Friday, January 26, 2007
Walk 15 Menegasha National Forest
First Fab50 in a new continent - Africa! The chance to visit Ethiopia came about thanks for my friends Adrian and Cathy who currently live in Addis Ababa. Only a couple of days after arriving in this amazing country they introduced me to this magnificent natural forest containing ancient juniper trees. It is the most substantial native forest in this part of Ethiopia. On this occasion, after a short "gorge-walk" for the kids, we drove up to the highest point and then walked along a path towards the high point Damocha Peak at 3,385m. After what we considered 1/2 mile we turned back so ensure we had walked the obligatory 1 mile. By now we had been joined by some local boys out to see if they could get anything from the "faranji" (foreigners). So for the purposes of this Fab50 the photo includes:
Unknown local man, local boys - Berseesa, Debela, Lamma and Negesa and also Kyle, Ben, Cathy and Annie. Adrian did walk with us but did the honours with the camera - so he still needs to do a Fab50! I returned to the forest a few days later and walked up to the same point with Haile, the Forest Manager. The highlight of the walk was being allowed to see inside the Exhibition Centre which we had only glimpsed at through drawn curtains on the first visit. If you ask nicely I'll show you pictures of the purple-fringed black puma and the other "trophies" inhabiting the building!
# posted by Toni @ 8:33 pm 
