It was one of the great things we visited on tribes of Namibia, which is San people, Bushmen tribe in Ju/’Hoansi. They are one of the interesting people to see in Africa.
Bushmen Tribe | San people : Who are them?
San people (Bushmen) are indigenous hunter-gatherer people representing the first nation of Southern Africa. They live in Namibia, Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa. Also, They are known one of the oldest indigenous populations in the world. They have been living around more than 150.000 years with small family groups.
Every bushmen tribes don’t have leaders or chiefs. If anybody wants to leave from the small group he can leave anytime. San people don’t care to get rich or their personnel possessions; everything is for share together.
They were mobile always, just followed water, edible plant and game. Therefore, they never be farming or keep animals. When they were moving place-to-place they just carried their personnel possessions.
San women gathered edible plants and water to cook or drink when Bushmen hunted. They made hand-made arrows, knife, etc. to hunt. Also the women take care about the kids and make their jewelry from plants, seeds, etc.
You can watch a short video about our journey: BUSH SAN PEOPLE, NAMIBIA
Ju/’Hoansi , Grashoek
We wanted to visit San people – Bushmen tribe without any tour just by our self. When we were searching where we can visit Bushmen we found Ju/’Hoansi (Living Museum), Grashoek, Namibia. They have been keep continue their tradition and sharing with tourist. They run the place with their self. We saw that you can camp there and stay how long you want. Price was also cheap when you compare San people tours.
The Camping was 50 N$ pppn in JuHoansi. Please don’t think it is the best camping place. You can open the tent on the sand under the threes. They have toilet and shower but they do not have enough water. If you want to stay longer you should make sure you have enough drink water and food.
They have a lot of different activities with different prices. We stayed two days there and did a daily activity, which was 150 N$. We spent all day in the village. (You can visit their website to more info: http://www.lcfn.info/juhoansi )
San people showed us how they can make a fire, what they use for it.
We learned how bushmen can make their hunting stuff and how they hunt.
San women showed their handcraft which tree or seed they use for it and how they make it. Also, they gave a gift.
When the sunset was coming we watched their traditional dances. They have many different dances for rain, sick, sun, welcome, etc.
San people one of the traditional dance
In the night we sat next to the fire and listen to the old people’s interesting stories from hunting, moving place to place.
One of the young San man can speak English very well. Therefor he was translating everything for us. If you are interested we can recommend visiting them to learn their culture and history. At the same time, you can help their community as well.
It’s an 80 km ride on a gravel road and the last 6 km are sand, doable with a 2-wheel drive as well. If you are not on your vehicle We didn’t see any public transport so most likely it’s hitch hiking from the main road. (GPS : -19.24479 , 19.23921)
If you are traveling Namibia we can highly recommend to visit tribes of Namibia at less one of them. But please make sure that where you will go don’t one of the commercial tribe village.
We read Nyiragongo volcano is one of the most dangerous volcanoes and world’s largest lava lake also the most voluminous known lava lake. It was one of the amazing things we did in our Africa journey by motorcycles.
Nyiragongo Volcano: World’s largest lava lake
It is just 20 km far from the Rwanda border in Virunga National Park, DRC. It is 3470 meters high from the sea level and the last part is so steep to climb. The main crater is about two kilometers wide. Last erupted in 2002. But they warned to be erupting in 2015 and 2016. We are luck to nothing happened when we were there. 🙂 After read about dangerous, largest…etc we decided to go there for our anniversary.
You can watch short video before read all detail if you like :
Nyiragongo Volkano Hike :
We arrived at the hiking point around 8:30 am after paperwork we met our two guides who gave us all info about hiking and the volcano. Each group can be maximum 22 people because only eleven huts on the crater to sleep and each one is for two persons. Our group was 16 people.
We started to hike around 10:30 am and arrived to top around 16:30 pm. The hike or climb is divided in a total of four parts. We had little break at the end of each section and listen our guide carefully for the next section.
First part was an easy walk in the forest
Nyiragongo hike start point
and than second and third part was mud and lava rocks. So, we had a little trouble to climb sometimes because of it.
Last part was the hardest part of me because it was so steep and windy. If you are lucky with the weather you should enjoy with the view.
When we arrived at the top of the Nyiragongo volcano we went first to our huts to change clothes. After that we climb a few meters to see the Lava (Magma) Lake. It was almost sunset therefore it was so hard to see something, just smoke but we could feel the hot from the volcano.
