FINALLY Arba Minch…!

We left for Arba Minch this morning, 6 in one car, 7 in the other. I was the(not so) lucky one who got to sit in the middle of the front seat on the armrest/console. The boys were wonderful though and geryrigged a back strap for me as well as held a pillow against their knees the entire ride to Arba Minch so that I would have a backrest! The ride out was bumpy to say the least since at least 80% of the way was on dirt roads but it wasn’t overly uncomfortable. The other landcrusier jammed out to Taylor Swift and Beyonce (Single ladies) and a few others the ENTIRE ride there. It was entertaining to pass them on the road and hear the same song playing every time. We did not have a radio, so we made up our own songs including renditions of Ke$ha (“Wake up in the morning feeling like an archaeologist”) and “99 artifacts left to plot, 99 left to plot! Plot one here, plot one there, 98 artifacts left to plot”, among others. It was interesting to see how the scenery and temperature changed as we got farther into the rift valley. We followed a huge lake the majority of the three hour journey and it became more tropical (bananas and mangoes became prominent) as we approached. Arba Minch was definitely more touristy than we were used to and we saw many frenjies (foreigners like ourselves). After lunch we arranged for a boat ride out on Lake Chamo to the National Park so we could see wild animals!!! The ride to the boats was pretty sketchy, off-roading through dense undergrowth with no boat ramp in sight until suddenly we turned a corner and there were all the boats and we were right on the edge of the lake. We all got in one boat and our captain guided us out to the middle of the lake. The lake was HUGE and offered fabulous views of the surrounding mountains. We journeyed around to the National Park all on the look out for our first glimpse of animals. Our first animal spotted…was a hippo! Actually two. Beyond them was a flock of Egyptian geese interspersed with crocodiles at least 3 meters long that looked like they could easily swallow me whole. They were so ancient looking and fierce watching us. We got within several feet of the shore but remained in the boat. There were also many Hippos that would watch us warily with their eyes and ears just peering above the surface. Hippos are the most deadly animal in Africa and so we made sure not to get too close. We also warthogs (Pumba!!) and hornbills (Zazoo!!). We made our way back to shore very satisfied with our first African animal adventure (“Its like Animal Kingdom, but a thousand times better!!”) and attempted to find a place to eat.