LION CALL UP

I had the privilege for the past two nights to be involved in a lion call up, a time-consuming and intense baiting process in which a targeted animal or species is “called up,”  darted with anesthetic, and branded, collared,  or subjected to a partial hysterectomy for the purpose of wildlife and ecosystem management of the reserve.   

Machiavelli wrote that if one cannot be feared AND loved, it is better to be feared.  For about 15 minutes of the second night’s call up, I swung wildly between both emotions for the elephants who appeared unexpectedly.  For the lions though I had only fear.

At about 3:30 pm. four vehicles headed out to the previously chosen site near the central part of the reserve, a one-hour drive.  The vet, with her cropped grey hair, and weathered face seen only through a haze of cigarette smoke, drove her dark green army-type jeep loaded with the paraphernalia she would need once the lions came in- anesthesia, needles, dart guns, collars, branding irons, etc.  Next came the vehicle with the bait.  A male nyala, an antelope species which is overabundant here, humanely shot with one bullet to the head, was secured in the back of the pick-up.  The next vehicle carried loudspeakers.  The pre-recorded cries of a buffalo in distress would be broadcast on a sound system placed on the vehicle’s roof.  Finally, we followed in the back seat of the very comfortable Landcruiser driven by the reserve’s head honcho, Richard and his wife. Everyone, we were told at our first night’s briefing, MUST remain at all times inside a secure vehicle, windows closed.  There would be no riding, as we do during the day, on the back benches of the open-air pick up.

The Vet and Richard, the Park Manager, deciding on the exact location to put the bait

Nyala carcass

Lions are the only cats that live in groups, called prides.   Each pride consists of up to 3 males and a dozen or so females and their young, all blood relatives.   Each pride controls its own territory.  Generally one or two of the alpha males and a lioness is collared in each pride so that management can monitor their movement (and well being) by radio transmitter.  While names such as Nukululeko, Mandulo and Duma were given to the lions once collared, only numbers are now used to identify an animal so that any attachment humans may develop for any one of the lions they are following would be diminished.   Duma is the one most likely to turn up on our radio receiver.  He’s only about 2-3 years old and travels with his brother (no collar, hence no name) in the southern part of the reserve.  Nukuleko has been the most elusive since I’ve been here.   We haven’t picked up his signal at all, while Mandulo, a female from the north, shows up every once in a while.  Collars can only be placed on a lion once it is at least 2 years old and must be visually inspected periodically to make sure that the lion has not outgrown his collar which could  slowly choke him.

Management is looking for a lioness from the central pride who has three 4-month old cubs.   She has only recently come out of hiding now that the cubs are old enough.   The cubs must be branded, DNA samples collected and the lioness collared since they and their male members control the central part of the reserve.   More needs to be known about this group.

We approached the site while it was still daylight.  The sacrificial nyala was removed from the truck’s bed, chained to the back of the truck and its belly cut so that its blood and other bodily juices would ooze out.  The truck then drove up and down the 2 paths from which the targeted lions would likely approach, dragging the nyala carcass behind it to spread its scent.

cutting the belly

In the meantime the call up site was readied.  Knee-high brush was quickly chopped and a clearing was made.  Two metal screens, each about 4 foot high and 4 feet wide, were secured in place at a slight angle to each other.  The nyala was tied to a pole securing the screens so that the lions could not drag it away.   The vet’s vehicle and the vehicle with the speaker system placed themselves about 50 feet away from and facing the screens and carcass.   The other two vehicles drove a short distance away, out of sight.   

dragging the carcass

the screens 

The buffalo cries began.   Over and over and over we heard the buffalo’s monotonous moaning.  Every 15-20 minutes the speaker would be shut down.   In the wild, a buffalo in distress will stop crying to hinder a predator’s ability to pinpoint its location.  Lions have a better sense of hearing than they do scent.   They are more likely to hear the buffalo’s cries before they smell the nyala.  The buffalo’s crying was the only sound we heard for the next 4 hours.

The waiting game had begun.

We sat absolutely silent in a darkened vehicle with only the stars to shed some light on the blackness surrounding us.  There was no way to know which way the lions would approach.  

And then we heard them.  It was not the kind of ear-splitting roar one sees in the movies, but rather a deep, low grumble.  The lions were approaching from just behind us and warning others of its presence.  At around 8pm, almost 4 hours after we had arrived at the site, the vet finally called us on her two-way radio.   The lions had arrived and had begun eating the bait.  We could now approach with the vehicles.

Once she darted them, we would have 45 minutes to collar the lioness and brand the cubs.  When the work was complete the antidote to the anesthesia would be administered and there would be a mad dash to the vehicles as the lions woke up.  (leaving sleeping lions alone and unprotected would likely mean their death by other animals).  Our job was to stand in the open bed of the trucks, arranged in a protective semi-arc facing the bait, and shine a bright light 360 degrees around us scanning the area outside the work site for other lion while the vet worked.   If one was spotted we were told to continue shining the light in its eyes to keep it blinded.   Someone would then come to the vehicle and verify that it was in fact, a lion.  Additional precautions would then be taken.  Elephants were also a threat to the call up.  They hate lions and are the only animal that can do battle with them.  We didn’t want to get in the middle of that blood feud.

When we arrived on site, we parked the car and cut the engine.  The vet shined her night light on the lions.  There, directly in front of us, were two massive males that had heeded the call.  But these were not the lions  we were calling.   It was Duma and his brother, from the southern pride.  Duma!   Finally, I could put a face to the name.   These two males had chased off the lioness and her cubs and were sharing the bait between them.   There was nothing we could do.  We sat in the safety of the vehicles and watched in silence the most magnificent show I have ever seen.   We could see everything, every movement of their bodies, every bite they took, totally unobstructed.

The two lions were as tall as my waist, every inch of their bodies plump with flexing muscles, battle scars, dark thick manes and giant paws.  They were ripping apart the nyala’s carcass, pulling out the animal’s stomach and heart; we heard the crunching of its bones.  They were oblivious to our presence.  It was mesmerizing.  I didn’t want to leave.

