The Gudji People and Awasa Rift Valley
An all-day drive from Yabelo back to Lake Langano and Wenney's Eco-Lodge. Eight hours in total including lunch and pee breaks. The days highlights were:
- A dead hyena on the road. Henock thought it was a pregnant female;
- At least four overturned trucks; and
- Lots of road kill. ...View image...
Leaving Borena country we entered Gudji Tribal country with their unusual style of hair, clothes and houses. View image... One woman was carrying her own coffee pot. (I can relate to that.) Most of the Gudjis are Protestants and one house had "God is love" written on it.
Next up was Sidamo, both a village and tribe, and several blacksmiths...View image... along the road making spears and machetes. The Sidamo houses are big and round and are built by constructing a wooden framework and then plastering mud over it. The Sidamo have good land for agriculture and grow Mango, coffee, tomatoes...View image..., pineapples, papaya, sugar cane, false banana leaves for bread and real bananas...View image
Henock made it a point to show the differences between each group's houses, outfits and hairstyles... He didn't just dispense facts but made the entire trip a real learning experience.
Lunch in Dilla, a busy little town at a very crowded restaurant. Then came sellers of mango, pineapple, Chat/Kat (a mild narcotic chewed by the people). Ten pineapples sold for about $2.25 U.S. ..View image... .It was incredible how Henock could drive at 100k/62 miles an hour on good roads and come to a screeching halt whenever the constant herds of cattle and goats crossed the highway...AND managed to avoid the sellers rushing out into traffic...practically in front of the car... trying to make a sale.
Arrived back at Wenney's in daylight this time with a chance to sit by the lake, watch birds and fishermen spreading their nets. I am not a birder but we saw a Francolin Bird that resembles a chicken, fish eagles, egrets,View image... Egyptian Geese and both of us were becoming more interesting in identifying birds as the trip wound on. Finally, my favorites, the Colobus Monkeys at Wenney's. Unfortunately, we had seen two different sellers along the road today with Colobus skins for sale.
The tribal portion was over...
