This morning we discussed with Nati how we wanted to spend the last days of our tour. Originally, we were supposed to visit Nechisar National Park today but, having in mind the disappointing experience of Mago Park, we chose not to do it in order to save the money (believe it or not but parks are expensive). Instead, we were still interested in the boat trip on Lake Chamo, though not for 300 birr. So Nati tried again to convince the boat owner to go down with his price. The man still refused and it was hard for us to understand why he would miss the opportunity to make the money we offered him. In the end, we decided to leave Arba Minch and its stubborn fisherman without having done the boat trip. Instead we decided to go to the hot-springs resort of Wondo Genet.

Before leaving Arba Minch, however, I was lucky once again: When we had our breakfast at Checolet Pastry, I forgot my knife at the table. Luckily, I realised it pretty soon and asked Nati to pass by at the pastry shop again before we left Arba Minch. When we came back and I went inside to ask if they had found it, my eyes already started scanning the cutlery they kept in mugs on their counter. I couldn’t find it but the guy I asked looked like he knew exactly what I was talking about. He went over to talk to another waiter who somehow looked caught and disappointed at the same time. Well, I guess he could have made use of my knife and was annoyed that I came back to ask for it. In any case, he went over to one corner of the room, bent down and lifted the plastic carpet. It was from here that he took out my knife and returned it to me! I couldn’t help but wonder what else we would find under the carpet in that corner...

At least, I was happy to have my knife back and we could finally leave this town. A picturesque drive first led us along Lake Abaya. Measuring 1160 sq km, it is the longest and the largest of the Rift Valley lakes. Its peculiar dark red colour is caused by suspended hydroxide in its water. The smaller Lake Chamo (551 sq km) lies to the south. Both are ringed by savannah plains. Many consider the lakes to be the most beautiful in the Rift Valley chain. (The Rift Valley is Africa’s largest and most famous geographical feature, it runs from Djibouti all the way down to Mozambique, and is home to a string of lakes known for their birdlife.) The ridge of land that divides Lake Abaya and Lake Chamo is known as “Bridge of God” for the beautiful views from it.

Via Sodo we continued to Shashemene, where we had already stopped on our way to the South. We had a break here, another Avocado Juice (of course) and Xavier amazed us again with his passionate consumption of Vegemite, an Australian “delicacy” which the rest of us found pretty disgusting...

We reached Wondo Genet in the early afternoon and first checked in at the Wondo Genet Resort Hotel – with 92 birr per person in a twin room by far the most expensive accommodation of our tour. The resort sits on a natural balcony overlooking the Rift Valley and it’s bungalow-like buildings are set amid citrus orchards and flowering gardens. Only three minutes walking distance from the main gate was a large public swimming pool fed by a natural hot spring further up the hill. Next to the pool, the spring water is piped over the cliff to make some waterfall-type showers. Before trying the pool, we first wanted to take a walk up the mountain and follow the springs upstream. After only a few minutes, however, we ended up at a fence and a closed gate, blocking the way uphill. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a man with a key showed up and after paying him a little bribe, he let us through. So we continued towards the source and were amazed about the water temperature which was indeed boiling. I actually read that local cowherds cook their lunch in the water.

After a little while we got tired and decided to go back to follow the ‘call of the pool’. The guys went in first, while I watched our stuff. The pool was full of locals, obviously of the richer kind, otherwise they couldn’t afford the entrance fee. In fact, this resort seemed to be THE holiday destination for wealthy Ethiopians. We saw them arriving in big white Mercedes, all dressed up and the women draped with jewellery. The people at the pool could have come from anywhere in Europe: except for some Indian women dressed in their traditional saris, everybody else was wearing swim shorts and bathing suits. Even young girls were in their bikinis and it seemed totally normal in this environment. At least, I didn’t have to feel uncomfortable wearing my bikini but it was something else that made me feel strange – I was the only white woman around. Somehow I had the impression all the (black) men were staring at me, which is probably not even true, but that’s how I felt. On top of that, I had lost so much weight, that my bikini top looked like some ‘wishful thinking’. Overall, I suddenly felt quite small (not only physically) and just couldn’t summon up the courage to go swimming. So in the end, I didn’t go in the pool and only tried the natural showers. At least, I can claim that I tried the hot spring water and believe me, it was really HOT!!

This evening we had dinner at the resort restaurant and the people we saw here only confirmed the impression we had about their social status and life style. Apparently, Wondo Genet is for Ethiopians what a 5-star spa is for wealthy Europeans – except that we still had cockroaches in our room... and even Xavier’s miracle spray couldn’t kill them. Other animals who were at home at this hotel included a bunch of cute puppies of an unidentifiable breed and small long-tailed monkeys all over the place (usually up in the trees). One of them was cheeky enough to climb into our car while we were unloading it, found our food box and stole my pack of banana cream cookies – I found him sitting on the roof of the car, the cookie pack still in one hand, with the other one holding a cookie, eating it. While he was chewing, it was as if I could see a huge smile on his face...