The first time they saw the hyenas of Harar was starvation.
The city was not then nothing more than an encampment of nomads, and chickens and goats roamed among the tents. A sumptuous meal and easy for those nocturnal hunters, who increasingly began to raid cattle, often without getting any scruples to attack even human beings.
Long before the Arabs think of building a wall, some of the nomads who lived in the city occurred an unusual pact, a treaty of non-aggression: so they learned to feed the hyenas, and hyenas to trust them ( and only them). It was the fourteenth century, from father to son the tradition has been continued until now: the men of hyenas are there, just steps away from us, and move the animals from small pieces of raw meat sticks. Then it's up to you, and hyenas at the end of the first suspicious agree to be fed by a stranger if introduced and accompanied by their human confidant. E 'emotion impressive, coming face to face with a predator to its natural state, while in the dark night of the barking dogs frightened resonate within the walls.
Harar was this, plus a white medina of the Arabic-influenced and markets one of the most colorful I've visited, thanks to the colorful clothes of women Harare. Among the stalls all the ethnic mix of Eastern Ethiopia, the Somalis with their gaudy earrings, the skin stripped from afar for ornamental reasons (as well as hierarchical: in men, scarification by counting the number of enemies killed in battle) , and the flavor of this border city so different from the rest of the country was also witnessed by Rimbaud, who spent two years running away from here Francia borghese.
Il paesaggio che la circonda, arido e collinare, è impreziosito da quella che gli italiani occupanti battezzarono la Valle delle Meraviglie, dove pinnacoli di roccia si innalzano, spesso in bilico l'uno sull'altro, da entrambe le sponde di una valle ricoperta da una bassa foresta di cactus (e ovviamente noi a farne le spese nell'impresa di arrivare in cima).
Da un estremo all'altro, dopo Harar ci siamo diretti nel profondo Sud del paese, per tastare un po' di quell'Africa tanto inflazionata fatta di praterie, savane e animali esotici. Il panorama che ti si staglia davanti sulle alture di Arba Minch (città polverosa e anonima) è di quelli che ti si imprimono nella retina: on the one hand the mirror of reddish water (high concentration of iron minerals in the water) known as Lake Abaya, its opposite the blue waters of Lake Chamo, in the middle of what locals call The Bridge of God, or a series of hills covered with lush vegetation that divides the two lakes. The wonder is that right behind those hills lies a vast savannah known Nechisar, white grass in Amharic, and home to one of the most diverse and spectacular natural parks of Ethiopia.
So off to the frames: the shining herds of hippos from the skin that you can not get near the boat because of their extreme aggression, the pink flamingos in flight against the backdrop of the mountains multicolored zebra a bit 'secretive that stand out on the myriad of Wavelengths yellow prairie, the shy dik dik hiding in the bush (the deer, not the group), they ignore the baboons Turning to the first height, pelicans that line up in the air against the sun, the majestic spiral horns nyala and the jackal in the night takes you to the exit of the park in front of the jeep running away but too curious to disappear in the vegetation surrounding the track.
Without doubt one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen, but the main attraction has not yet been mentioned. In a bend of Lake Chamo, for reasons mainly due to the seabed in that area that provides presence of large fish, is in fact what the Oromo of Arba Minch Crocodile call the Market: an unnatural concentration of Nile crocodile populations because those banks, and get there by boat is an adventure.
These animals, the largest reptile in the world-they can easily reach seven meters in length, are the undisputed top of the food chain of the park, feeding on zebra as big fish, antelope as a bird lake, and often attack the fishermen of the area (even the year prior to our arrival had killed a reckless pair of German tourists). A knowledge of this, it is easy to hear the uncontrolled increase dell'adrenalina al passaggio di questi sauri a meno di un metro dalla barca (già un po' instabile per conto suo), o sobbalzare quando nell'affollamento della zona uno di loro sbatte contro il fondo in ferro un po' arrugginito.
Un'ultima esperienza difficile da dimenticare, per accomiatarsi da questa fantastica esperienza etiope.
Poi fu il volo, e immediatamente Londra. Durissima ambientarsi, durissima comprendere perchè tanta fretta, tante luci, tante persone: l'Etiopia ci aveva estraniati dal nostro mondo.
A forza di pizza e spaghetti, come di calcio e vecchi amici, ci stiamo ora riprendendo...ma difficilmente questo complesso, meraviglioso e tanto provante viaggio Africa will not remain in a corner of our memory as a definite milestone.
And there's no time to breathe: a new year full of projects scalp to start ... and we will do with Africa in the eyes.
Big hugs again tricolor
Tommy and Jaka
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