But the clock was ticking and everyone was exhausted.  At about 9:15pm, while the lions were still dining, we left with mixed emotions.   The call up was a success -  lions had come in  - they don’t always respond to the call -   but the ones we wanted remained unbranded and the central pride was still alone.   We switched on the car engines and left.

Early the next morning we returned to the site to collect the fence, pole and other equipment.  Only the nyala’s hooves and a small bit of its ribs remained.   The lions had enjoyed their free meal.  We would try again the next night.

The remains of the nyala the morning after

But the second call up proved to be a different adventure altogether.

A different site was chosen, one on the northern edge of the central district, further from Duma’s southern territory.  The sacrificial nyala was dragged down the path, secured to the screens, the vehicles shut their engines and took their place.  All light - even that from a cell phone - was prohibited and no one could talk as we waited for the central pride to appear.  Finally at about the same time as the night before - 8:30 pm, when it was pitch black, the vet radioed that the lions had arrived.   We took our place in the semi-circle facing the screens.  The night light revealed the two happy lions munching away.  But on no!  It was Duma!  Again!  And his brother.  They had strayed far from their own territory and chased the lioness away yet again.  Duma, it was decided, would have to be darted and put in “jail” to remove him from the system temporarily so that he would not interfere with the next call up.   “Jail” here is known as the “boma” which is a large fenced area where the animal is kept (and fed) while awaiting its fate - which is generally either transport to another reserve, or medical treatment.   Animals at Tembe are only treated medically if their injury is caused by humans - poachers who have placed snares or shot them.   If the animal is injured naturally in the wild, or, as happened recently with a baby elephant, is born with a deformity, management here does not intervene.  

But just as the vet readied her dart gun, Richard, the park manager, saw a herd of elephants making their way out of the forest toward the site.   He quickly radioed the other vehicles to alert them.  Despite pointing out their location, I could see nothing in the darkness except the shadow of the trees in the distance.  I kept looking but saw nothing.   How could I miss a herd of elephant?  How keen were Richard’s eyes that he could see anything in this blackness?  In the meantime, Duma’s brother was edgy.   He was patrolling the area around the feed site, looking behind the screens and pacing.  Duma was enjoying his meal as his brother guarded.

Then I saw them.  A breeding (female) herd of 10-12 massive elephants just feet away from us.  They had approached, as they always do, silently, moving like ghosts and appearing out of nowhere.  They raised their trunks high and trumpeted loudly, flapping their ears.   The lions took off, with ear-splitting roars.  It was quite a ruckus.   We could hear the animals scuffling around us.    Richard told us that there is nothing that elephants hate more than lions, which is the only animal that can grab their young.  The elephants then approached our vehicle.  There were 8-10 of them forming an arc around us, shielding their young by placing themselves between the vehicle and the babies on their far side.  An elephant began using his trunk to sniff the car.  Elephants use their trunks as a hand and he was dexterously placing that trunk everywhere.   I was petrified.  I had forgotten to raise my window all the way and it was open slightly.   There was no way Richard could start the engine now.  We were told not to move - not one inch of our bodies.   I think I stopped breathing.  Elephants can easily flip over a truck and smash it to pieces.  There was no telling what a herd could do.  It was obvious that the herd was working together to assess the situation.   They were standing close together just to the left side of the car.  One elephant kept watch.  A second sniffed.  The others were there for support and protection of the herd.  Others guarded the young.   The elephants were completely silent as they made their way around us.  They were masses of shadows lumbering n the darkness with  grace and stillness, thinking.  The matriarch, the oldest and strongest of the female herd, patiently waited for the report of the sniffer, guard and others who were assessing the scene.  I heard the stomach grumblings that elephants use to communicate.   A peaceful, quiet noise. They apparently gave the “all-clear” signal and they silently moved away, the mass moving back into the thick night, with the young carefully protected.  There was another group, we were told by radio, mulling around the other vehicle bookending our pow wow of cars.  Those elephants too, eventually moved on, back into the thick bush from whence they had arrived.

Duma, in the meantime, had returned to the bait.  The lioness and her cubs meanwhile had been spotted behind the screens and were waiting to eat Duma’s leftovers.  If any.  

Duma would not be darted tonight.  It was way too dangerous to work with the elephants so agitated and so many lions near the site.  

He had won again.   He had challenged the elephants, foiled the humans, kept the lioness and her cubs at bay and enjoyed a free meal yet again.

POACHING

The only part of Tembe Reserve that is closed to us is a portion of the northern boundary, which also happens to be the border between South Africa and Mozambique, where poachers cross into Tembe and wreak havoc on the wildlife here, making fortunes from their mostly Chinese clientele who lust after rhino horns, elephant tusks, lion paws and heads and other animal body parts for what the Asians believe are their medicinal and aphrodisiac properties.  

The third largest tusker in the world, a bull named iSillo, died from old age several months ago.  His carcass was discovered by reserve rangers mutilated and with his tusks removed.  

A lion, ensnared by a trap, was found with neither head nor paws.

Rhino are killed at the rate of 3 per day in Africa and will be extinct by the end of the decade.   There are only 6 known white rhino left in the world.   The 7th was killed in Kenya just a short while ago. Almost half of the rhino herd here has been slaughtered by poachers.

There is an anti-poaching unit stationed up at the border, but many here question the loyalty of some of the patrol units.  Since Tembe is administered by the government for the benefit of the community, most employees are local residents.  Some may be informants for the poachers, but there is no way to prove  it.   The poachers have already informed the head of the anti-poaching unit that they will use their new AK-47's and other advanced weaponry against those patrolling the reserve's border.

Although no one has yet been killed, poachers from northern Mozambique, where sophisticated syndicates are hugely successful, will inevitably move south as their prey numbers decrease and the fight here will intensify.  

Researchers and monitors at Tembe hope that a protected path will open sometime in the future that will enable animal migration between Tembe and a not-too-distant Mozambique reserve.    Animals cannot survive without the space their species requires.  Without room to hunt, chaos will ensue. and will result in the animals breaking through the fence and escaping into the community, killing people and damaging crops.  Rage among the populace will cause them to (understandably) seek the animal's destruction.  An animal population that exceeds the ability of the geography to sustain it will require culling.  Management of the eco system here is therefore crucial.  Among other things, more space is required.  Negotiations between the Mozambique and the South African governments are continuing.