We just walked around a little and enjoyed the view after that we had dinner. We carried all our stuff up our self so we made our own dinner.
where to stay top of Nyiragongo Volcano
Finally, it was dark and time to see world’s largest lava lake. It was beautiful, amazing, and incredible…. Magma was moving, sometimes burning, sometimes coming fire…etc. Seriously, no word to say how much gorgeous!
Nyiragongo Lava Lake,Congo
At the top it was so cold and windy. Therefore, we were going to our hut to get a little warm sometimes. And than go back to the crater to watch again.
Lava lake
It was midnight and time to celebrate for us because of our anniversary. We celebrate our second year. He carried a bottle of wine to the top. 🙂
Happy anniversary 🙂
To be honest, we didn’t want the time pass and stay how much we can stay up the crater. But it was almost sunrise time. We made a coffee and walked around the crater. We were looking in the crater to see how much smoke can come more with the daylight.
At the same time we were watching the sunrise on the other side it was so beautiful.
Nyiragongo Volcano sunset
After breakfast we started to walk down around 6 am. Walk down is always so easy for me but he had some trouble for it. 🙂 We finished the hike in 4,5 hours.
Nyiragongo Volcano hike
It was so amazing things for us to do; Nyiragongo Volcano and the gorilla’s trek in Virunga Park. You can read about gorilla trek and also you can check about the costs,Nyiragongo volcano hike price?
!!!!IMPORTANT NOTE!!! Your security is most important thing for Virunga park. Before book your journey to there you should get contact with them and learn the security detail. Even if after book if anything can happen they can cancel the tour and pay back money.
Why did we chose Dane clothing, which of the Danish brand for our motorcycle riding gears?
We are on the world trip therefore we can’t choose a weather or season when we want to ride because we are on the road everyday. We have been living in the tent so, we carry our house on the motorcycle and our carry capacity is limited.
We need motorcycle clothes, which we can use everywhere and every season. We don’t want to get wet under the rain, we don’t want to feel cold in the winter and also we don’t want to burn under the sun. We can’t carry summer jacket and winter jacket, need something mix.
He never rides motorcycle before so, he didn’t have any motorcycle gears. When we started our journey we bought a Dane jacket for him. I had motorcycle gears, which I bought ten years ago. I decided to keep continue with it for a while and see it can work still or not. 10 months later, I had Dane as well. 🙂
Motorcycle Riding Gear : Jacket
Both of us have been using Dane Limfjord 2 model. Yes, it is a men model but I want to have it as well because they called it the 3 in 1, which we were looking for. Also, we want to wear the same clothes. All season we have been using. Most likely the weather is hot in Africa. We took out the thermal line and Gore-Tex rain & windproof liner. We also open all zips to have fresh air. Light color is better than dark/black color under the sun but so hard to keep clean where we ride motorcycle. 🙂
Especially the southern part of Africa we had a lot rain and used our windproof Gore-Tex liner because we couldn’t escape from the rain season. Until now, we used thermal liner only in South Africa because when we were there it was wintertime.
We don’t use our motorcycle jackets only when we ride. But it is not like that for us. We don’t carry outdoor jackets for our self. First of all we don’t have enough space in our bags, second we don’t need because of our motorcycle jacket.
We climbed the Kilimanjaro with our Dane Limfjord’s thermal and Gore-Tex liners. When we were climbing to the Nyiragongo lave lake we used them as well because the temperatures where below zero. Also, we went many trekking under the rain Gore-Tex part was always with us to protect.
End of the day, we can use one jacket for ride motorcycle and outdoor sports. 🙂
Motorcycle Riding Gear : Pants
Both of us have the same pants, Dane Brondby 2 model. It is combine with Dane Limfjord also called the 3 in 1. We haven’t use thermal liner part yet. South Africa was cold but we felt the cold more on our top not with our legs. But we used a lot Gore-Tex liner part of Brondby in rain season.
One thing we really like jacket and pants in front extra zips. When the temperature goes hot slowly we start to open them slowly. 🙂
We have Dane Limfjord and Brondby model motorcycle gears since September 2017. We made 25.000 km with them, used all season, all road. We are happy to have it and wear it.
We travel around Africa by motorcycle 1.5 years and search for where do silverback (mountain) gorillas live; how many type western and eastern gorillas we can see.
We had a lot of dreams to see in Africa and most of them we did. One of the best things to do/see in Africa was visiting gorillas. It was one of our dreams but because of the price we didn’t know if it was possible but we went to gorillas trekking more cheaper than what we were thinking.
Before we start write about how much gorillas permit? How you can find cheap tour for gorilla trek? We would like to give some info about gorillas then prices. You are welcome to ask questions and comment.
