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Bale Mountains Safari Walk

By the time it reached late afternoon we had seen and done quite a bit in the car, so our safari walk was a really good chance to stretch our legs and (hopefully) spot some of the local animals. What started off as a dirt path soon went off track as our tour guide led us into the forest. We were now in animal territory! I had no idea what to expect of this safari or what animals we were going to see. But we were soon treading grass, stopping every now and again to see if our tour guide had spotted something. We stayed close together and as quiet as possible, and not long after setting off we spotted our first animal - the bohor reedbuck, a native antelope to central Africa.

A perfect great opportunity to use the stalker zoom on my bridge camera...

We continued on and saw a fair few more of these beautiful animals; most of them did scamper after we walked towards them (even though we were still pretty far away). The tour guide led us up hilly terrain and through thick trees before making a signal for us to crouch when he thought he'd spotted another animal. It took me a while to spot, but standing still in the bush was this mountain nyala - an antelope native to the high altitudes of Ethiopia! We had spotted a local!

I'm glad that I had such a great zoom on my camera as I was able see the animals better on the LCD screen of the camera rather than squinting!

The mountain nyala mid chew.

[Homo sapien] Two fine English specimen. 

Tack looks like he might have spotted something...

A warthog - the animal made famous by Pumbaa in the Lion King!

The tour guide then started leading us uphill, at which point I did begin to wonder what animals we'd see - if any at the top of our climb. But this is why he brought us up there...

The views were stunning and the sun was shining - it was an amazing end to the walk. We also spotted a family of warthogs! Cute...

We were up here for a while taking in the sights, breathing in the fresh air and taking more photos!

These photos using my GoPro Hero 3 would not have been possible if it weren't for a dear colleague gifting me his monopod! He's a photographer and gave it to me as a leaving gift as he was no longer using it - so thank you Don! And of course the GoPro app for iPhone. You can tell I haven't got the knack of hiding the phone as I press the shutter.. It's because I can see what the GoPro is seeing on the app. I'll have to get better at that!

Not long after I took these photos dark rain clouds soon moved in and that was our sign to go. It was our last night in the mountains... Back to Addis Ababa tomorrow!

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The Beautiful Bale Mountains continued...

Here we were, up in the Bale Mountains and we've stopped off on a road next to a forest that looked like the film set for scenes from Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter.

We ventured in of course for a wander and you'll see from the photos how angular the trees were. HI TIM!

So much moss! So much that I think Chris and Tim slipped off the branch as they tried to jump off it.

After a short break in the forest, we drove off again and whilst we did get glimpses of sun we were soon in and amongst the clouds again and it was pretty grey as we reached a small village called Robe. As we approached, we saw in the distance a gathering of people, that very soon became obvious that they were playing a game of volleyball. We couldn't help but cheer them on from our car window and they all waved back :-)

Our stop in Robe was a great opportunity for our driver Faisal to get some refreshments, only this time it wasn't just coffee - he was treated to traditional Ethiopian bread and honey.

It was here I wanted to take photos of families and people in their environment due to the traditional, homely feel of the town. Kal approached a woman who was cradling her baby and surrounded by younger children, and asked her if she was happy for me to take her photo. Sadly (and understandably) she declined, but I did manage to take some shots of the town. Also, it is here in this town where I felt a similar experience to when I went to the Philippines for the first time. I don't want to call it culture shock, because to me that insinuates that I was flabbergasted by my surroundings, but it was more... culture appreciation, an overwhelming experience. We were so far away from the capital, and we had been driving through the mountains for a while and this was the first stop off we'd made in the mountains that was in a community.

So as Faisal, Tora and Kal were enjoying their second breakfast, I took some shots as I couldn't help but appreciate their simple living, their welcoming hospitality, the community feel and the volleyball!

We soon moved on as there was more to see, plus we were due to walk around the national park that evening. So we headed back the way we came, back towards the hotel but since we were running on time, Faisal and Kal decided to take us on a detour to Tulu Dimtu, Ethiopia's second highest mountain at 4333m above sea level, just under half the height of Mount Everest.

As we were so high up, the weather went pretty quickly from grim...