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS

We had a very close encounter yesterday with two elephant bulls who were feeding on roadside vegetation.  They had blocked the road with their enormous bodies as they fed and we were stuck waiting for the traffic to clear, as if on the LIE, so that we could pass (one never goes around an elephant.  A safe radius of about 75-100 feet must be maintained).   It was getting dark and we were anxious to get back to camp but we were forced to sit there, safely in the open air jeep, for quite awhile.  Neither elephant seemed to mind that we were watching.  Finally, the elephant closest to us disappeared into the bush and we edged forward waiting for his friend to clear the path.  We sat for awhile longer.  I was dying to pee.  Suddenly the elephant in front of us started making his way towards us, ears flapping furiously.  We knew there was an elephant behind us, but there was a curve in the road and we couldn't see where he was.  We were stuck between two elephants without an exit strategy,  a potentially dangerous situation.   If an elephant decides to charge he can destroy his target in seconds.  

A drunken field guide and his equally drunk tourist decided to taunt an elephant here not too long ago.   The tourist was urged by the guide to get out of the vehicle and approach the elephant.   The animal charged the tourist and "smeared" the floor with him.   He died immediately.   The guide was fired.

Philip, the monitor with whom we were working and the driver of the vehicle, decided to reverse in the hope that the elephant behind us would still be off road in the bush.   His gamble worked.  We raced in reverse, sped past the elephant and made a quick getaway.  We had to take the long way home and made it back only 2 hours late.

INTERESTING ELEPHANT FACTS

Did you know that...........

1.  Elephants have 6 sets of teeth throughout their lives that move forward at different stages, as if on a conveyor belt, to replace the older, previous teeth as they fall out.   Once the last set of teeth falls out, at around the age of 67-70 years, the elephant dies not of old age, but of starvation as it is no longer able to eat.

2.  Elephants must eat for 16-18 hours a day.  While elephants sleep lying down they cannot do so for more than 2 hours at a time as their weight makes it uncomfortable.   After age 35, an elephant sleeps standing up by locking its leg joints and leaning against a tree.

3.  The ears of an African elephant resemble the map of Africa while the smaller Asian Elephant's ears resemble the map of India.  When an elephant is threatened it will extend its ears as wide as possible to seem larger and more terrifying.  Elephants hear infra sounds which are to deep for humans to hear and they communicate with each other over long distances by using deep, throaty groans that only they can hear, similar to whales.  They use these deep mumbles to locate other elephants and warn each other of danger, hence the nickname "Silent Thunder," for their incredibly sophisticated way of communicating.

4.  Some elephant tusks can grow to weigh 100 pounds each and are used to dig for water, rip bark off trees and defense.  Elephants rest their heavy trunks on the tusks.  The tusks become visible at around age 2 and never stop growing.   An elephant's age can therefore often be estimated by the length of its tusks.  There is a certain Indian elephant species with no tusks at all - its ancestors were wiped out for their ivory.   Five percent of today's African elephant population are born without tusks, an increase due to poaching.

5.  An elephant's trunk has 100,000 muscles (humans have just over 600 muscles in their entire bodies).  Their sense of smell is 500 times that of a dog.  The African elephant has 2 "fingers" at the end of its tusk which enable it to use the tusk as a hand, with extreme dexterity in its fine motor coordination.   Asian elephants have only 1 'finger" so they must wrap their trunks around things to pick them up.  Trunks are used as snorkels when the elephant is underwater and to greet other elephants.    

6.  Elephants don't produce sweat.  They flap their ears like giant fans to cool down their bodies and, using their trunks, throw mud and dirt over their bodies to protect their skin from the sun.

7.  When an elephant is stressed or mourning a lost relative, the holes behind their ears start to cry.   Drops of moisture drip from them and run down the side of their temples.  

8.  Elephants' brains are the largest of all mammals.  Their brains grow from infancy as they age and learn.  

9.  When elephants walk they barely make a sound since they walk on their toes, which are cushioned.

10.  If male elephants ("bulls"), fail to leave a herd voluntarily at around age 15 they are forced out by their mothers and will eventually join a herd of other bulls.  The matriarch, the strongest and wisest leader of the female herd stops the young bulls from intra-breeding among the herd.  Young bulls are strictly disciplined by their mothers while in the herd and later, by the older bulls in the male group he joins.  The matriarch also prevents the young females ("cows") from mating until they are 16 years or older.   Their hips are not yet adequately developed before that time to carry a 200-pound fetus to full term (there is a 22 month gestation period).

11.  At about 20 years old, the glands on the sides of the bull's head ooze a watery substance and they begin to smell of a strong scent.  This condition, known as "musth," lasts for three months a year and is an indication that the male is ready to mate.  Only then can he temporarily join the herd of cows and mate with a suitable partner.     

12.  An angry elephant will life up his trunk, let out a loud trumpet and charge at up to 50 km per hour.

There are loads of incredible stories about elephants, such as my favorite, as told by the author of The Elephant Company, the true story of a young Brit sent to Burma in the 1920's to use the local elephant population to harvest lumber for export to Europe.   A mother elephant had been accidentally blinded by a poisonous leaf and was being lead to and from work and feedings by her young, 3-year-old daughter, whom she followed by placing her trunk on the youngster's rump.   When the daughter was swept away by floods, the mother heard her cries but couldn't see her.   She trumpeted and became very agitated.  From that day on she refused to either eat or work and died only two weeks later from a broken heart, wrote the Brit in his diary, who knew elephants well.

Big night tonight!   Call up of the lions.   Bait will be placed and the lions darted by the vet with an anesthesia that lasts 45 minutes.  The race will then begin to place monitoring collars around their necks, perform partial hysterectomies and certain pre-selected lions will be moved to the 'boma," a large, fenced-in area where they will be then transported to another reserve, a much needed exchange of lions to prevent in-breeding.