How many type of gorillas: Western & Eastern gorilla
Two kind of gorilla possible to see. They are called western gorilla (lowland and cross river gorillas) and eastern gorilla (lowland and mountain gorillas). Most famous one is mountain gorillas from Eastern and they are known as silverback gorillas. Also, they are the biggest one.
Western and Eastern lowland gorillas population are still so much. Unfortunately, I cant write same thing fro Cross river and Mountain gorillas. 🙁 Cross river gorilla population is 300 and mountain gorilla population is around 900. When we asked our guide in gorilla trek we learned about it.
Silver back gorilla
We visited mountain gorillas and know more about them. Male is silverback and around 200 kg. When they stand on two feed they can reach around 1,7 meters. Female is half of male. 🙂
A short video from our adventure : Silverback Gorillas, Virunga Park, DRC
Where do mountain (silverback) gorillas live?
They are in Africa and when you look at the map you can see a lot of countries to visit gorillas. But only few countries have a easy option to see them. Our info comes from our search before we entered Africa because we want to be sure where we can see gorillas western and eastern Africa. But we couldn’t see them on west side because when we were riding motorcycles around gorillas area it was rain season and some security problems.
Western gorillas on the west of africa.
Possible to see them between Nigeria and Cameroon in/around Kashimbila game reserve. Also, Nki national park in Cameroon. Noubele-Ndoki national park in Central of Africa, Loanga national park , Franceville and Bateke national park in Gabon (I think that it is easy to see gorillas in Gabon because you can get a train from Libreville to Franceville and stop at the National Park) and D’odzala-Kokoua national park in Republic Congo. Also, it is possible to see gorillas in Equatorial Guinea.
Eastern gorillas in the east of Africa.
I suppose everybody knows where you can see gorillas on Eastern; Rwanda, Uganda and Democratic Congo (DRC)
Mountain gorillas : Silverback Gorillas
Virunga park gorillas population and families info
We visited silverback gorillas in Virunga national park Congo. The trek started around 9 am and we were next to gorillas at 11 am. They only allow 4 people at the same to visit one family which is good because we felt like nobody around only we were watching the family. When we arrive Burkima they already knew that which families were where and how far. We wanted to visit Rugendo family and had amazing one hour with them. It was wonderful to see the silverback male and a two weeks old baby.
After watched some movies I was thinking that they are so dangerous. So, don’t get close to them! But when I was looking them I just wanted to play and hug because they were so calm and relax. The Rugendo family has an eleven months old baby who was just learning how he can walk and he was rolling around, coming close and close to play. We were running away from it because they can easily get sick from human bacterias. I suppose our video better explanation than write.If you like you can watch our gorillas adventure…
If you have time and safe a little money to visit them on your Africa journey I think that you would have amazing experience.visit silverback gorillas.
!!!!IMPORTANT NOTE!!!If you get cold or feeling sick please don’t go to see gorillas. Human virus can kill them. If you need to cancel your reservation Virunga park gives all money back accept the visa because it is from the government to apply and can’t take back.
!!!!IMPORTANT NOTE!!! Your security is most important thing for Virunga park. Before book your journey to there you should get contact with them and learn the security detail. Even if after book if anything can happen they can cancel the tour and pay back money.
We were in Africa trip by motorcycle and we didn’t want to miss silverback gorillas but when we saw the price how much does it cost to see silverback gorillas, we surprised. Visit Gorillas is so expensive, especially in Rwanda and Uganda because, they just changed the permit costs to see the Gorillas for 2018.
Do you know there is another option to see the gorillas? In Virunga National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), next to the Rwanda border. We did silveback gorilla trekking there. Also we hiked the Nyiragongo volcano which is world’s one of most dangerous active volcano also largest lava lake.
But let’s start with gorilla trekking costs in Virunga Park, Congo. 🙂
How much does it cost : Silverback gorilla permit and trekking
The biggest problem is “see gorillas permit”. The permit is 1500 USD in Rwanda, 600 USD in Uganda and 400 USD in DRC. The permit is allows you to spend one hour with gorillas in the park.
When we searched about gorillas trekking in Rwanda and Uganda we found more tour companies and of course the price was more high.
Some countries gorilla permit fee can change in the rain season because it is low season. Virunga park changes the gorilla permits from 400 USD to 200 USD. You can check low season dates on virunga park website (https://visitvirunga.org/). It was starting 13 of march on 2018.
