My Ethiopian Journey–Simien Mt. Natl. Park

July 28, 2016 / Juliana Lightle / Leave a comment

No way was I prepared for these mountains. Do you think of numerous peaks over 13,000 feet when you think of Ethiopia? Probably not. There are even a few over 14,000 feet. The whole area is often referred to as the Roof of Africa.

There is only one road into the park. To get in, a tourist must stop at the park office, sign in, passport number, address, etc. Plus, you will be assigned a guard and a guide. Our guard in the photo above carried an assault rifle. No, it is not to protect people, it is to protect their rare animals from people, from poachers. Wonder why he is wearing all these clothes? It is cold at 12,000 feet even if you are near the Equator.

The drop offs are terrifying, thousands of feet, the vistas endless. Even though I have lived and been all over the Rocky Mountains and been to the Himalayas in both Kashmir and Nepal, I have never seen anything like these mountains for beauty, green, and endless vistas.

My friends near the cliff are much braver than I. In the foreground stands our guide, Michael, who spoke excellent English and was super funny. He had us laughing all the time. People live and farm in these mountains–if you look closely in the middle of the photo, you can see fields. However, the government is slowly relocating people in order to make the park a refuge for rare wildlife.

The above photos were all taken on a hike early one morning. Everything was wet because it was either raining or misty or we were in the clouds.

Because I kept slipping and sliding, I decided not to walk along the cliff with my friends and the guard, who spoke the same Ethiopian language as my friend. Michael and I took off across a meadow and suddenly here we were in the middle of all these gelada baboons, who paid no attention to us at all. They were very afraid, however, of a predatory bird that decided to fly over. How do I know? They suddenly started “talking” to each other in frightened voices. Experts now think these primates actually have a language and do talk to each other. Gelada are the last primates that are herbivores. They eat grass. All other herbivorous primates are extinct. Gelada live only in the high mountains of Ethiopia and no where else on earth, a reason for a guard. At night they climb down the cliffs into caves to protect themselves from hyenas and leopards.

If you look very carefully in the middle of this photo, you can see several duiker which are considered so common it seems no one thought to stop to really take a look so I took the photo as we drove along.

Here we are above the timberline where some very unusual plants thrive.

And some exceedingly rare animals whose camouflage makes them almost invisible until they move. At this point we are about 14,000 feet just under one of the highest peaks in Africa. Look carefully in the middle and you will see walia ibex. People come from all over the world to see these endangered animals that live only in this park. Sometimes the fog rolls in and no one sees anything. We were lucky; we saw more than twenty of them. And then the fog rolled in.

These giant lobelia thrive above timber line. Some were considerably taller than I am.

If you grow red hot pokers in your flower beds and think they are semi-arid flowers, think again. Here they are growing wild.

You can see red hot pokers in the middle of this photo by the stream. These mountain streams run down to and often across the road, making the road a muddy mess. Without 4-wheel drive and an expert driver we would have gone nowhere. In fact, at one point we did have to stop because two stuck trucks blocked the road, one of which had a flat tire.

The highest waterfall in Ethiopia is hard to hike to unless you are not at all afraid of heights. My friends did hike there. Look a bit to the right of the groove through which the water actually falls. You will see a sort of flat area. It is only a few feet wide with a drop-off on each side. Yes, that is where you hike. When I saw this view, I was rather glad I decided to wait, look for birds, and chat with the driver.

The fire pit at the highest bar in Africa is a very popular place on a cold night. Even though we had beautiful rooms, with no heat at 12,000 feet it is not exactly warm. Even the guides and guards were bundled up. The only people who seemed toasty were Scandinavian tourists with their heavy wool sweaters. The hotel staff gave us hot water bottles to put in bed with us at night. Actually, it works. Nevertheless, when you get up in the morning, it is really cold.

The guards and guides live near the park. We dropped off the guard here and watched him walk toward his house down where the trees are. We dropped off the guide near his house in the town when we left the park.

