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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Red in the mist 08/03/10

At sun rise we get in the car and move towards the Sanetti plateau in the rain. Climbing up we cannot see more then 5 meters in front of us because of an heavy mist that makes all the sceneary very eerie.

The road is steep, the air cold, the plateau being above 3800 mtrs ASL but even with the reduced visibility we had our first sighting of Spot breasted lapwing and also Rouget’s rails were visible amongst erica bushes.

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We patrol the only road of the plateau back and first completely focused on the milky surroundings in the attempt to see the wolves. For a couple of hours we cannot find anything but Tekla larks, Ruddy shelducks and Blue winged geese. The Giant Lobelias are a wonderful show themselves, emerging like lonely warriors in the heavy mist, some still growing, some in full blossom some beyond that, slowly descending towards death.

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We take a side road bringing us to the highest point of the plateau, Tullu Deemtu. 4377 mtr above sea level, the air here is not only freezing but also really thin, not to the point of giving any real problem but still we could feel that breathing was different.

Out of the cruiser the wind took as with all its power, we felt so cold, freezing, our bones chilled to the marrow.
Back on the main road after helping a car that got stupidly stuck after going even more stupidly offroad, we went on patrolling and eventually we were rewarded.
Out of the white blanket of mist appears the red shape of our first Simien Wolf, one of the most endangered canid in the world, limited to some afroalpine pockets of Ethiopia, limited to less then 600 individuals.
Our “guide” suggested us to follow the wolf by foot, and so we did but with no success.
From this point onwards the mist slowly raised and the visibility greatly increased.
We started seeing wolves, we had at least ten sighting, s, wolves trying to hunt, jumping in the effort of smash mice and rats in their tunnels, pups playing, adults regurgitating food for them.

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The wolves live in packs but hunt alone and then bring some food back to the pups, their main diet is made by mice and rats, they are visible everywhere in the plateau especially the endemic Giant mole rat, 1.5 kg of rat that mostly live underground.
We also spotted several Starck hares, another endemic specie that made the joy of my friend Daniele

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On the way back we spotte a couple of Wattled cranes, they breed up here, they were actually chasing a wolf that came too close.

We soon learned that regardless of what the guide was saying that the best way to see the wolves is watching from the car, they are relaxed and do not run away as they do on foot.
The day was cold and rainy and misty but, ten minutes of sun were enough to show us unbelievable landscapes as a cherry on the cake.
Man, I would have never imagine such a great welcome in the plateau.

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Abyssinian Rose 07/03/10

We were afraid of being cold so we put lot of wood at the fireplace with the result of sweating through the night. Mic and me went for a walk in tha morning. Again super show of bushbuck and nyalas. The latter is really everywhere with lots of females and majestic bulls, they are quite unafraid and we could observe them without giving any disturbance. Amazing.

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We walked through the woodland enjoying the view and the vegetation, enormous Hypericum trees, huge Hygenia abyssinica and the beautiful endemic Abyssinian rose were scattered amongst the tall junipers. The rose is quite something, a fragile-looking white flower so delicate that we were almost afraid to touch it.

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Birding was also special, Ruppel’s robin chat, Chestnut naped francolin, Abyssinian flycatcher were all seen in the walk.

Back to the lodge we twatche a beautiful Thick bille raven and then we moved out after a shower, a guide is with us as we have been told that is mandatory to enter our next destination, the Sanetti plateau. The guy is not what you would expect from a guide, always hang over, muttering half words that we could hardly understand, and not with a real understanding of nature. Eventually we also got to learn that was not even necessary to bring him. Anyway the road from Dinsho to Goba is quite boring.

We spotted a Lammergeier up in the sky that together with Grey wagtail and Dwarf crow made our afternoon.

The hotel in Goba is nice and clean, our room, the saloon is big and confy and cold beer with good food made our dinner special.

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