Somewhere South of Addis: Langano Lake

It is nearly a month since I arrived in Addis Ababa. While the city still amazes me in so many ways, I have become numbed to the events that left me overwhelmed on my first day.  To put it differently, my answer to, "How do you like Ethiopia" has changed from, "I'm adjusting" to, "It has been an adjustment".  

I have written three articles, two of which have been published and have received good reviews.  My first was on a rehabilitation center for traumatized mothers and children. The second was on my impressions and experiences riding in the city's shared taxis.  While generally reliable, these things are scary when coming straight out of Europe! Read them by following the links below:

From Misery to Self Sufficiency

Riding in Addis' Shared Taxis

Driving through a more jungle-ish segment of the route

While I have been enjoying writing on things around Addis Ababa, I now want to focus more on travel reporting. Ethiopia provides so many fantastic opportunities to enjoy incredible nature, ancient history and meet diverse cultures. I just returned from a weekend on the Langano Lake in the south; although my reasons to go there are more likely to be found in the bottom of a bottle rather than through binoculars. Nonetheless, it was surprisingly recuperating to get out of the capital and see what the country has to offer.  The drive to Langano traverses astounding natural beauty. The Lonely Planet recently ranked the Ethiopan Great Rift Valley one of 50 wonders of the world and they certainly aren't fooling anyone. Descending from Addis takes one through a green, hilly landscape. The two lane road is bordered by the small fields of sustenance farmers, ploughing and planting their fields before the rainy season.  At the final hill, one gets an incredible view over Langano Lake and its surrounding areas - primarily deforested land now used for agriculture.  Dispersed trees now make up for most of what surrounds the visitor's side of the lake.  

Birds bringing back materials to their nests,
check out the rainbow!

Canoeing on the lake

While I was surprised to see paved roads taking us the entire way up until a short distance before the the campsite, the road safety is sheer madness.  While extremely risky overtaking manoeuvres with cars (or trucks) that don't give up until the very last second are part of the danger, it isn't the major concern.  What makes it so dangerous are the cows, donkeys, goats and people that are constantly crossing or following the road. It comes as no surprise that brutal roadkill is a common feature on the tarmac.  Sometimes the situation is simply so bizarre that it just becomes funny.  Once a woman riding a donkey wagon was riding on our lane and motioned for us to go past on the other lane. But while she was doing that she was also turning onto the other lane giving us too little room. Another time, an old man who could not care less about fast approaching cars crosses the road right as we were coming.  We had to come to a near still stand and drive around him to avoid a death that will probably come sooner than he thinks with that attitude.  As we turned onto one road, I thought we came upon a Hollywood chase scene where something aways comes in the way.  Out of a side road, a donkey comes pulling a wagon of enormous 10 meter sticks, a child herds his family's goats across the road, one lane is being taken up by hay carrying donkeys, etc.  We even came across perhaps a hundred camels being herded on the road!

Speke's Weaver sitting by its nest

In any case, don't be deceived by the brown water of Langano Lake.  It isn't dirty or muddy.  In fact, the minerals that make it brown are what makes the water free of Bilharzia! I mention this in the article I wrote on Langano so I'll leave a space below for the link if it gets published. As I want to avoid reiterating everything I say in the article I want to be brief here.

I was invited to come down to Langano in a group of 10 people to an Embassy campsite by a great new friend here.  It is situated in a gorgeous cove protected on one side by a jungle peninsula that has been taken over by Speke's Weavers, a beautiful bright yellow bird.  The campsite had a kitchen, camping chairs,  already set up tents protected with roofs as well as its own beach with a volleyball net and a house holding canoes and kayaks. The only thing one has to worry about it bringing all the food and drinks down - which is a lot for 10 people.

The food was excellent. Home made lasagna, fried chicken, stir-fry and shakshuka as well as pancakes for breakfast. Definitely the best food I've had in weeks. We went on a canoe trip, swam but most of the time just relaxed. The evenings were the best part though, when the party began after dinner. Despite the photos, the weather was excellent the whole time.

Quite a large part of me didn't really want to go back to Addis on Monday. Addis is a loud, dirty and stressful place.  Nonetheless, I do feel refreshed to continue as a journalist  here. I have plans to do more travelling to other places in Ethiopia such as Lalibela and the Simien Mountains which I hope I can realize.


Here is the link to my article on Langano:

Down in Langano