Ethiopia 15th to 17th Feb backdated
The best hotel in town, 15th Feb backdatedA long drive to Ngele up and over the Bale Mountains. Suddenly the vehicles screech to a halt as Christian leaps out the lead car and points upwards, pumping his fists with elation. Prince Ruspoli's Turaco perched up in a tree and waiting to be admired. A totally awesome bird and the most wanted bird on the Ethiopian leg of The Biggest Twitch (see the photo on our Birds page and you'll understand why!). Stayed overnight at the best hotel in town in Ngele, a town totally without any running water. We found it a bit rough for just two days, so how do the locals cope? But if you want to see the Turaco, this is where you have to stay, so it's worth every minute for the amazing birding in the area. Larking about, 16th Feb backdatedAfter birding the acacia scrubland with its thorny 'wait-a-while' bushes which ripped through your clothes as you walked pass, we hit the Liben Plains, home to the range-restricted Sidamo Lark. The entire world's population (estimated at less than 200 birds) live only here, so we spread out to comb the barren plains for this specialty. Hot birding, but rewarded just as we were about to give up. Good-looking bird, as larks go! Sorry we can't show you just yet, but we hope to upload our photos when technology permits back in the UK later in March.
Long drive to Yabello, 17th Feb backdatedA mostly driving day, but we stopped en route at the Dawa River. People were panning for gold in the flow of water but we struck luck with birds instead. For us, the undoubted highlight was the full breeding plumaged Salvadori's Weavers and a great “herd” of Vulturine Guineafowl, while we also picked up White-winged Collared Dove and White-tailed Swallow later, both new birds for the trip.