... to beautiful blue skies! We went quite a while up in the skies, which gave me a great opportunity to take some shots on my bridge camera and GoPro. My bridge camera is a Nikon P510 with a 42x optical zoom, which I have named "stalker zoom"...

This wasn't even at full zoom! But for me, it was so great to take shots of the these three together again and in Ethiopia no less :-)

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The Beautiful Bale Mountains

So.... picking up where I left off, we headed south towards the Bale Mountains National Park from the hot springs in Wondo Genet. The weather was overcast and it rained at times along the way, but it made for some pretty spectacular rainbows... everyone loves a good rainbow!

The drive took us through loads of little townships and villages and in between them were huge expanses of land, where we saw a lot more of the Ethiopian landscape, which became more mountainous as the hours passed. We eventually started to drive uphill and higher above sea level. Faisal made a little pit stop for a little coffee break and we all stepped out and it was then we all realised that we needed to break out the hoodies! Not long after that, the route took us on and off dirt roads before it started to get pretty high and wind-y! 

After around 120 km on the road from Wondo Genet, we'd reached the Bale Mountains and it was definitely time to get some rest at the nearby Goba Wabe Shebelle Hotel. 

The next morning, we made an early start to drive up and around the mountains. As we were beginning to climb, it became a lot more cloudy and the landscape began to look pretty eerie... like we were on another planet. 

This plant is the giant lobelia, commonly found in the Bale Mountains and we saw quite a lot of these odd looking plants... the looked like palm trees that had stunted growth. 

We managed to spot some birds along the way as well, which is just as well as the Bale Mountains National Park is home to 310 species of birds. 

The drive around the mountains meant that we were able to take in all the sights and stop whenever we wanted to - this is us at Tuluke Viewpoint 3810m above sea level (which is - after Googling it - is as high as Lake Titicaca in Peru, the world's highest large lake). I should add that it was now painfully cold for us at this altitude; I couldn't take photos for too long as it was so cold! As you can see it looks like we about to drive off a cliff here! We were so high up that we were in and amongst pretty thick cloud.

From high concrete buildings in Addis to traditional mud huts in the Bale Mountains, our road trip was giving us a great view into Ethiopia. But with more of the mountains and a walk amongst the animals to come, we knew we were in for more memorable days down south!

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Our NYE with Alan and Rosanna sponsored by Moet & Chandon and FaceTime... Happy and healthy 2015 everyone! #brisbane #storybridge #leiandtack (at New Farm, Brisbane)

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Ethiopia continued...

There are not enough hours in the day for me to update our blog as much as I'd want! We've been in Australia for over six months now and we've only blogged about a small part of our travels! How terrible is that?! But a late update is better than no update! 

So, as you know Tack was in hospital for food poisoning and so was put on a saline drip. After a few hours at the hospital he was discharged, we headed back with Kal to his apartment, hoping that a good night's sleep will make him feel better as the next morning we were due to head to southern Ethiopia for our four day road trip! The next morning, things weren't looking good, but after delaying our intended start time a few hours and getting our things together slowly, we all decided that it was best for us to all stay together and take things easy. Besides, Kal had put so much time and effort into planning our entire road trip, it would've been a shame to miss out.

So, along with our driver Faisal, we set off south of Addis Ababa towards the Bale Mountains! 

First stop, lunch at Hotel Dreamworld, Debre Zeit - 42km south of Addis Ababa. Check out the view of Bishoftu Lake!

After lunch we were back on the road, on our way to Lake Hawassa - a freshwater lake - and we saw some breathtaking scenery on the way, so of course we had to stop and soak it all in...

And some classic back seat passenger shots...

278km later, we arrived at our hotel overlooking Lake Hawassa. What a view from our balcony!

After breakfast the next morning, we strolled down to the lake...

We love the city life but it was really nice to get away from the hustle and bustle and taking in the Ethiopian landscape. It was around mid morning I took these shots, and the sun was already beginning to beat down. We then went off to the fish market, as the boats had not long arrived from going out to the lake in the early hours.

