Ethiopia as all rivers, lakes and springs are usually milky chocolate brown) with a temperature of about 36 degrees C and 40 degrees C. The boys couldn't resist a dip in that.

Just like the Egyptian Oasis

The day was not over........ the guard then took us to a little part of the park hidden between acacia trees and palm trees. The river passed through that part... and guess what!!!! Crocodiles where chilling out in that lake!!!! You could see the eyes popping out of the water, and you could see them swimming in the water!!! I couldn't believe it!! Crocodiles - I saw real crocodiles in their natural habitat!!!! We were all in awe..... Crocodiles, and I was standing right at the bank of the river they were swimming it, ready to make a run for it if they decide to come out on my side of the bank.

Spot the Crocodile

Opposite the river was a cliff which had hundreds of baboons looking at us the same way we were looking at them!!! Femi also got to spot a naked man, who the guard explained to us was one of the Afar people, who's reputation of ferocity is well known all over Ethiopia. The Afars are also well known for the tradition that a young man must be able to show the testicles of another man whom they have killed as a mark of their manhood before marriage.

My Anti-Malaria Bed

The night ended in a little hotel in the Awash town where according to the 'Bradt Guide' the conversation in this town only consists of 'you', 'give' and 'money' (the Bradt guide turn out to be right).

And the highlight of the town is a monument in the square whose only purpose is the provide shelter to the goats of the town.

Playing with the Goat

The next day we decided to have brunch in the non-exciting town of Nazareth and head off to the hippo pool so we could maybe do some hippo spotting.

Sjoerd eating what apparently is the best ice-cream in the non-exciting town of Nazareth

Unfortunately hippos were not to be seen, but we got to see 2 crocodiles chilling on the bank of the river!!! A bit of a disappointment as we wanted to see hippos..... crocodiles were not longer a novelty!!

We then headed back to Addis to an amazing dinner of Injera and mixed Ethiopian dishes for Femi's final Ethiopian meal and dropped him off to the Airport for his flight back to The Netherlands.