Clive Best

It is a long hard drive from Lake Nakuru to the Serena Lodge in Masai Mara. The roads get bad 100 kms from the Mara. We were told that Mara actually means something like “spotty” since there are so few trees in this amazing expanse of grasslands or Savana that from afar gives the effect of small  ”spots” of trees. The scale of the park is inspiring and it is completely dedicated to wildlife. Consequently the rich grasslands provide for about one million wildebeests and many types of antelopes which in turn provide food for the carnivors. There are many Lions, less leopards and cheetahs but also hyenas, jackals and other scavengers.

It was still very green and some impassible tracks from previous rains. The wildebeests had mostly already migrated south to Tanzania but there were still herds of perhaps 50-100 seemingly running all the time. They must be the most stupid of animals as they dive into the river Mara and drown or be eaten by crocodiles in their hundreds. When not migrating they become the target of Lions. Luckily there are so many of them that they clearly flourish.

One of the tourist “must dos” is a balloon ride at dawn over the Mara - but it is not cheap. The cost is 250 pounds per person for a ride which lasts 1 hour max. I think in earlier days they flew balloons low to see game but this disturbed the herds too much. Consequently the flights are now higher and although they must give a panoramic view over the Mara - to me it seems not worth it. Luckily we hadn’t pre-booked and turned down the last minute deal as the dawn turned out to be cloudy that day. My advice is forget it and - and use the 500 pounds to pay the bar bills for your stay in Kenya !

The Masai Mara is a unique expanse which  joins into to the Serengetti in Tanzania. There are too many tourist buses which follow wildlife but they are restricted normally to set paths close to the lodges and camps. The park is large and with the Serengetti makes probably the largest remaining true Savanna wild park  in the world. Tourism funds the park - so it has to be worth it.  Everything seems in ballance  for the widlife - Lions, Elephants, Zebras are thriving and healthy with sufficient food all round. There is no over population of one single species- (except man that is !). This is how nature must have functioned in perfect balance for millions of years until we turned up to upset everything. 

Probably even this doesn’t matter in the long life of the earth -  as 10000 years is just a blip  in what is a very rare planet which seems to promote and sustain life.

[more photos from Masai Mara]

Mt Kenya at Dawn	Lions mating
White Rhino Nakuru	flamingos

Mount Kenya is the second largest mountain in Africa at 5200 meters. It is surrounded by protected forest - although there have been recent problems with locals cutting down the trees recently. It serves as a watershed for various lakes including Lake Naguru, which some say has lost water. Lake Naguru is famous for its pink flamingos which feed on the green algae/ Again there have nbeen environmantal problems reducing the numbers of Pink Flamingos from there height of millions of birds. Also the town of Naguru is growing and must have run-off to the lake. Despite this it is still a wonderful site to see the flamingos and wildlife  in their thousands ! We were told that the pink colour originateds from the food of algae.  Either way it is a very nice spot.

Our first stop was at Mountain Lodge with its own water hole. We went for a guided walk in the forest protected by an armed guard. It seems that Buffaloos are the most deadly animal in Africa claiming more lives than any other. The males spend their time fighting  for access to the 20 females under the super stud. Consequently they can attack at random.  We saw lots of fresh tracks, some monkeys, antelopes etc. but luckily no elephants or Buffaloo. The advice is that when charged by an elephant to run down the steepest hill - because they cannot follow you. They are so large that they can only take gradual sideways inclines - a useful tip I am sure !

Mount Kenya itself is very beautiful with a peaked caldera covered in ice despite being roughly on the equator. It is cold at mountain lodge in the evening so if you want to wait up all night watching animals - wrap up. One amazing thing about the equator that I still can’ quite accept :

The earth rotates around the equator and coriolis forces are the effect of this rotation on gravity. In the northern hemisphere if you pull the plug in a sink the water spins anti-clockwise. One way to understand this is to remember that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west - so looking north the earth rotates anti-clockwise. This spins water anti-clockwise in the Northern and clockwise in the southern hemisphere. Right - so we get taken to a tourist place on the equator with a sign sowing the so-called exact equator. Then the guide takes a bowl with a single hole in the middle and to let it flow out. We walk 10 meters north and - lo and behold a matchstick laying in it prives that the water flows anti-clockwise. Then we move 10 meters south of the line and the matcstik moves exactly the oposite - clockwise. The piece de resitance is now to stand exactly on the equator and - I still cannot beleive this - the matchstick stays perfectly straight with o corriolis force. Is this possible ? Can the equator be really be so exactly postitioned?  My only regret was not to bring Foucout’s pendulum with me ! 