Ethiopian Journey–From Addis Ababa to Debre Birhan

July 8, 2016 / Juliana Lightle / Leave a comment

Addis is the second highest capital in the world. Only La Paz, Bolivia, is higher. To a large extent, altitude determines climate in Ethiopia. Addis and the surrounding area, much of which is high altitude farmland, receives a lot of rain this time of year and looks totally unlike what a lot of people think of when they hear the word Ethiopia–not desert but rather miles and miles of green.

We had not driven far from Addis when we crossed a river, an area of which is considered healing. Many people had come for priests to bless them and to experience the healing power of the water.

I saw only three tractors in ten days of criss crossing farmland. Why so few? One reason is rocks. Many of the fields remain rather full of rocks in spite of many having been removed.

Therefore, they farm the “old fashioned” way; horses or cattle pulling plows with a human behind.

Houses in the villages in the farming areas demonstrate old ways alongside new.

Winnowing the way we did in the USA a century ago.

Much of the farmland is a picturesque patchwork quilt of browns and greens.

Before dropping down to lower country, we drove by Menelik’s Window. The drop off here is steep and far. I did not go near it–I had not yet become used to the endless drop-offs or even realized that I would need to do so. This is one of four places in Ethiopian where you can see gelada baboons. They are extinct elsewhere. Menelik was an Ethiopian emperor. This “window” allows one to look from the high country for miles and miles to the landscape beyond.

The large tufts of grass provide food for the gelada which are grass eating herbivores, the last of the grass eating primates. All others are extinct. This same grass is used by the locals for roofing material so boys stay in these areas all day chasing off the baboons.

To keep themselves busy they weave woolen baskets and hats to sell which they display in the grass.

This ten year old boy happily donned the hat he had made. I bought it for my grandson who was the same age when I took the trip.

Except for the different vegetation, driving down the mountain looked a lot like driving through Colorado.

Down from the mountain the landscape appears quite different and considerably drier. We drove through several smaller towns on our way to Debre Birhan where we stayed the first night.

Driving in Ethiopia requires navigating around animals. Everyone drives their cattle, camels, horses, all livestock down the road whenever possible. The roads are generally very good. Many, built by the Italians, have stood the test of decades.

Along the road we saw many of these “apples”. My friend told us how they played with them as a child. However, the adults all warned the children not to touch their eyes when they did–it will make you blind. They are called Apples of Sodom–so many things in Ethiopia have symbolic meaning.

These fruit could be seen all along the road and even on the road. After driving through this drier area we rose above a huge valley with miles and miles of grass.

A semi-nomadic group brings their immense herds of cattle here in the rainy season to graze. When we drove further on above the valley, I saw the first tractor working a field as big as this grazing land.

Ethiopian Wolves

December 18, 2015 / Juliana Lightle / Leave a comment

When I went to Ethiopia a year and a half ago, I missed seeing these incredibly endangered animals. Less than 500 remain in and around Bale Mountains National Park. Unlike other wolves, they do not hunt in packs, perhaps because they do not bring down big game, but rather eat the large, big-headed mole rat. The wolves use their extremely long noses to get the rats out of their burrows. Another hunting tactic includes hiding among the herds of gelada baboons, the only remaining grass eating primate in the world. These baboons, like the wolves, live only in Ethiopia. The wolves and the baboons live peacefully together while the wolves hide among the grazing baboons, sneaking upon the unsuspecting rats darting from burrow to burrow. Although the baby gelada are not much bigger than the rats, the wolves refrain from eating them. Like the situation with many other wild animals, human activity ruins their habitat through subsistence farming and cattle grazing. Rabies, caught from domestic dogs, further decimates the population. For more information on these rare wolves and conservation efforts, go to:

http://www.ethiopianwolf.org

gelada baboons–I took this photo summer of 2014

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Image from ethiopianwolf.org.

