Bishangari

Given that we had Monday off for Canada Day, three of us decided to go to Lake Langano and stay at an eco-tourism lodge at Bishangari. It’s about a 4-hour drive south of Addis, if you don’t get lost, 4.5 hours if you do. We did. The drive down was fascinating though, as we went right down the Rift Valley to the Lake District. We descended about 800 metres from Addis into the huge flat valley floor that is dotted with acacia trees. As we drove south we noticed vultures circling the highway ahead. That’s almost never a good sign. You rarely hear of vultures circling huge piles of money in easy to carry bags, or vats of ice cream, for example. Sure enough, someone had forgotten the rule: donkeys don’t move. The vultures were contributing to road clean-up while the owner of a fairly new BMW SUV was wishing he were elsewhere as he waited for a tow truck. Just as we got close to our destination we had another interesting sight: a sea container used as a bridge. The bridge-keeper opened the doors to one end of the sea container and we drove across the river to our objective. Once at Bishangari Lodge we were welcomed at a virtually deserted peninsula sticking out into Lake Langano. There were three other guests at the lodge, and they left that afternoon, so we had the place to ourselves. The lodge has twelve two-bed bungalows and one four-bed family bungalow, and offers hiking, mountain biking, riding, fishing, and hippo spotting. We hiked over to the waterfall when we arrived, went for a swim in the lake, and had a drink in the tree bar before dinner. The lunch menu featured “grandmother lentil soup with potatoes.” I asked for a bowl with not so much grandmother. It was delicious, though there was a hint of doilies to the flavour.

We also went hippo spotting before dinner and were not disappointed. It seems the hippos move around their pond mostly at dawn and dusk, so we were told. There were supposedly eight hippos in the pond including three juveniles. They were a little reluctant to show themselves for the ferenji so hippo beaters were employed. Two passing likely lads were happy to run down to the pond and hoot at the bushes until the hippos were annoyed enough to heave into view. Hippos kill more people that crocodiles on the Nile, apparently, but as the two boys didn’t go into the water they were perfectly safe. Hippo spotting is a tad like iceberg spotting, of course, as most of the hippo-ness is below the surface. So we saw a lot of hippo nose, and hippo ears. We also witnessed a spectacular sunset over the lake. On the way back to the bungalows a herd of warthogs scurried out from under the bushes and into the woods.

The next day I basked on the beach, reading, while the rest of the gang went for a ride. Three sturdy horses were procured, much more robust than the Mt Wenchi mounts (see previous post). On their return we had drinks in the tree bar again and watched the baboons frolic in the fig trees. The ground was littered with figs that the baboons rejected so either they are very picky, or there are so many figs that they only take the best. We left after lunch and made the drive back. It was interesting to feel the weather change as we ascended back to Addis. At the lake the temperature was in the high 20’s with few clouds and brilliant sunshine. As we approached Addis, however, the temperature dropped noticeably and clouds began to dominate the sky. A very good day away from the city; we will come back!