May 17 – Nech Sar National Park

Today we woke up to brilliant sunshine and baboons in the yard. Today was going to be a very exciting day, after our staple porridge and boiled egg breakfast we set out for Nech Sar National park. We paid 100 birr/person for the park fee and 65 birr for the guide (who brought along a gun just in case). To get to the Nech Sar plains we had to drive 25 km across the bridge of God. The first 5 km was in a low lying area that is mucky and densely forested. When there’s a lot of rain this area acts as a water way between the two lakes. As it was there was at least a half km stretch where we had to actually drive through a river. It was wild! There were also several deeply rutted spots and narrow fast moving waterways. Our drivers (Abyiot and Wibeshet) were awesome, they didn’t even put the land cruiser in four wheel drive (yet). The next 20 km was very rocky and steep, with lots of switchbacks. Part of the way there was a steep drop down into Lake Chamo at least a km below us. We can see hippos lounging in the bay. Mike thought some of the trail was about 35 degrees and sheer rock. Most of the time we were crawling along in the first gear. The group in the second vehicle had trouble climbing one of the steep hills. At one point, the vehicle stalled and started rolling backwards, Dani, Alexis and Jenn volunteered whole heartedly to get out of the vehicle in the effort to lighten the load. Abyiot managed to get the truck up the incline without any problems.

As usual, the scenery was spectacular. We saw duiker, baboons, peasants, squirrels and little lizards. After an hour and a half of serious off roading, we caught our first glimpse of the zebras. Amanda was so excited she hurled herself out the window and jumped right across Mike’s lap. After another steep climb, the Nech Sar plains were in sight. It was incredible, the vast stretch of relatively flat land and white grass that was surrounded by the rift mountains was probably the remains of some ancient lake. We soon realized that there were many zebra to be seen. They didn’t even appear to be scared of us, as we can get quite close to some of them. There were several small herds, two to six females and one male per harem. Maybe it’s their strips, but they appear to be in good condition. Zebras are actually quite stocky. Besides zebras we also saw gazelles and buzzards. Our guides said there are lions and cheetahs that live in the forest that hunts zebras at night.

As we make our way around the loop, we came across several herds of cattle. They weren’t supposed to graze in the park, but we can image the plight of the people – it would be difficult to respect wildlife preservation when your livelihood is starving on the other side of the mountain. After completing the loop of the plains, we ate crackers and canned pineapple overlooking both lakes and the bridge of God.
We took our drivers out for supper that night at the same restaurant we ate the night before. We had another great meal with wonderful company.

Amanda, Dani, Jenn, Melissa, Michelle, Alexis