After Mount Kenya we moved to the Serena Lodge in Lake Naguru. A very beautiful spot with giraffes elephants, lions, Rhinos graing on emense grasslands around the liake itself. We were lucky to see some Hippos in the lake alomg with thousands of Pleicans and Flamingos. The only encroachment is the town of Naguru itself as the waters of the lake need to be kept pristine clean.

[more photos Mount Kenya & Lake Naguru]

We have just returned from a holiday to Kenya. Kenya has wonderful scenery with good wildlife parks. This was my first visit and I was attracted to visit Africa again after my stay in Ethiopia. Kenya is Ethiopia’s neighbour and has a highland area around Nairobi with a large lower Rift Valley Area and coastal regions which are hot and equatorial. The equator runs just south of Mount Kenya which is Africa’s second highest mountain at 5200 meters and has year round glaciers at the very top. The country actually takes its name from the mountain rather than the inverse. Kenya was the anglified version of a local dialect word describing the misty mountain because of the glaciated summit. 

Nairobi is a modern bustling town. On arrival you feel that economically Kenya is doing comparatively well and the central area of Nairobi has a feel of business and commerce - not a donkey or goat to be seen on the streets! The highways out of Nairobi are also fairly good, at least until you reach some of the country areas. Our first journey was to Samburu National Park by mini-bus - a long drive of 7 hours. It was the short wet season and there had been rains recently causing the river to swell and the park was very green. There are many groups of elephants spread around the park plus reticulated giraffes, lions, cheetahs, leopards, Thomson’s gazelles among many other animals. We stayed in the Serena Lodge near the river. This looks straight out with a view of the crocodiles basking on the shore or in the water and elephants regularly coming to cool down. The land used to belong to the Samburu tribe who are pastoral. Now they also make a living through tourism. One highlight was seeing a mother cheetah and her cub strolling past our van. Cheetahs must hunt alone and the cubs are vulnerable while the mother tracks and chases prey. Often they can lose most or all of the cubs to scavengers before they reach adulthood.

[more photos from Samburu]

Today is my last day at work and I am actually rather sad to be leaving tomorrow evening. Yesterday evening I met the the two Jill’s in the Hilton bar as I was watching the semi-final match between Cameroon and Ghana. Every Thursday evening they and two friendly taxis organise a meal and water run for the homeless poor sleeping rough in Addis. With money raised by contributions the taxi driver’s family cook 300 meals of injeera and sauce in plastic bags. I went with them. There are some harrowing sights of mainly middle-aged and young men with absolutely nothing. There are also some women sleeping with children in their arms on the pavement. Many sleep outside churches and some seem very weak from continuous street life and bad living. Without fail they are all humble, kind and friendly. There was never any real aggression, just in the case of one young man desperate about his life. Another checkup is to look out for serious medical conditions. One man had malaria, and Jill determined to revisit tomorrow with Malarone treatment. Last week they found a TB sufferer , but unfortunately he died this week as it was too late too treat him.On a much brighter topic - Friday evening Taye and Merete took me out to dinner and we ended up at the Harlem Jazz club near the airport. There was a really good band playing a mixture of blues and jazz, which reminded me of how bands used to perform in the past before the big money. A very nice evening before bed at 1am. Today Kaleb took me to Piazza to buy some last minute presents and then I crashed out at the pool. Finally a last drink in the bar of the Hilton. My pet EU funding project is to build a Lion park and rescue those poor 15 lions in the central zoo in Addis. I am sure it would be a huge success. Acquire some land on the outskirts of Addis and make some nice enclosures where the lions have room to live. Probably not that expensive to give these animals their rightful pride.I am writing this at the airport waiting to fly out. I am sad to leave. Ethiopia is a beautiful country with a magic history and lovely people.

