I landed in Addis Ababa to be welcomed by warm 24C sunshine and a cool breeze. Somewhat different to what I had left at Heathrow. The Dreamliner experience on Ethiopian Air was interesting if somewhat a disappointment after hearing how much better it was than a regular plane. So coach class is still coach class!


Addis is a bustling city of great contrasts with a population of close to 5 million people and is the fifth biggest city in Africa . Its actually only 120 odd years old. Its certainly now spilling out of its mountain top location and spiralling across several neighbouring hilltops. At 2,200m its also quite high, so the nights are cool with just a handful of mosquitos for company.


I was staying with Yeshi and Salam, two sisters who run two neighbouring guest-houses in the south of Addis. These are really premium home stays with very modern fittings but a real family welcome. The main city was a minibus ride away, for about thirty minutes through Addis packed streets and Yeshi’s guesthouse will soon be connected by an overhead monorail (such is the speed of development in this country). The suburb where the guest house is located is safe, secure and incredibly quiet. A bakery, two local cafes and an expensive Lebanese restaurant is all it contains as it neighbours the embassy area and the airport is only 3 Kms away. The cosmopolitan area of Bole Street with all its hustle and bustle is just a few blocks away .


Yeshi was a great host, supplying me with all the necessary information to get myself ready to hit the open road. Bus times, Ethiopian airlines office address, SIM card etc etc. She only had two other guests, Randy a US army man from Florida and Rita his Ethiopian fiancé, and they were also immensely friendly.


The mornings with Yeshi’s communal breakfasts and her Ethiopian coffee were a real treat. It took me two days to get organised to head south towards the Kenyan border. My destination was the South Omo Valley and the tribes that live there, but this was only achievable via several bus trips. All Ethiopian buses travel during the day, leaving the night travel to the minibuses (which are illegal) and which travel at speed and are somewhat dangerous. So this not being an option, several hops by bus was necessary to reach the South . Hiring a car was the only other option and at 150 US$ a day including driver this was not an option for me.


Buses are in relatively short supply here, which is surprising considering the quality of the main roads, many which put the UK to shame. This may also be while the national railway is being rebuilt. Public buses are tight, unpleasant and overcrowded. Deluxe bus travel is provided by two premium companies but for most destinations they require three plus days advance booking in person at an office in the city of your departure. Naturally I soon realised that I was not going to see as much as I had planned in my five week visit.


The five hour trip to Awassa in the north of the Rift Valley on the shore of the large Awassa Lake was relatively painless. The coach was most full of middle class Ethiopians viewing their iPhones and iPads and foreigners . Awassa was down at sea level and a pleasant 32C, but with some unseasonal storms in the afternoon. Giant Malibu storks (the ugly ones settled on the main street shops and bars (resembling shacks) as the bus pulled in. People here looked very different from Addis and were markedly friendlier. I checked into the Time Cafe as recommended by LP. It was a small room, with internet, hot water (hot is not really the right word) surrounding the kitchen at the back of the friendly cafe. I was hoping to meet other travellers there and had finally got hold of Emanuel from the Hamer tribe, my preferred choice as guide for the south, who I was also due to meet there. On the bus I had met a French couple who were friendly, Aloys and Charlotte from Bordeaux, but they opted to stay by the lake. We did though agree to meet for dinner at a restaurant recommended by an Ethiopian lady on the bus.


It took me a while to find the restaurant, hidden down the side streets by the lake. Street lighting in Awassa was from the dark ages (literally and with no street names, navigation was very difficult). Many of the “pavements” were littered with huge manholes (uncovered) so I was glad I had my torch. Aloys also had trouble finding the place and the food was ordinary, but it was a nice evening punctuated by several power cuts.


The next morning I was up at 5.00am to head to the fish market at the lakeside. I arrived a bit early as i had some misleading information at the cafe. The lakeside market area was only full of boys and Malibu Storks at this time and the boys were just looking to make money from tourists as guides. They became more and more annoying as the morning progressed and they became more insistent. 


At about 7.00 the first small boats arrived from their night fishing trips full of Tilapia and Catfish. Most where pursued by a train of Pelicans and welcomed by the hoard of Malibu Storks. The lakeshore became frantic as buyers arrived and fish were gutted there on the boats. Birds, fishermen, boats and a handful of tourist made the place chaotic and very interesting, not too mention dirty and smelly. The bird life was great with many wading birds and kingfishers adding to the mayhem.


At nine it was all too much and I left to investigate the neighbouring park and woodland (scrub area). This area was where some of tourist boat trips left, and there was a handful boats tied up and cafes with some Ethiopian’s arriving for what appeared to be a breakfast picnic. Monkeys thronged in the trees. Black and white ones and the bird life was gain prolific. It was a great stroll, but I was keen for breakfast, so I returned to the cafe.


I arranged to meet Emanuel the following day and then joined up with Aloys and Charlotte for a boat trip to go and see the resident lake Hippo population. As soon as we had charted a rickety wooden boat and set off the wind picked upland the sky went very black. Our boat had an outboard motor that soon began to struggle and we started taking on rather a lot of water. This being the dry season I was not duly concerned but lightening and then some stunningly high waves changed that. As we spotted the Hippos the rain came, and we had to do a quick u-turn without any reasonable viewing opportunities. We bobbed and wobbled back to lakeside as the waves broke over the side. The boat man handed out life jackets - which was not so reassuring having been told about the size of the resident crocs. Nevertheless we made it back easily enough with plenty of smiles and yet again I had been thwarted from seeing Hippos, as I had in Gambia ten years ago.


Its hard to sleep-in here in this country as all buses leave at 5.00am and everyone leaving to catch a bus, acts like a released animal at that time in the morning. Consequently I was up early again, but this time enjoyed a leisurely breakfast and then headed back to the lakeside to photograph the birds. The lakeside between the fish market and the town centre was lined with cafe shacks and bars and was atmospheric if not conducive to watching birdlife. The reed beds stretching into the lake though were beautiful and the reed raft fishermen were certainly interesting.


I did though end up back at the park again to photograph the kingfishers and a couple of hornbills feeding their young. I met Emanuel in the afternoon. He was tall man from the Hamer tribe some 200 kms south and I immediately liked him. I got his name from a photographer’s blog as he specialised in taking photographers into the tribal villages that Bruce Parry visited in his BBC program “The Tribe”. He was though in Awassa to help his pregnant wife visit a doctor and it became soon apparent that if I was to use him it would have to be in March. So we agreed some dates and I immediately changed my plans and quickly got a bus ticket back to Addis. This I knew mean’t that I would have to miss trekking in the Bole Mountains, but I was so impressed by Emanuel that I wanted to use him and felt this was a price worth paying.


That night I packed and met two English men. Billy was from Devon and was motorbiking from Cairo to Cape Town and Ed was going one better and cycling for charity from London to Cape Town. The were both very interesting and very friendly. The next morning I was up at 4.30am to get my bus back to Addis.