You need visa a as well to enter Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC); It is 100 USD. If you book directly from Virunga park website they apply visa for you. Their website writes that it takes 2 weeks to approve the visa. We didn’t have so much. We wrote them Friday afternoon and we entered DRC on Tuesday morning. ☺ You must remember; if you travel with East African visa you can not enter again with the same visa to Rwanda. You should check more info on EATV visa detail.
A short video from our gorilla experience :
They don’t allow enter the park with your own vehicle so you need transport to go and see gorillas. Therefore we parked our motorcycle in Rwanda and paid daily 5 USD for two motorcycles in Discover Rwanda campsite. If you want to have transport inside the Virunga park it is a little expensive but you can go by taxi. Taxi cost changes where you want to go. For example, you can go to Nyiragongo volcano hiking from Goma and turn back Goma. After that go to Burkima to see gorillas and turn back Goma border again cost around 180 USD. It is taxi price, not per person. If you are four persons in the taxi 45 USD per person. You can find companies on internet also you can check http://www.ubuntuvoyages.com/contact it. If you are good negotiator you can book everything from there maybe more cheap then park website 🙂
Rwanda-DRC border opens early but Virunga park office (in the border) opens 8 am in the morning. Therefore, they write on their page that ”You can not visit gorillas same day of border crossing because the gorilla trek starts at 8:30 am and Goma border to Burkima around 1,5 – 2 hours. The office gives your permit paper on the border when you arrive Burkima or Nyiragongo, you show these papers. If you want to do it the same day you should write Virunga park. I am sure they will do their best for you.
So, if you can’t go to the gorilla trek same day of border crossing you can find some hotels on the border. For example, Rusina hotel in Goma was 40 USD for a double room with private shower. (You can find cheaper options if you search, but depends on the quality and safety you are looking for.)
So, see gorillas cost can be around 365 USD (+ 30 USD Rwanda visa) if you are more than one person to go Virunga Park, DRC.
How much does it cost : Nyiragongo Volcano trekking
When we were going to see the gorillas we decided to hike the Nyiragongo volcano as well. And we booked everything from Virunga park website.
Unfortunately, climb Nyirangongo volcano price doesn’t change because they don’t have low season for it. The price is 300 USD. You climb to the top and stay on the top in a hut (summit shelter) a night and next day you turn back.
If you want you can hire a porter there to carry your backpack also you can order a food package on the Virunga park website. We didn’t have porter or didn’t book food. We carried our stuff. Because the porter is 24 USD to round and meal is 75 USD (snacks on the hike, dinner and breakfast) per person.
We carried total 10 liters water, chapatis ( traditional bread name in East Africa like a wrap), tuna cans, some fruits, cookies and boiled eggs for breakfast. Also, a bottle of wine because it was our anniversary and we wanted to celebrate there. 😉
You can watch short video from our hike of Nyiragongo :
So, If you want to visit gorillas and Nyiragongo lava lake together in the low season the cost can be;
300 USD Nyiragongo volcano hike
200 USD Gorillas permit and trek
100 USD DRC visa
Transporter and hotel price which way you want to do. If you travel like what we did it can be 65 USD.
We entered Rwanda from Tanzania and paid 30 USD visa for Rwanda. When we were turning back DRC we used our EATV because we were going to Uganda and Kenya.
Total price: 695 USD
!!!!IMPORTANT NOTE!!! Your security is most important thing for Virunga park. Before book your journey to there you should get contact with them and learn the security detail. Even if after book if anything can happen they can cancel the tour and pay back money.
Kenya is our 31st country in Africa, we are a bit in a hurry right now. We are still in the rain season and we really want to be ahead of it. We entered Kenya through the Malaba border crossing it took a while because of trucks.
Our first stop would have been Eldoret,
Here we can get money from the ATM and we need new fuel. We found a ATM to get money and soon after that we did see a fast food restaurant (KFC), tired and hungry as we where we decided to stop and eat something, as always the taste was disappointed and the price was to high. After our lunch we decided it’s a good idea to start looking for a hotel because sunset would come soon.
After we left the city we found some hotels, the first few didn’t look good or to good but after 15 km we found a small place what looked nice. We went inside to take a look and found a room for 15 USD including hot shower and Wi-Fi. They have also 10USD room but they said that it has included only one breakfast other one has two and it was much smaller, I think it normally was a single room. 🙂 Good catch for the first day and easy for us, because the next day morning we wanted to ride all the way to Nairobi.
Stay in Nairobi
We left after our breakfast and hit the road to Nairobi what was still 300 km, luckily the road was pretty quiet and we made it easy. In Nairobi we where invited to stay with a biker couple, they are following us for a long time now and wanted us to stay with them. This is the beauty from traveling and they are planning a world trip as well. They will leave in July just a few months from now.