This fish market only took up a small area of the lake, but it was pretty busy with workers and tourists. It was also busy with marabou storks! They’re not the prettiest, but they hang around this area as they feed on the scraps of fish. The dominant fish caught in this lake are tilapia - a common fish in Filipino cuisine :-) You’ll see in the photos that the fishing nets look like they have plastic bottles caught in them. However, those bottles are the buoys for the nets and they use rocks as anchors. Here you’ll see the area where the fish are gutted and then collected to go straight to market. What you can’t see though, are all the marabou standing around us waiting to pounce on the fish!

We didn't stay for much longer after this as we still had a fair way to travel to the Bale Mountains. So, we headed east and stopped off at a hot spring at Wondo Genet - 41km east of Lake Hawassa. We had a tour guide that showed us one of the sources of the hot spring... this involved a bit of a trek through the jungle in the midday heat (!) but look at this scenery!

Standing at this scenic spot, you could definitely feel the heat coming from the water - around 70°c we think? Pretty hot though. Kal had mentioned that further down the mountain, there was a swimming pool filled with the water from the hot spring... and that's where we went next! It was a great experience, firstly washing off any dirt before going in (this explained why we were each given a bar of soap as we walked in) the boys, went into the boys shower and Tora and I headed into the girls. Even then the water for the shower was from the hot spring and it was pretty hot! Some of the ladies in the shower also used their time in the shower to handwash some clothes... I would! This experience reminded me a lot of my first experience in the Philippines, with all the hand washing of clothes and gathering around a large shower :-)

We then regrouped to head into the large outdoor swimming pools. The rim of the pool was surrounded by people sitting down, we actually had to squeeze through to get into the pool... and once we got it in made sense why everyone was sitting... It was so warm we couldn't stay in there for too long! But dipping in and out of the pool was pretty refreshing despite it being a hot day. It did also mean that I slept like a baby when we set off again towards the mountains...

Next post - the beautiful Bale Mountains and the Sof-Umar Caves! Till next time... sooner rather than later hopefully!

[leiandtack]

Ethiopia!

It's been a while since our last entry, but I'm sure you can imagine that it's hard to find the time to blog on our sun filled travels and then settling in! But here's the first update on the Ethiopian leg of our journey! We arrived in Addis Ababa on the morning of Good Friday and we saw the sun rising as we landed *cue chorus of the Circle of Life from The Lion King...*

As we headed into the airport we went straight into a queue for our visa and then after another queue for immigration, we were finally reunited with our friend Kal! He is based in Addis Ababa and we were very fortunate enough to be able to stay with him and travel around Southern Ethiopia with him, so many, many thanks to Kal!

That evening we had our first experience of Ethiopian culture, at a restaurant called Yod Abyssinia - ‘yod’ meaning ‘witness’ in Gurage, a regional dialect.

We sat down opposite a stage where entertainers played traditional Ethiopian instruments and dancers treated us to traditional dances of the numerous groups in Ethiopia. We both learnt very quickly that Ethiopia have an incredibly rich and colourful culture - so many different dances, songs and traditional dress.

And with all the performances, we had our first experience of Ethiopian food! And it's all hands on, so one of the waiters came to our table to allow us to wash our hands.

And here is the food! It's eaten from a communal plate, and covering the plate is a crepe-style sourdough bread called injera. Placed in and around the injera are different cooked meats, vegetables and even a type of cottage cheese. You tear off the injera and use it to grab some food and then eat it! The food was great, not too spicy but definitely full of flavour. Along with the singing and the dancing - featuring cameo appearances from Kal and his friend Daniel - it was definitely a great start to our trip. 

The following day, we started our day with breakfast just outside of Kal's apartment block and it was here where Tack tried his first coffee and where better to try it than in Ethiopia!

He said he enjoyed it but it hasn't turned him into an addict like me!

We headed out north of Addis towards The National Museum of Ethiopia is where we met Lucy - our oldest ancestor at (approximately) 3.2 million years old amongst other ancient fossilised remains all of which were discovered in Ethiopia. After a brief lesson in the history of Ethiopia, we headed further north towards Mount Entoto - a historical site where Emperor Menelik II lived and no wonder... the view is amazing! Emperor Menelik II is highly regarded as the father of Ethiopia as he defeated the Italians who invaded Ethiopia in 1896. This is Entoto Maryam Church, an orthodox Christian church. 

