To the depths of the South Omo

To cut a long and very irritating story short, I eventually found some transport going to a town called Jinka, near Mago National Park in the South Omo. I’d managed to organise a meeting with the tourism person there which was great. I ended up travelling in the front cabin of a big truck delivering cement with a driver who missed a few teeth, had a very bright green fluffy cab interior including gear stick and ceiling, and he spoke absolutely no English along to match my totally failed Amharic! Anyway, we were finally en route. 

When we reached a place called Konso you could start to see distinct tribes emerging, views also started to get big and amazing. We got a flat tyre. Sat around in the middle of nowhere while they fixed it up. When we headed down into the Omo Valley the temperature started to get ridiculously hot. Even air coming past the window was boiling. The driver played the obligatory very very loud African distorted music and his truck had the most insane very very very loud horn that sounded more like I was travelling in a computer game, not quite sure how to describe it! He of course had to use it every few minutes to move cattle herds that were in the middle of the road regularly. Kids hang about on the side of the road doing this ‘highland’ or water request dance as vehicles pass. We started to descend further into the valley and all I could think of was how VERY Africa this really was. Travelled a lot in Africa but this was different. As we cruised along I gradually started to see kids wearing absolutely nothing and some of the tribes carrying bows and arrows or more regularly guns slung over their shoulders. The earth was getting redder, dustier and a lot more desert. We still had a long way to go and we watched an incredible sunset and then trundled along under the most amazing stars. It was actually quite cool travelling at night because no one could spot me through the window but with the truck lights, I could see people. Peace! Hamer people were wandering slowly along the side of the road herding their cattle which was all a new sight for me. As we drove on, the driver begun chewing his chat to stay alert. Hmmmm. We managed to form quite an amusing bond by the end of the trip despite the language issue! Anyway, made it to Jinka all safe and well.