Tembe Elephant Reserve

KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

There’s a legendary Kenyan elephant, who, locals say, worked diligently over the course of several months to saw off his tusks by rubbing them against the trees of the dense forest to prevent his own death by poachers. 

When I heard this story in 2010 I was intrigued not by its disputed veracity but rather by the awe of those who know elephants well.   Elephants, they said, were intelligent enough to understand unseen specific danger, access advanced reasoning to formulate a solution and use a tool (the tree) to protect their long term interest even though the consequence would be physically disabling;  an extreme act not unlike the American hiker who cut off his own arm when trapped by rocks in the Utah desert.

I was intrigued enough to begin reading in earnest about elephants.  The more I read, the more I began to admire elephant intelligence, their ability to communicate over long distance and familial bonding.  I was struck with the same awe as those Kenyans.   Did you know for example, that elephants will mourn dead family members for a week and work together to spread the bones of the dead over large distances in designated elephant cemeteries?   Or that elephants are pregnant for 22 months and nurse their infants for almost two years?  If the mother is unable, for whatever reason to nurse (i.e., death) a lactating female relative will nurse the infant in her place.  The entire herd, which stays together for life, will protect their infants, even if it means losing their own lives in the process.

I wanted to get closer and learn more. 

So here I am, at Tembe Elephant Reserve in the far northeastern corner of South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal, Nelson Mandela’s birthplace.   Wild elephant, lion, and giraffe, as well as rhino, leopard, hippo, buffalo, and many more species of wildlife populate these 30 square miles in a unique venture between the local community and the government.  When nearby farmers grew tired of the elephant who were trampling their crops and the lions who were attacking and killing their workers and families, they asked the government for help.  After lengthy negotiations, Tembe’s land and animals and all of its revenue belong to the community while the government manages the ecosystem.

But this is  Zululand, not Disneyland, as the park rangers like to say.   This is not a zoo or Florida’s Africa Safari.  The animals here are wild and can be dangerous. 

Most of the reserve’s original elephant herd fled here from neighboring Mozambique during that country’s civil war and its tolerance of poaching, which together were decimating the elephant population.  (Ivory can earn the lucky poacher $50,000 per pound.  An elephant’s two tusks can together fetch $500,000).  The elephants were rightly fearful of and furious at humans.  It took two years for them to understand that not all humans were killers.  Two rangers however, lost their lives to elephants during those early years.   

Before coming here I spent many tortured days deciding between working at a sanctuary, where rescued animals are fed, cared for and rarely released back into the wild, or at reserve, which is a far different “animal.”  

In a reserve, the animals must hunt for and kill their own food.  They are not fed by humans.  They are rarely treated for injuries, even if life threatening.  But the eco system is limited and must be managed to prevent over-population of a species, gene-tainting by intra-breeding, and break-outs by dangerous animals who will cause havoc in the community.  If for example, there are more lions than the reserve geography can handle, the lion will break out looking for more territory to control.  Lions are therefore selectively sterilized to prevent overpopulation.  But here at Tembe, management believes that the risk of temperament and behavior change is too great in complete sterilization, so only 1/2 of a lioness’  ovaries are removed, allowing them to give birth to half the amount of cubs they normally would.  A male lion will be traded for another from a different reserve so that his DNA is not disproportionately spread among the pride, resulting in tainted genes.  Nyala, the prevalent antelope prey populating the reserve, are overabundant and decimating the plant life for herbivores.  They must be culled to keep the delicate balance between predator, prey, and vegetation vital to the survival of all.

Despite popular opinion, there are very few large wild animals left in the world.   Nowhere on the planet can one find prides of lion, herds of elephant, buffalo or rhino roaming freely in significant numbers.  Lions have been killed for their paws and heads and rhinos for their horns (at the rate of 3 killings per day in Africa), all sold in Asia for medicinal purposes.  Elephant may likely be extinct in our lifetime.   Other large animals, including buffalo, have been hunted for sport, sustenance and trophy.  The only safe place now for these animals is on the world’s reserves, like the Serengetti, Chobe, and other government-owned and private, protected lands in Africa and Asia. 

Here at Tembe, there are 5 of us working with Monitors who travel the reserve twice daily by open jeep -10 hours per day - ensuring that the balance is maintained.  We are housed in a small, bare, but clean and comfortable bungalows with communal toilet, shower and kitchen facilities.  Our camp is entirely surrounded by fence with a gate that is open during the day, but closed at night, to protect against entry by the animals, although nyala and chimps visit daily.  Just today the chimps got into the kitchen (someone forgot to close the door) and wiped out our apples, onions and bananas.  Rice, oatmeal and cracked eggs littered the floor.  Fences are mere “suggestions” to animals to stay out.   If a large animal wants to enter he can - just like a thief can break through a locked door.  Elephant have broken into camp before, although since I’ve been here, I’ve only seen them feeding on the trees just outside the fence. We’ve been briefed on how to behave if there is a close encounter with a dangerous animal, which mostly involves giving the animal its personal space and moving slowly backwards.  Contrary to popular opinion and the films that fuel it, large wild animals will not attack without good reason. But one never knows if the animal he meets has a good reason or not.  Caution and prevention are key.

Clinton, Philip and Leonard, the South African monitors with whom we work, are all degree candidates in related fields such as nature conservancy, animal behavior and environmental management.  We are up at 3:30 a.m. and on the “road” by 4 using telemetry equipment to locate collared alpha lions and wild dogs.  At certain key junctures we stop the open jeep, (taking care to NEVER leave the vehicle), stand up, turn to the radio frequency of the animal we are searching for and slowly rotate an antennae 360 degrees above our heads until we get the telltale beep of an animal’s location.   We then head in that direction hoping for a visual siting.  Since both the lions and the dogs sticks together in packs, only a few from each pack need be collared.  If we visually locate the pack, we park the vehicle and observe their behaviors, which makes the early rise and tedious monitoring worthwhile.

We’re back at camp by 9:30, eat a quick breakfast and then head back out for another 4-5 hours.  In the afternoons, we catch up on sleep, do laundry, read, prepare dinner or any of the other mundane things one does anywhere in the world. I’ve been leading an hour of yoga a day for my English and German cohorts, since it is just about the only time we have to significantly move our bodies.  

