Celebrating the Ethiopian New Year at the Rift Valley Lakes
As Ethiopia was entering Year 2008, the long weekend allowed us a trip to several of the major lakes which dot the South of Addis-Ababa, along the Rift Valley.
Lake Langano is an obvious rest stop, after having passed the first two noticeable lakes of this road, Koka and Ziway. Many resorts offer you a variety of places to spend the night - last year, we posted about the Africa Vacation Club , while this year we have tried Sabana 1.
From Langano, the ride to Abijatta-Shalla National Park is very easy, just down the road, but not many weekenders venture into this vast but unfoturnately not maintained park. It may have been listed among the 10 places the Ethiopian Government applied for at the UNESCO World Heritage Fund in 1979 but today most of the park looks more like regular countryside, with cultivated fields, grazing cattle, tukuls and dry, deforested areas.
Still, the area around the park's headquarters has been preserved, with Grant gazelles, whartdogs, ostriches and a multitude of birds. You can walk freely from the park's entrance to a beautiful viewpoint on the two main lakes that have given the park its name. We had the chance to follow a great scout, named Ama, who was extremely knowledgeable about birds, a great sense of humour and wonderful Amharic teacher - this made the 12km loop to the viewpoint and back to the entrance a great memory.2.
However, the wonder of the park, Chitu Lake , also called Chitu Hora in the local language, is not accessible this way. You need to exit the park, drive down South, pass Arsi Negele and the so-called Gragn Stones (which Briggs say are related to Tiya's stelae - we believed we had located them but now wonder if we were not just visiting a traditional cemetary on the road...) as well as Shasheme, and then engage westwards on the road to Sodo. From that road, after zigzagging among donkey carts, turn right at a village called Bura, on a dirt road. It will lead, after passing through a village, back to a Southern entry of the park. 3
The scenery is fabulous, with tens of thousands of semi-resident flamingoes colouring in bright pink the shores of the small lake. Just a few children passing by with cattle, the place is a little heaven.
A good rest is then deserved at Hawassa , last lake on our tour, where the country's champion Haile Gebreselassie has given his name to a famous resort.4. By the lake shore, it is usually possible to go for a boat ride to the hippos. But, at our great surprise, here's what we heard when we wanted to book: "Hippos have disappeared, which means, they are not here". Let us know when you have found them back!
Practical info at www.sabanalangano.com. Call at +251-461191181 or +251-461191466to book, but you will need to pay in advance for your room, in cash only, in Addis (two locations, Topview restaurant at Meganagna or Pick Stop in Dembel Center on Bole). Rooms for drivers are also available and booked in advance, for 165ETB. ↩︎
Read more on Abijatta-Shalla National Park on a World Heritage Site travellers' website ↩︎
GPS coordinates of Chitu Lake: 7.405664, 38.422010. We have actually reached Chitu turning left at a signpost for a lodge under construction and thus have not even seen the park's entrance. ↩︎
More info at http://haileresorts.com. You can book at their office in Alem building on Bole Road and pay directly there for your room. ↩︎