If Lalibela was anywhere else apart from Ethiopia it would be swarming in tourists. It is quite simply a unique architectural site of human religious endeavour and should be on everyone’s must see itinerary. King Lalibela (means honey eater) lived in the 14th century and was inspired to build the world’s largest rock-hewn churches. They are on a European scale cathedral style. What makes them even more wonderful is the red sedimentary rock they are embedded in. Lalibela was also very smart because he built an extensive set of deep water drainage channels because he knew that water was a danger to all such buildings. This extensive set of channels kept the below surface churches dry in the rainy season. Some of these channels are 20 feet deep with inlooks, caves and pathways. But it is the churches that overwhelm in their achievement. There are 12 churches and each one is different. Some have elaborate paintings and sculpture, while others are symmetric and angular. I believe all 12 churches were carved during the King’s lifetime which must have involved tens of thousands or people for 40 years or more. It is still immersed in legend as all the guides will tell you. The most famous church is the last one he built: St. George’s. It is uncanny that George is so important to Ethiopians and is also the patron saint of England. George’s father was supposed to be English and his mother Ethiopian. All churches here revere St. George.

Lalibella itself is covered in traditional houses made of wood and stone. The local population lead a rural life mostly unchanged for 100s of years. A huge market is held on Saturdays and the roads are full of local people carrying their wares, chickens, goats etc. to the market area. I found this fascinating and the area is divided into different areas selling different produce. One was selling honey straight from pots, which meant the area was also full of bees! In the evening I decided to try the local traditional bar and sample home- made honey wine. This has been fermented and had a rather pleasant not sweet taste. It must have been powerful stuff as I woke up with a headache the next morning. I suspect they gave me the strongest brew they had, and this convinced me to help two students buy the books they said they needed to pass the next exams.

The churches of Lalibela are quite amazing. It is still not sure how they were built and how many workmen were involved. There are plenty of myths about supernatural help for King Lalibela to build all 12 churches during his lifetime. The last church, St. George’s, is the one normally publicised, but all of them are unique and different one from the other.

On Friday afternoon I went to the Nile Falls. I had heard this was a shadow of its past glory following the construction of a new Hydroelectric plant, however I disagree - it is still spectacular even in the dry season and well worth a visit. First you drive about 1 hour down a tough road and then cross the Nile upstream by boat- already a large river as it leaves Lake Tana. On the other side you then walk 10-15 minutes across seemingly flat countryside before hearing and seeing the roar of the falls as the river collapses over a 100 feet cliff. This must have been one of the most spectacular falls in the world as depicted in the 1 birr bank note, as you see that now half the cliff is dry where the extra water fell before the diversion of much of the flow to the power plant. Despite this it is still amazing and probably the best water fall I have ever seen. If you walk down to near where the falls hit the surface below then a spray covers the ledge and a colony of small flies and insects thrive from the wet conditions. You get completely soaked rather quickly which can be pleasant as it gets hot and almost tropical at Lake Tana.

I visited Lake Tana and Lalibela this weekend as it was my last chance before leaving Ethiopia - and it was fantastic. I flew from Addis first to Bahir Dar which Haile Sellasse at one time hoped to make Ethiopia’s new capital. The town is well laid out and nestles at the bottom of Lake Tana. Tana is the third largest lake in Africa, is almost square and nearly 100 km large. It is also the source of the Blue Nile which eventually feeds Egypt and Sudan with life-bringing water. Although it is the dry season and it hasn’t rained for 4-5 months the lake is still quite full and the Nile flow is reasonably large. The Nile is a huge strategic resource and I have been told that Ethiopia is not allowed to expand its irrigation as old treaties state that 90% of the water must go to Egypt and Sudan. It seems a bit hard when most of the water originates in Ethiopia.

I arrived around 9 am and after booking into Hotel Tana left with the guide for a boat trip to the Island Monastery. Lake Tana is famous for its bird life and we saw hundreds of white pelicans, cormorants, herons, kingfishers as well as some unique Ethiopian birds. The guide was an expert and my memory for names is bad so I can’t recall them all. Early in the morning there were scores of small papyrus boats loaded with firewood being paddled from an area of forest back to the villages on the south shore. The round trip must have taken hours. Then we headed to the Island Monastery of Kibras St. Gabrael Unity, where no women are allowed to embark. The monks live a simple meditative and pious life.

The monastery was founded in the 13th Century and parts of the Church date back to that time. Some of the monks are in their eighties and nineties and one recently died at 105. There are currently around 60 monks on the island. They bathe in the lake and they drink lake water which looks very organic, bearing in mind we are warned it is unsafe to swim in Tana. There are some very ancient books, ancient crosses and crowns kept there. The books are in Ghija language, written on goatskin and beautifully illustrated, and some are 600 years old. Then I was shown the original chainmail of a famous monk from the 14th century who wore it as penitence and lived only on lake algae to an old age. This (and Lalibela) are surely places where you get a glimpse of the ancient spiritual heart of Ethiopia.