Tembe, is a “sand forest,” a unique eco system where the ground of the entire reserve is composed of fine beach sand, with thick and abundant vegetation, including scrub brush, acacia trees and much more.  There is a tourist lodge here, but the capacity is low.  It takes almost 2 hours to reach the northern boundary of the reserve from housing in the south.  Travel is at a speedy 15mph over sand “roads” just wide enough for one vehicle.  The numerous animal paths that lead into the thick bush are off limits to all vehicles so visuals can only be made if the animal is on or near the road.  Just as we were rounding a curve in the road the other day, we practically rammed into an enormous agitated elephant in musth (a kind of male heat), a potentially dangerous situation.  We put the car in reverse and made a successful getaway.

This week there are planned “call-ups,” where targeted animals are “called up” with nyala carcass.  They are then darted with anesthesia by the vet hiding in a vehicle nearby.  The group then has 45 minutes to collar the animal, perform contraceptive work, or ready the animal for transport to the reserve’s “boma,” an enclosed area where the animal is kept until ready for exchange with another reserve.  The work is intense and stressful as the work must be done while the clock is ticking.  Guards with rifles protect the group.  But its the opportunity of a lifetime to get very up close and personal with a wild, free and dangerous animal, albeit a sleeping one.

Will write about that when I can.

  

The Ethiopian Highlands and Other Stuff: Warning: This is a Very Long Post. Read at Your Own Risk

Our three-week trip  to the north and first leg of our Ethiopia adventure has ended with a bang ( or rather a splat!).  I have Montezuma's Revenge.  ( Although Montezuma has never been here, his vengeance, I have heard, reaches far and wide).  Before even discussing the magnificent scenery of the northern highlands, the miracle of 12th century rock-hewn churches and other highlights of this vast and varied land, I must first describe the food and overland conditions, which are far from miraculous. 

The Food:

The national dish is injera, a kind of spongy, salty, slightly sour bread.  While one side is pock-marked with air holes like coral, the other is smooth like a wet cloth.  Its served completely covering a large, round platter, coral-side up, with a smorgasbord of sauces and/or cooked meat and vegetables speckled on top.  No silverware is ever given as enjera is eaten completely and exclusively with the right hand by breaking off a piece of the bread and then using it to scoop up the delicacies laid out on top.  

Injera is made from tef, a grain grown only in Ethiopia, and which, gram, for gram, contains more fiber-rich bran and nutritious germ than any other grain and is the only one to contain "symbiotic yeast" (whatever that is), which means that no yeast is needed during the cooking process.  

Ethiopians have quite a few semi-fasting holidays in which no food is eaten until dinner.  On Mondays and Wednesdays throughout the year, they eat absolutely no animal products at all.  Both the vegan and dinner-only days are considered "fasting" days.  Every other day of the week and non-holidays are "non-fasting" days.  All restaurants have two menu categories, regardless the day of the week:   "fasting" (vegan) and "non-fasting"(meat) choices.  

I got sick of the injera pretty quickly.  

The only other items on the menu, no matter the restaurant, no matter the town, are rice or spaghetti with tomato sauce, bolognese or vegetable sauce.  That is it!  Injera, rice or pasta.  I haven't had so many carbs since Dr. Atkins got his degree.  

After two weeks in country, I remembered the reason for the lack of food choice.  It was the hunt to gather our dinner shopping list that jogged my memory.  The reality on the ground is mind-boggling for someone from the west.  

I suddenly remembered that THIS IS AFRICA.  

We were traveling to Axum, legendary home of the Ark of the Covenant (the very same Ark that Indiana Jones has devoted his life to finding) a distance of two full days of driving.  Since the roads outside the cities lack any kind of amenity (gas, food, water, hotel are virtually non-existent), and because night travel on African roads is not at all advisable, we made camp in a dry, very wide riverbed, a day's drive from restaurants, cafés or "supermarkets".  We had shopped for dinner and other supplies before we left the "big" city.  Although it was no easy task, it took us only a few minutes to get what weneeded.   Lalibella, the number 1 tourist destination in Ethiopia, is a 1-street town with no sidewalks, a dirt main street and open sewers.  There was only 1 tuk-tuk, a 3-wheel taxi, in the entire city.  We bought the only food we could find:  two kilos each of tomatoes and potatoes from a couple of women selling these products on the side of the road;  we cornered the market on bananas, and successfully begged a juice seller to forego the juice and simply sell us his avocados, mangos and papayas.   We stumbled upon another woman selling some cabbage.  Our hotel manager had some connection to fresh eggs and 1 1/2 litres of milk.  That was all the available food in the entire town.   Thankfully, there was some pasta and lentils on the truck that had been purchased in Addis before we left.  It's quite clear that making a shopping list and dinner menu is a complete waste of time.  There are no supermarkets with aisles of choices in every category of food.   Eighty-five percent of Ethiopians are subsistence farmers - they grow their own food and have little surplus left for sale.   Moreover, this is the dry season. 

Despite our worst fears, dinner was a huge success: lentil soup, avocado and tomato salad, cooked cabbage and potatoes mashed together and fried, and of course, (we just can't get away from it) pasta with tomato sauce.  Breakfast was mango, papaya and banana PANCAKES!   Someone in the group had the foresight to buy some flour in Nairobi.  

The Roads:

One of the highlights of the northern route are the Simien Mountains, considered "The Rooftop of Africa."   Although Kilimanjaro in Tanzania,  is the tallest peak on the continent, the Simien range, at an average altitude of over 10,000 (and rising to 15,000 at Ras Dejen, Africa's second highest mountain), is the longest and highest.  

In order to start our planned 4-day trek and 3-night camping experience there, we had to drive to the National Park's entrance, at  9,000+ feet, along roads that would be closed as construction sites in the US. 