Gelada Baboons

March 18, 2015March 18, 2015 / Juliana Lightle / 1 Comment

In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Wall.”Last summer I spent a couple of days in Simien Mountains National Park, Ethiopia, one of the few places left on earth where these baboons still exist. In the mist and rain one day, I accidentally walked in the middle of a large group.

They remained unafraid and basically ignored me. They are the only remaining grass eating primates. The rest are all extinct.

My Ethiopian Adventure–Gelada Baboons

November 3, 2014 / Juliana Lightle / Leave a comment

The last of the grass eating primates–all others are now extinct–gelada baboons are found only in Ethiopia above 1800 meters. The first I saw ran up and down the cliffs at Menelik’s Window. Because the people in this area use large tufts of grass to make house roofs, boys patrol the area, attempting to keep the baboons from eating this particular type of grass. Perhaps because of their experience being chased persistently by humans, these baboons were hard to photograph up close because they ran off. The boys who guard the grass pass time by making hats and other items out of the grass the baboons want. If you look closely at the following photo, you can see a couple of baboons running up the slope. Although you can see gelada baboons in several places in the high mountains of central Ethiopia, their major sanctuary is Simien Mountains National Park. Here they are protected from hunting. Unlike those at Menelik’s Window, these did not run off especially if one walked along quietly or stopped to watch. Unlike other species of baboons, these are not aggressive. The males may appear to be boss because of their big manes, red-hearted chests, and size, but such is not the case. In the world of gelada baboons, females rule. Females even choose the one male that shares up to six or so females. The male may try to fight off contenders, but in the end the females choose. Because I found many of the 2000 feet cliff drop-offs a bit daunting, on the hike I chose to go higher with the guide. A fortuitous choice for sure. We found ourselves surrounded by a huge troop of peacefully grazing baboons complete with babies playing in the trees. Gelada baboons spend their days sitting on their fat humanlike buttocks eating grass. Except for humans they are the most terrestrial of all the primates. They climb down the steep cliffs at night to sleep in tight groups. This helps them escape predators, e.g. leopards and hyenas. Probably their safest habitat is Simien Mountains National Park because to enter the park every visitor has to sign in. Everywhere you go, an assigned guard with an assault rifle accompanies you. Because of the rainy weather, he slung his assault rifle over one shoulder and held his umbrella in the opposite hand. We did not see any more gelada baboons until several days later on the last day of our road trip when we stopped to visit a sort of inn/hotel owned by a German woman. Experts estimate only one to two hundred thousand remain. Habitat loss and hunting males for their manes threaten their survival. They are listed as a threatened species.

My Ethiopian Adventure–The Roof of Africa, Part One

August 23, 2014August 23, 2014 / Juliana Lightle / 1 Comment

Initially, we had planned to go no farther north than the city of Gondar. However, in the pretrip planning, I came across photos of Simien Mountain National Park and knew I had to go there. I told my friend Dino to take a look; we went.

The road from Gondar to Debark, the city where one gets the pass, the guide, and the guard to go into the park is typical of the Ethiopian highland country, high, wet, and green.

We kept saying things like “Are you sure we aren’t in Ireland?” Nothing seemed to fit the stereotype everyone in the US seems to have of Ethiopia.

Acacia trees like these out the front window must surely be among the most picturesque trees on the planet.

Fences are relatively rare in Ethiopia. Usually, animals are herded by boys and girls rather then enclosed by fences. To get into Simien Mountain National Park, you must stop, sign in with your name, age, address, and passport in Debark. After you do this, your party is assigned an official guide and a guard. Yes, a guard. These two men stay with you everywhere you go except your room and when you eat in the dining room at the only lodging inside the park.

