June 20, 2009

We were up at 5:30 am this morning to get ready for our trip into Nechisar Park. The generator wasn’t turned on yet and the sun had not yet risen so it was strange getting ready by flashlight. We ended up getting a late start because it was difficult to track down fuel for the Land Cruiser because the power was still off and so none of the gas stations were dispensing gas.

I have never driven a road as rough and treacherous as the road we spent the next five hours travelling. It took us more than two hours to travel 25 kilometers. But the experience itself was amazing. We saw several troops of olive baboons and a number of the following: Guenther’s dik-dik, Grant’s gazelle, Swayne’s hartebeest, and Burchell’s zebra, which was the highlight for us. They are such magnificent animals when you see them in their natural habitat. Several times we were able to walk up quite close to them.

After a late lunch back at the Lodge, we headed out onto Lake Chamo for our boat excursion to view crocodiles close up. Isaac was a little hesitant about the whole thing but after some negotiating, he was willing to come along. We picked up our crew with our Land Rover and soon we were about ten people stuffed into the vehicle headed down to the lake. We accessed the lake from a little fishing place where young boys/men stripped down to their underwear and went out on to the lake in little rafts that were only big enough for them to stand on. It all seemed rather precarious, especially considering the huge population of crocodiles and hippos in the lake.

I wasn’t too thrilled to realize that we would be doing the expedition without life jackets but that is doing life E-style (Ethiopian style). We have had to let go of many of our convictions on safety standards etc. and learn to go with the flow out here. However, the water was amazingly calm and the young boys who captained our boat seemed competent enough. We first bumped into a crowd of hippos and floated incredibly close to them. They are such immense creatures. The highlight was of course, the crocodiles. We first saw them swimming in the water close to our boat and then came to the part of the shore they call “Crocodile Market” where the shoreline was just crawling with the creatures. Both Isaac and I were just a little nervous as we got within a few meters of them. Richard got some great pictures. We even had our boat flicked by a crocodiles tail which was a bit too adventurous for me! A really amazing experience!