The entire 60-mile distance was unpaved.  We traveled at a rate of 10-miles per hour.  Many parts of the road had recently been cut into the mountains.  There were no shoulders separating us from the abyss below.  Massive piles of gravel, large drainage pipes and other material were scattered across the road.  Bulldozers and men worked, while goats, cows, donkeys and people came in and out of sight, as we shimmied our way past, navigating the narrow switchbacks, and hairpin turns.  Three-point turns were often required to round a corner. Wheels were dangling on the edge of cliffs.   The scenery was gorgeous but it took courage to look out the window to appreciate it.  

    (Phone pics of this road hell on FB).  

The Sites:

The 10 churches for which the city of Lalibella is known were built by the King of the same name in 1101 and all ten buildings took a total of 23 years to build.  The structures are unique in the world - built as freestanding monoliths from a single rock.  According to legend, Lalibella was born the brother of the incumbent King.  As a young child he was covered by a swarm of bees, which his mother took as a sign that he would one day be King.  ("lalibella" has been translated as "the bees recognize his sovereignty.")   After a nasty fight with his brother, Lalibella was crowned King and immediately set about gathering the world's greatest craftsmen and artisans in order to carve the churches, which are something of a mystery - it has been estimated that 40,000 people would have been required to carve them.  

Incredibly, the ten churches were all built from the ground DOWN, starting first with the construct of the roof.   The entire structure was then carved out and separated from the rock to which it once belonged.   The top storey windows were chipped out to allow light and air for workers who hollowed out the interior of the rock for future worshippers.  Visitors approach the churches from ground level (which is the roof of the church) and descend a set of stairs as much as 50 feet to enter.  Hugh columns, both inside and out, support the roofs.  All ten churches are connected by a maze of trenches and tunnels.  Religious paintings using natural dye of local flowers and plants decorate the interior walls and date from the 12th century.  

A quote from the Bradt guidebook says it best:

"Were it virtually anywhere but in Ethiopia, Lalibela would rightly be celebrated as one of the wonders of the world, as readily identified with Ethiopia as are the pyramids....of Egypt.   Lalibela's obscurity is shameful, but for those who visit the town, it is part of its charm."

Lalibella's location is magical.  Perched at an altitude of almost 8,000 feet, among wild, old craggy mountains and vast rocky escarpments, it is majestic and isolated.  

Perhaps even more amazing is that Lalibela's churches have been in consistent use for 900 years.  Mass is held inside the carved-out rocks every Sunday, and white-robed Priests and monks emerge from their monastic cells within the 10-Church complex and into the early morning chill to wander the town's streets, handing out blessings, while the chants of the religious echo through the mountains and pierce our hotel walls, lulling us to sleep and awakening us (ugh) before sunrise.  

We had dinner at a crazy place - Ben Abeba restaurant - owned by a Scottish woman and her Ethiopian husband.  The building looks like a UFO, with multiple, staircase-accessible, round "landing pads" stacked randomly skyward, in all directions, where drinks are served. It sits at the edge of a precipice, midway between the lush valley thousands of feet of below and the wise mountains thousands of feet above.  Yosy said that in the course of a 5-minute walk from our hotel, we went from the Bronze Age to the Jet Age. The menu though was like everywhere else.   I had the spaghetti with tomato sauce.

Before reaching Lalibela we had spent 3 nights on the shore of Lake Tana, second largest lake in Africa and the source of the Blue Nile, which when it meets the White Nile in Khartoum, ( Sudan) forms The Nile, the world's longest river.  

We left our traveling companions lazing by the lake on the second afternoon to visit an unusual village - unique perhaps on the entire African continent.  

Awra Amba is a weaving cooperative of 400+ people, where there is equality between the sexes (men cook and women work the fields), pre-k through high school is a reality for all and adult receives the same wage and spends it as he sees fit.  The community was founded by an illiterate elder (whom we were fortunate to meet and interview) who believes that hard work and education are more reliable predictors of the fulfillment of hopes and dreams than religion.   The people of Awra Amba are not exactly atheists, but rather believe in one God for all people.  Prayer is a pasttime.  

The most striking observation about our visit to the village was that not a single child (or adult) begged as do so many other children in Ethiopia.  There was a fairly well-stocked library in Awra Amba and a senior housing center.  The latter was particularly memorable as it contained one relatively large room with cubicles, the size of a single bed, carved into the cement walls.  These cubicles were the sleeping quarters for the 9 aged women and 1 man we met there.  Like orphans, these seniors had no family to look after them.  

The Ugly American is Me!

On a lunch stop enroute from Lalibella to Axum, the religious center of The Ethiopian Church, home (according to Ethiopian legend) of the Ark of Covenant and the tablets within, written by Moses in the desert)  I lost my cool when I broke the  golden rule when traveling in Africa.  The guilt since then has been gripping me.  

Tourists have corrupted much of the Ethiopian and other African populations - especially the children in the tourist centers.  Decades ago no one begged here.  But then the foreigners - the tourists, the ngo's and other aid agencies all began to come and give handouts.  There's so little here that everything is considered a precious gift: pens, sweets, empty plastic water bottles.  When farangis (white people) are spotted, children run to them like flies, asking for money or anything that the whites are willing to give or throw away.  Responsible tourism has recognized the error of its past ways and the mantra now is to refrain from giving ANYTHING to the locals - handouts are strictly forbidden as they do nothing but help develop and encourage a culture of begging.

Its important for our sanity to know that,  unlike the consequence of the politically-induced famine of the 1980's, no one here is starving.  They may be hungry and have a limited variety of diet, but no one looks emaciated or malnourished.  Ethiopia is rich in fertile land and feeds itself. Eighty-five percent of the population are farmers.