My room at Simien Park Lodge with traditional Ethiopia textiles for curtains and bedspreads. This lodge resides at 3260 meters (nearly 11,000 feet) above sea level. There is no heat in the rooms. To keep warm, each guest receives a hot water bottle to put in bed to keep warm. I piled on two blankets and crawled in, but before doing so…

I tried a new drink, Romana Sambuca, here in the highest bar in Africa. We were told that normally, when the British owner is here, the locals, the guides, guards, drivers, etc. are not allowed either in here or the dining room. We were glad he was not there so everyone could hang out around the fire together. Even with this, Alemu could not eat with us in the dining room. Such rules made us quite unhappy. This sort of elitism seemed totally inappropriate and insulting, especially since this is their country.

Knowing all I would have to keep me warm at night would be the hot water bottle and blankets, I felt reluctant to leave this fire in the bar.

After checking in, we headed out for an afternoon hike.

The hiking was relatively easy, not too up and down, but in places very wet and slippery.

Our guard carried an umbrella (we all did and had the opportunity to use them) and a Kalashnikov and never let us out of his sight. He spoke no English so only Dino could actually chat with him. He seemed very nice and helpful. Yes, it was cold. I wore four layers.

Finding familiar plants in a different form fascinated me. This plant, a type of thistle, bristles with thorns both on top and on the underside of its leaves. Herbs grow everywhere.

And then the cliffs and vistas overwhelm. I have been all over the Rockies in the US and some of Canada, have driven through some mountains in Kashmir, and flown in and out of Nepal with a view of the highest mountains in the world. Nowhere have I seen mountains like these: endless cliffs falling thousands of feet, endless vistas, and endless emerald green.

Frequently we walked or drove above various bits of clouds. Sometimes the fog became so thick we could barely see where we were going. I am moderately brave regarding heights but it was wet and slippery. Sometimes while the guard and my friends climbed right on the cliff edge, I chose to go higher with the guide. In at least one instance, this strategy really paid off because we walked right through the middle of this huge group of gelada baboons.

These baboons exist only in four places in Ethiopia. I travelled in three of the four places. The males have a big red heart on their chests and heavy lionlike manes.

The views never failed to astonish me.

After five o’clock the baboons disappear, climbing down the cliffs into caves to protect themselves from predators–leopards and hyenas.

Michael, the guide on the left, and the guard, fearless–these drop-offs are routine.

The heights did not bother Dino. He scared us with his ability to walk right up to the edge except in one case where he and Zuriash decided it was even too daunting for them.

My Ethiopian Adventure–from Addis to Kombolcha

July 27, 2014July 28, 2014 / Juliana Lightle / Leave a comment

Saying goodbye to Addis at 8 in the morning, we headed northeast and later north toward Kombolcha–spelling differs, depending on whose map you view. The official Ethiopian map spells the town as Kombolch. Addis is high, the second highest capital in the world. We drove northeast all morning across rivers and through green fields.

Not far outside Addis we saw this scene, a river with many people near it. Our driver, Alemu explained this river contains holy, healing water and all those people you see through the window are pilgrims coming to be blessed by the resident priest and hopefully healed by the river waters.

Who would know this is Ethiopia if no one told you? Not what I expected at all honestly.

Most of the farmland is very rocky. Farmers gather rocks, in some places make fences out of them or just pile them up. Even with these efforts fields remain full of rocks.

We drove for hours through this type of farmland.

This is a typical country village which appeared off and on continuously along the highway. Traditional buildings are usually round with thatched roofs. More and more people have begun to use metal roofs which forces the building shape to rectangular rather than round. We heard a story about a thatched roof house that caught on fire. Nothing but the thatch burned because underneath the thatch was a meter of mud.

Most Ethiopian farming is done the old way: either horses or cattle pull the plow with a man guiding it usually through a lot of rocks. I commented about seeing no tractors so then every time we saw one everyone shouted, “Juliana, there’s a tractor.” I think I saw only five of them in ten days and only one was actually working in a field. It became obvious rather quickly how totally impractical a tractor and its equipment would be in much of the farmland: too many rocks and as you will soon see, too steep. The tractor would fall over.