Around the grounds is Emperor Menelik's palace.

It was coming up towards lunch time, so it was time to move on - this time we headed to an athlete’s resort Yaya Village, co founded by none other than one of Ethiopia’s successful sons - Haile Gebreselassie. It’s location at high altitude and accessibility to Addis Ababa makes it attractive to budding athlete’s. Here are a few shots of us in and around the village!

Tim, Kal & Chris

Kal & Tora

You can go on horse rides around the ground!

As it was an athlete's village, there was some exercise apparatus that we - of course - had to play on! It was like being in a kids playground!

On our way back to Addis, we stopped off to check out the scenery...

The following day was Easter Sunday and we had the pleasure of spending this day with Kal's family in their home where we were treated to delicious traditional home cooked food.

Along with Kal's aunties, uncles and niece we met his nephew, Alef - pictured here. And out of respect, as the youngest member of the family it was down to Alef to help clean our hands after eating... bless. 

Notice how there is grass scattered on the outside porch - this is a Christian Orthodox tradition where 'aromas are used to invigorate the minds of worshippers.'

And then of course, it was time for coffee!

Coffee originated from Ethiopia and it is a very important part of their culture. There is a ceremony when making and serving coffee. Green coffee beans are roasted then ground, poured into a special pot then boiled. After being cooled down and boiled again the coffee is filtered and poured into small cups - like espresso cups. And it's served with my favourite snack... popcorn! In Ethiopia, you're never too far away from good coffee.

Following lunch and coffee with Kal's family we headed back to the city for some cake and after a while Tack said he wasn't feeling too well. And we knew that really was the case when we had to quickly get out of our taxi back to Kal's place as Tack... had to throw up on the side of the road :-( The next hour or so, poor Tack wasn't keeping anything down. All his symptoms pointed towards food poisoning but despite all the fluids and dioralyte, nothing was staying down. Not long after, Kal insisted it was best that we took Tack to the hospital and I'm glad that he did. 

Kal took us to the local hospital - a Korean hospital that was built as a joint project between the Ethiopian and Korean government (I think?) But Tack was really well looked after. Following a few tests the results came back as food poisoning and the doctor put him on an IV drip.

Even going through all this Tack was so worried that he was potentially ruining our road trip to Southern Ethiopia, which was to kick off the next morning! But of course, for Kal and I that was the least of our worries. After a few hours, the drip had emptied and we were allowed to go home. Tack wasn't feeling 100% straight away but there were definite signs of improvement. Kal couldn't have been more helpful - if it wasn't for his quick thinking and support in getting him to the hospital and dealing with all the paperwork, the experience would have been much more stressful and we are both incredibly thankful to him and the staff at the Myungsung Hospital! 

I think I've made this post long enough, so I'll end it here. If you have any questions, let us know! Also, we're quite new to blogging, so feedback is welcome!

More photos to come soon!

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WE HERE!! #leiandtack #brisbane

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I never knew I could sweat so much... Urrrrgghhh. "It's the humidity!!" - Monica Geller #leiandtack #singapore #gross (at Singapore Zoo, Singapore)

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Last night at Singapore's oldest Hindu temple #leiandtack #singapore (at Sri Mariamman Temple, Singapore)

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Looking up at the Marina Bay Sands #leiandtack #singapore #lookup (at Marina Bay Sands)

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We spent our last evening in Thailand right here... Off to Singapore tomorrow! #WYWH #leiandtack #krabi #paradisefound (at Amari Vogue Krabi)

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Spending our last night in #Thailand right here... Off to Singapore tomorrow! #WYWH #leiandtack #krabi #amarivogue (at Amari Vogue Krabi)

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On the beach at Ao Nang, Krabi 😊 (at Ao Nang)

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You know you're Asian when... (at Amari Vogue Krabi)

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The view from our balcony #leiandtack #phuket #muchneeded (at The Westin Siray Bay Resort & Spa Phuket)

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Selfie on our elephant ride! #leiandtack #thailand #kanchanaburi (at Maha Wang Chang Elephant Village)

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Our view right now. No matter where we are, we need our football! (at Indulge Restaurant & Bar)