In the afternoon I went to the Nile Falls - see next post, and then watched the sunset from the hotel. The lake is very attractive and I am told there are snakes, alligators and in the Nile entrance also crocodiles, and hippos. The Nile crocodiles can be 4 metres long ! All I had to deal with was a tiny mosquito which kept me awake trying to find it in my room! Delilah had left insect repellent wipes and eventually I caked myself in these and pulled the sheets up to my neck and crashed out. I am told that malaria is only present in the rainy season - September - so fingers crossed !

Update: It is now 3 weeks later and I seem to feel OK still.

Today we went to the Meta Brewery in the morning, where there is an attractive park around a natural water source and its waterfall. The park is about 5o minutes away from Addis on the road to Jimma and passes through a series of villages and markets. On the way I spotted another Arsenal supporters taxi. Here everyone is mad on the British Premier League, and support the top clubs. All the big matches are broadcast on national television and the bars are full during each match. Last week in Ambo I also spotted this battered taxi proudly boasting Arsenal support.

Another attraction to the Metts Brewery is that after a short walk around the park and some photos next to the waterfall, you sit down in the warm shade to sample the draught beer. I really like this beer - it is cloudy and tastes slightly like Weiss Beer. Each glass costs a staggering 2 birr which works out at 70 cents a litre! Anna rationed me to just 3 glasses before returning to Addis and spending the afternoon in the sun dozing by the pool.

Delilah arrived on Wednesday evening for a 2 day visit to the African Union. She also visited the EU delegation for talks and met the new AU delegation head. All went very well and the future of this direct work with AU looks bright, but it can be very  tiring after a long flight to start immediately into meetings and the like. Luckily she had Saturday free to rest and see Addis properly before flying back overnight. We went up to Entoto first which is the hill overlooking Addis at about 3000 m. There are two old octagonal churches on the summit and a panoramic view north over the highland farming area. Entoto has a eucalyptus forest whose wood is used for firewood and building.  On the way up we passed 10 or more firewood women who carry huge loads of wood on their backs for about 2 miles down the hill. They get paid about 30 birr ( just over 2 euro )  for a large load, which must take them several hours of back breaking work. When asked where the men were Kaleab joked  they were most likely inside drinking coffee. These women lead a very tough life, but there is now an association selling crafts to look after them when they are too old to carry anymore.

Last Sunday we went to one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen - Lake Wonchi . This lies in the crater of a volcano about 30 kilometers above the town of Ambo. We were told that the volcano erupted about 1000 years ago leaving a symetric caldera of rock now covered in lush green vegetation.

The drive to Ambo is easy along a new road, however the drive up from Ambo to Wonchi is hard and you need a 4×4 or in our case a high wheelbase minibus. The drive up takes over an hour as you climb up the Western highlands to over 3500 meters. It really feels cold in the morning, as you descend a little to Wonchi. Your first view of the lake is stunning, but to get down to it means going by foot or by horse. The guide provided 3 horses and we set off. Now I am not at ease with horses anyway but going down a steep incline was difficult. I managed most of the way but eventually decided it was safer to walk. However, on the way back I managed all the way on the horse - perhaps it is easier going up.

As you descend more of the lake comes into view and you pass small houses growng fake banana and raising a few goats and cows. The area is obviously fertile and life must not be too bad in such beautiful surroundings. The end of the trip was a small landing place where we got a rowing boat over to the island at the centre of the caldera. Here is a small monastry and a few huts. The whole setting is very tranquil and stunning.  All we had to eat all day were two bananas but we weren’t that hungry anyway.

The air was crystal clear and quite a strong wind was whipping up the dust on the path back. Conseqeuntly we got completely dusty throughout, and descended back down to Ambo to stay the night at the Ethiopia Hotel. The Africa ucp was just starting on the TV and later Ghana won the first match. This caused wild celebration outside in the street till about 2 am and then at 5 am the chanting of the priests from the local church began, probably a continuation of Timkat.  Despite this we slept quite well as in my case my backside and legs were horse-worn. Wonchi lake has to be a must-see place if you visit Addis - it can just be done there and back in a day.