June 19, 2009

We spent a long, bumpy day in the Land Cruiser travelling to Arba Minch. Our driver picked us up in Debre Zeit at 8 am and off we went. We travelled down familiar road as far as Lake Langano and then started driving through new territory. Some of the terrain as you go south is absolutely breathtaking. Lots of mountains and lakes and everything becomes so lush and green. Unfortunately, the road is absolutely awful. They are working at redoing it so we had lots of detours and most of it was dirt road or even worse, very old asphalt riddled with pot holes. The last 100 kilometers took three hours to travel.

It was a relief to arrive at Paradise Lodge about 5 pm. It’s quite a lovely lodge made up of individual huts with woven roofs in the style of the southern tribes. They had a major fire at the lodge last year and they are currently in the middle of rebuilding the restaurant etc and things aren’t quite what they should be. However, I’m sure we’ll be very comfortable and the staff are very welcoming and accommodating. It’s located on top of a high hill with a stunning view of Lakes Abaya and Chamo and is entirely surrounded by stunning mountain forests.