Simien Wolves 09/03/10

Again early morning again misty morning we decided for a short walk in a small woodland at the base of the escarpment. It is cold and wet but birding is always fun: Yellow crowned canary, Cinnamon bracken warbler, Brown woodland warbler.

Back in the car the road leads us up again and this time out of the mist, the scenery is wonderful and in a magic light we spent time watching a Rouget’s rail by the side of the road.

-

Up on the plateau we started spotting wolves everywhere, now that we could see far we realised that was much easier then it seemed the day before.

Driving towards the other side of the plateau we enjoyed mountains and pools of water but no wolves.

Stunning plains bordered by mountains and cut by small lakes and streams of clear water on one side and the Harenna escarpment the other side. The light is perfect and the air is crisp, Ruddy shelducks and Blue winged geese inhabit the waters and we were lucky enough to observe a magnificent Golden eagle in flight.

-

The wolves reappeared again on the way back

One wolf particularly, tagged with number 6 in black colour (should be BBC pack), gave us the greatest show possible, basically we stayed with it at least 2 hrs following it on the road.

N°6 is hunting, crossing the road back and forth, looking for rats, climbing the hills and coming back, wading through pools of water and having a drink, sniffing the ground and stalking its preys, jumping, running and digging. It makes the first kill quite far from us but the second is right by the car. We watch astonished as the perfect hunter goes on with a performance that will result in 6 rodent’s kills before it decides to head out of sight.

We are so excited when we stop for a sandwich that we keep talking about the wolf.

.

In the afternoon we went for a walk, and even in the walk we spotted a wolf mother with two puppies. The walk is great, lakes and hills, rocks and lobelias, hares and mole rats.

In the car again we patrolled again the same wolves and got other good wolves sightings.

Another great day, not only the Simien wolves are incredible but all this place is mind blowing, the Sanetti plateau is something special, difficult to describe to someone has not been there, is a place of magic, a moon like landscape apparently grey, but at close look with many colours and contrast like the red and white lichens on the rocks that perfectly matches the wolves fur, or like the handsome Moorland francolin peering from the scrubs whith its yellow and its stripes.

.

Going back after the wolves and all the emotions and all the beauty came the mist again as a gate to exit this fairy world.

.