We had bought pizza the night before we left Lalibella and ate it (cold) at lunchtime the next day.  As usual, within minutes of our arrival at our makeshift picnic area, 8,000 feet high on the side of an empty road, children came running from the surrounding hills and villages to observe the strangers.   We ate atop a cliff with a stunning view of the high mountains and numerous river gorges boldly carved between the hills and valleys.  Once satiated, we realized that we had 15 slices of pizza leftover.  There were 10 kids, mostly barefoot, with ragged clothes and dusty faces, quietly watching us.  This being the countryside, an area where tourists rarely tread, not a single one of the kids had asked for anything.  They simply stood or sat silently at a close distance, watching.  We proceeded to offer each of them a slice.  Three politely refused.  The rest took the cold pizza, not knowing quite what to do with it.  Some took a second slice.  We talked with them a bit and posed for pictures.  One of the older kids told us he wanted to be a mechanical engineer.  Another was minding the family's goats.  We cleaned our picnic grounds and left, as we always do, without a trace of our presence there.   Once back aboard the truck/bus in which we are traveling, we got reamed out by a fellow traveler.   He had done his masters thesis about the begging culture in the developing world; a culture developed by the well-meaning tourists who travel there.  "Did you see the elder from their village?" he asked.   I had not.   It seems that one of the adults from the boys' village ran to the kids and demanded that they throw the pizza away, IMMEDIATELY!!!!   "By giving these kids something for nothing, you are teaching them to beg rather work," our master thesis candidate explained.  Multiply our relatively small handout by hundreds and hundreds of tourists a year, over a decade or two of increased tourism, and within a relatively short period, the youth have learned to view every white visitor as an opportunity to relieve him of his hoards of cash and other spoils of the western world.  

I realized in a flash that my values and prejudices had replaced the reality of the situation.  

The kids came to our picnic spot not because they were hungry or wanted something from us, but because they were curious. We are as foreign to them as they are to us.   If they had cameras they probably would have clicked away too, taking our photos without first asking for permission either.  

The kids were definitely not hungry.  My standard for a normal weight has become so warped that I mistook their thinness for emaciation.  They were not emaciated.   In fact, they were probably closer to what is a normal size; certainly what is a healthier size, than many children of their age in the US.   

They wanted nothing from us other than to practice their english (which they learn in school), and to know where we came from.   They were curious and only wanted our friendship.   How dare I presume that they wanted something tangible; that they had simply been too polite or too shy to beg.   How ignorant I was!  How irresponsible!   I had forgotten the rule I had learned 5 years ago on my first trip to Africa:  No handouts!  Ever!  Even if hungry, for the reasons outlined in "Wahib and John," posted here and dated April 10, 2011. 

But what about gifts?   Can't I give these kids a gift?  What's wrong with the gift of a slice of pizza?  If I have leftover food must I throw it away?  Gifts at home don't foster begging or teach laziness.   Or do they?   Are our own kids spoiled and riddled now with a sense of entitlement because they received so many gifts?  

Everything about our culture of plenty is suspect after one visits Africa.  

Addis Ababa

Today is the start of a very good day in Ethiopia:  We've got water!

Our friends are residents of Addis Ababa, the capital, for the past 1 1/2 years and are in the  diplomatic corps.  We were rolling on the floor from the their stories about the pain and pleasure of living in this African metropolis - until it hit us where it hurt - the bathroom.

So many people have asked why Ethiopia was such a priority for me.  For starters

Ethiopia has a fascinating and ancient history. In addition, the ancient Ethiopian Church is unique in the world in its Jewish influence, obvious even now in the biblical names of many of the people, streets and stores, as well as rituals, holidays, and Amharic, the national language has many similarities with hebrew.    Rather than bore you with the details, look at the questions below.  If something interests you,  answers can be found at the bottom of this page.

1.  What was the prior name of Ethiopia?

2.  Who was the last Emperor of Ethiopia and from whom did he descend?

3.  What countries border Ethiopia?

4.  Which river has its source in Ethiopia?

5.  What major anthropological discovery was made here in 1974?

6.  How do Ethiopians derive their names?

7.  What sacred object is housed in Axum in the north? (HINT:  Indiana Jones)

8.  What prominent early Hebrew prophet married an Ethiopian worman?

9.  What is the connection with the Caribbean and other Rastafarians?

10.  Was Ethiopia ever colonised?

Two of the crazier things here are the calendar and the clock. Ethiopia did not adopt the Gregorian calendar as did the rest of the Christian world in 1582.  As a consequence, the Julian calendar still rules which means that Ethiopia is seven years and eight months "behind" the rest of the Christian world.  Their calendar consists of 13 months (hence, the country's tourism slogan,"13 months of sunshine"), of which 12 months contain 30 days each, while the 13th month is just 5 days in duration (6 during leap years).   New Year's Day here is September 11.  

Much more confusing is Ethiopian time, which, like neighboring Kenya and Tanzania, measures time in two 12-hour cycles starting at 6 a.m. and 6 p.m, respectively.   So our 7am is their 1pm.    Our 1pm is their 7pm.  Fortunately, when dealing with westerners, most Ethiopians use western time.  Just to be sure though one must always clarify, "Do you mean 5 pm, European time, or do you mean 11?

 Addis (as it is known by the locals) is actually quite civil as compared to other African capitals I've visited.   It is relatively clean.   There are traffic signals and median dividers.   Perhaps most importantly, it seems that there is less desperation here than in many other developing world cities, including those of India.   But one should never be fooled by appearances.

Traffic is a nightmare at rush hour.  It can take more than one hour to go less than just a few miles to the other side of town.  Detours are plentiful.  Oftentimes there is no detour at all and traffic snakes every which way through unfinished road construction slaloming past working bulldozers and around other material and equipment blocking the path like giant boulders left behind by a volcano.  Huge potholes, no signposts, and people, of course, are everywhere.  The pedestrians of this city of 4 million, for some reason, do not look when they cross the street, preferring instead to trust the good will of oncoming cars to swerve around them.  Everything takes 3 times as long as it does in our world.  Ethiopia was ranked last among nations for its telecommunications capability by an international internet watchdog.  True to its reputation, the internet is slow, intermittent and controlled, our friends say, by the government.   Certain news sites are inaccessible.  After 45 minutes shopping for some trip supplies in a local store, we were unable to purchase anything because the credit card machine could not make a connection and we didn't have enough cash on hand,.  Calling in the card number was not an option as landlines are almost nonexistent.  Electricity surges are common.  We have gotten used to eating dinner in a darkened restaurant, and speaking with friends as the lights go on and off indiscriminately for varying lengths of time, usually coming back before the end of a paragraph, or just in time for the punchline of a joke.  Remember the gas lines during the Arab boycott back in the 70's?  We just saw a line three times as long.   Writing this entry is no easy task.  

