Ethiopia 2010 was a short, but successfull trip.

I focused on a few, but interesting topics and this resulted in a very diverse collection of pictures.

Following webpage is mainly for friends, but everybody is welcome. If you want to see a larger version of the foto, click it!

 

Many thanks to all the local guides, who made this trip successfull!

 

Have fun

Timkat is the biggest religious event of the ethiopian orthodox church.

Thousends of people are celebrating the epiphany of Jesus Christ.

The Bale Moutains - a combination of south american altiplano, scottish highlands and afro-alpine vegetation.

The elevation is between 3800 and 4300m. It is hot during the day however as soon as the sun is down or hidden behind thick clouds temperatures are falling quickly, during the night well below freezing. there are no mountain huts, you have to sleep in tents or in the huts of the nomadic people which roam the bale mountain national park.

It is a harsh environment!

My main reason to travel to the Bale Mountains was to take pictures of the Ethiopian Wolf, the rarest canid in the world. Only 400 to 500 animals are left, living in three seperate populations, Bale, Simien and Afar. The main threat is as usual habitat loss and even more dangerous deseases especially rabies, which is spreading quickly as soon as there is an outbreak in the dog population of the nomadic people

Until now, my collection was very poor regarding nile crocodiles. Therefore I wanted to invest some days to cover the crocs of lake chamo and its famous crocodile market (just a sandy spit in lake chamo....). The first evenenig I was very lucky, no wind, perfect sunset and lots of crocs of all sizes. All photography is from a little boat. Lets forget the other attempts - lots of wind, clouds and the fishermen have driven away the crocs.....

Ethiopia is not hte country to see the big five and does not have national parks which can compete with Kenia, Namibia, Botswana or South Africa. Therefore I invested only in some endemic species like the Swaynes Hartebeast or Mountain Nyala. The little, strange rodent is a Giant Mole Rat, the favourite food of the wolfes.

Ethiopia may be a lilttle short on spectacular mammals, but birding is definitly great.....

Dorze and Konso are tribes/regions in the south with old traditions. The Dorze are living up high in the mountains above Lake Chamo (clouds, rain, cool), the Konso deep in the much hotter south. I was impressed by the traditional Dorze huts, huge buildings made of "woven" bamboo (Dorze means "weaver"), which are still in use.

The Konso have developed over centuries a dry farming environment which is truly spectacular. They are living in a steep terrain, which is completely terraced, a bit like "dry Bali". Very impressive!