Eventually we started climbing higher and higher. To the left was one of Ethiopia’s high peaks near or over 4000 meters–13 to 14 thousand feet.

And then, there it was, Menelik’s Window. This was the first area we saw with numerous gelada baboons. However, these ran away unlike the ones later in Simien National Park.

That’s Dino down on the edge. At this point in the trip, I was still quite horrified by all the steep cliffs and stayed way back. He was trying to get a good photo of the baboons. Menelik II, the last Ethiopia leader to be able to claim himself as a direct male descendant of King Solomon, found this place special, a view into the real Ethiopia across miles of mountains. He is known for defeating the Italian invaders, expanding the kingdom, and especially for modernizing Ethiopia.

My grandson now owns this hat. This boy and his friends spend their days chasing the baboons away from the tufts of grass, which their families use to make the thatched roofs, and making hats for sale.

You can see the selection of different styles of hats on display on the grass. On the mountainside in the back lots of herbs grew, including thyme. The boys also sold packets of herbs they had gathered and dried.

We dropped down on a winding mountain road through eucalyptus forests. Eucalyptus is not native to Ethiopia, but grows everywhere there. It is used as a basic material for building their houses, for scaffolding to build tall city buildings, for just about everything. Several different species grew along the road.

Ethiopia’s main highways are excellent. Many were built years ago by the Italians, more recent ones by the Chinese. Ethiopians make jokes about how long the Chinese roads might last.

Eventually, we dropped down out of the mountains into an area that was much drier.

A typical town with all sorts of shops right along the road. When driving in Ethiopia, dodging people, cattle, camels, horses, burros, and goats is the norm. Everything it seems likes these good roads.

A boy driving camels down the highway. Loose animals, like the burro on the right, roam seemingly unattended. I saw few fences.

In the small towns in this semi arid area, we saw several totally veiled women, faces covered totally except for their eyes. Alemu informed us that this was a new thing, not seen until the last few years. He seemed to think it had become fashionable to copy Saudi women.

We stopped to look at certain plants beside the road.

Dino recalled playing with these pretty green balls as a child with this forewarning, “Do not eat them, do not touch your eyes or you will go blind.” They are called the Apples of Sodom.

At this juncture near the beginning of this adventure, I had not yet realized how everything in Ethiopia possesses symbolic meaning.

We drove along this immense, lush valley for miles. Alemu said this huge herd of cattle belonged to a semi nomadic group who brought their cattle here during the rainy season to graze and fatten. A bit farther down the road the land belonged to one of the richest men in Ethiopia, indeed the world, Al Amoudi. It was the only place where I saw a tractor actually used in a field.

Arriving in Kombolcha, we saw this new college in the process of creation. This became a common sight–new buildings, new schools, construction everywhere.

My first hotel room in Ethiopia at the Sunny Side Hotel in Kombolcha complete with mosquito netting–the blue blob above the bed. At least it had a shower and toilet. Many places use the style of accommodations one finds in a lot of Asia. Forget toilets as you know them–just a tiled area with a hole in the ground and the ever present water with which to wash. We carried our own toilet paper just in case. However, many places had both so customers could choose.

Ethiopia–From the Roof of Africa to the Nile

July 13, 2014July 13, 2014 / Juliana Lightle / Leave a comment

Internet is not so reliable at times here. Yesterday we saw 23 Walia ibex in the Simien Mountins above 14,000 feet. They are found only there. Photos include Simien Mountains, the highest bar in Africa, the castles in Gondar, and the Blue Nile River, the longest in the world. Staying at a hotel on Lake Tana. Saw several hippos near the Nile bridge, but the guard said no photos. For some reason, these photos loaded in reverse order. We were in the Simien Mountains first where we stayed in a hotel above 13,000 feet with no heat, took a small trek, and saw hundreds of gelada baboons. We saw the castles today and went to an overlook over the Blue Nile.