But the most absurd story is the story about water.  Our friends have two large tanks servicing their house which tanks are replenished at night when the spouts are turned on by the government. Every now and then (about once each month), either the electricity dies and the water can't be pumped to the house or, like yesterday, the nighttime surge doesn't happen for an unexplained reason.  There may not be enough water for the entire city and it must be rationed, or the government sells the supply to Djoubiti, a neighbor, in exchange for much needed foreign currency, or a water pipe is broken somewhere.  No one knows when the water will flow again.  It could be hours or days.  A mad dash is then commenced to find water.  Private haulers promise to come and refill, but never show.  Some haulers can't find the water needed for their customers either.  Others are promised twice or three times the price and go elsewhere.  Our friend, took his car searching the city for any  private water hauler he could find. Once spotted, he raced to block its path,  slamming on the brakes just in front of the truck, forcing the driver to stop.  A large bonus was offered for a delivery.  Although they agreed to come in "10 minutes," they never showed, having probably gotten a better offer from another frantic ex-pat.  There are companies that, for a relatively high premium, will reliably deliver water when needed, (often traveling up to 50 miles outside the city to get it), but they require payment up front.   The problem, he explained, is that oftentimes by the time the private haulers finally arrive to tap off the tanks, the city has opened the spout.   There is no where for the hauler to put the precious commodity because the tanks are now full.  Payment is required anyway.   This has happened so many times that our friends now simply do without and pray for rain.  

Tomorrow we leave for 3 weeks, traveling overland to the north of the country.  We'll be back in Addis on the 23rd for a 3-night pit stop before we begin our journey south.   There's so much more to write.   Thankfully I will have the time on the long drive north.  Hopefully, I will find an internet connection that stays on long enough to make the post.

ANSWERS:

1.  Abyssinia

2.  Haile Selassie was the last of 237 Ethiopian emperors, all of whom claimed to be direct descendants of the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon.  It is a dynasty that ruled the country for 3,000 years.  When the Queen returned to Ethiopia from Jerusalem and her liason with the King, she converted to Judaism and gave birth to Menelik, the progeny of the two monarchs.  Menelik, (which derives from the hebrew "Ben Melek," or "Son of the King"), returned to Jerusalem when he was 22 years old to visit his father.  He was greeted with a joyous reception and stayed for 3 years, learning the law of Moses.  As Solomon's eldest son, he was offered the throne of Jerusalem, which he declined.  Solomon accepted his decision and told all of his high commissioners to send their eldest sons and ordered that 1,000 people from each of the 12 tribes of Israel accompany Menelik home.  Upon his return, Menelik's mother abdicated the throne in his favor and the Somonic dynasty ruled Ethiopia, almost unbroken until 1974 when the 237th monarch, Haile Selassie, was overthrown in the revolution.   This is the short answer.

3. Landlocked Ethiopia is bordered by Somalia in the east (and Somaliland, an as yet unrecognised state), Eritrea and Djibouti in the north, Kenya in the south and Sudan to the west.

4.  The NIle river has two sources:   The White Nile is sourced in Uganda and the Blue Nile is found here in Ethiopia.   We will be visiting the source and the Grand Canyon-like gorge where it is found tomorrow, on our trip up north.

5.  In 1974 the almost complete 3.5 million year-old hominid skeleton, nicknamed "Lucy" (the song "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" was playing the camp shortly after the and discovery), was found in western Ethiopia and demonstrated that bipedal hominids had evolved much earlier than had been previously assumed.  She is the likely candidate for the common ancestry of the human chain of evolution.  Ethiopia hence claims to be the cradle of civilisation.

6.  The first name of any Ethiopian is given by their parents.   But the "family" name is their father's given name.    Therefore, a man may be known as Djenie Tadese, not of the "Tadese" family, but rather, the "son of Tadese,"  His wife may be Guerne Belai, the daughter of Belai."   Their children's "family" name would be the first name of their father, "Djenie."

7.   The Bradt Guide describes it best:  In Axum's Maryam Tsion Church (in the country's north) lies an artefact which, were it proved to be genuine, would add immense substance to Ethiopian legendeering.  Unfortunately, only one person alive has ever seen this artefact.  The Ark of the Covenant, is, according to Ethiopian Christians, kept under lock and key in the Church and only the official guardian is allowed to enter.  The Ark was built by the Children of Israel to hold the Tablets of Law given to Moses by God on Mount Sinai.  According to the Bible, God gave Moses precise instructions on its design and embellishments.   It was thus vested with a deadly power that was particularly devastating in time of battle.  After the Jews settled in Jerusalem, the Ark was enshrined in a temple built by Solomon in the 10th century BC, where it remained until the temple was destroyed by the Babylonians in 587 BC.  While in Jerusalem, it was the most treasured artefact of the Jewish people, virtually the personification of God.  There is strong evidence that Menelik, took the Ark back to Ethiopia when he left Jerusalem, with the blessing of his father, King Solomon. The Ark has remained in Ethiopia ever since, locked away in the "Holy of Holies," the inner sanctum of the Church.   The history of the Jewish influence in Ethiopia and on the Ethiopian Church is fascinating and if you are so inclined, I would highly recommend the seminal book on the topic, The Sign and the Seal, by Graham Hancock.  

8.  Moses married an Ethiopian woman.  There is a strong historical connection between Ethiopia, Egypt and Yemen.

9.  Haile Selassie, the Last Emperor to rule Ethiopia, was known as "Ras Tefari," Chief of the Tefari tribe.  He offered land and other incentives to the descendants of former African slaves in the new world if they returned to Ethiopia.   It was the beginning of the Black Pride movement.   That's about all I can find on the topic.  Clearly not enough. 

10.  Ethiopia is the only country in Africa to never have been colonised by Europe, except for a brief period from 1936-1941, when Italy invaded and Haile Selassie went into exile.

There's so much more to write.   But I have to stop here.  Addis is calling.