We had some business to do in Nairobi, we needed to get the visa for Ethiopia. This is the hardest one to get on the east coast of Africa. A lot of people had problems to get it but we had our Ethiopian visa in couple of hours. (Ethiopia visa detail)
Now we got much more relaxed, we stayed a few more days with our new friends and shared a lot of stories. On Friday night Turkish people, who we met in the embassy, living in Nairobi took us out, we always like to see something from the nightlife, we talked and had a good time. After that we stayed with her, Senay, because we didn’t want to ride motorcycle in the dark to turn back.
When we were talking about our story with Senay she called somewhere. A couple of hours later the news came that we are going to be on the local television. Only thing was that we wanted to leave on Sunday. So that’s a bit short time. On Saturday she made phone calls and sorted out an interview with us on Sunday morning.
Sounds good, let’s do that. We woke up early to get ready, opened the windows and see it was poring down rain. No way, not today! But yes unfortunately it was raining, we said goodbye to our friends who we will meet somewhere again around the world and ride through the poring rain to our interview. It was our first time in front of the camera and it was pretty cool to do 🙂
After the interview we stayed 1 more night in Nairobi this time with Senay again. Next day, we were on our way.
Nanyuki and Equator line
From Nairobi we went to Nanyuki, this will be the last city in Kenya we see before we enter Ethiopia but still 600 km to go. Unfortunately we arrived soaking wet, we are still in the rain season area. After a few attempts we found a nice hotel that was not to expensive, we had a nice bed, warm shower, breakfast and Wi-Fi that’s all we need. Nanyuki is a holiday city for Kenya therefore hotel price are high. They were saying 40-70 USD for basic hotels. So we were happy to find it 25 USD. 🙁
We also found cheap street food just around the corner, a lot fruits where available and all for local prices we love it! Next day morning we decided to stay one more day, we spent all day in bed writing articles and made a movie to share with you guys.
We are writing “street food” but you need to know that Kenya doesn’t have any street food because it’s forbidden to cook outside. They have some small places like a little room they must cook in it. Only they sell fruit or vegetable on the street and grilled corn.
When we were arrive to Nanyuki it was rain therefore we didn’t stop in front of the famous Kenyan equator sign. But we had photo when we were leaving with sun. 🙁
Samburu National Park…
We left Nanyuki after breakfast and had a really nice surprise on the road, Nanyuki is next to Mount Kenya (the 2nd highest mountain in Africa) and it was fully showing in the morning, wow very nice to see J today we wanted to go to Samburu, this is a national park and they have a campsite next to it on the river. We hoped to be lucky and maybe see some wildlife, unfortunately this time we where not so lucky nothing to see around. While riding from Nanyuki to Samburu what is only 130 km we did notice it was getting more and more warm, there was no cold wind anymore. We arrived to the Northern Kenya desert climate, from now on it will only get more and more warm.
When we arrived at Samburu our plan was stay two days there. Because I want to enter the park to see leopard if we are lucky. No way to enter Samburu for us! Motorcycle can’t enter, which we knew that. 70 USD enter fee for 24 hours and half day rent a car 100 USD, full day 200 USD. What is this? Stay in a park to see some wild life and pay 340 USD and accommodation inside for 24 hours. So, we stayed next to the park for 1 night and then left.
We stuck Marsabit.
After Samburu the road only got more beautiful, first we passed the Ololokwe Mountain this is a beautiful rock with different colors.
Also we passed a lot of people walking next to road from the Samburu tribe, they are all very nice dressed up. We stopped at one of the village/houses but we couldn’t communicate. They have their own language and body language didn’t work well. They were friendly we spent a little time with kids and than we hit the road again.
And it only got better, since a long time later we saw camels again. Hundreds of them next to the road, after a while I told her I see giraffe’s, she didn’t believe and thought I was joking it must be camels. Because she loves to play a game when the road boring; she can say for donkey a zebra, big cow is baby elephant, big dog is lion… etc. So, you can imagine why she was thinking that it could be a camel not giraffe. But no, I wasn’t joking. There where about 12 giraffe’s just next to the road and crossing the road straight in front of us, this is really giving you the ‘WOW! Feeling’.
We arrived at a guesthouse where we were planning to stay. A Turkish company was working there and they have an extra house to stay for us. It was amazing for us to get a little rest, meet new people. We went there for two days but stayed more than 10 days because we were waiting the Ethiopian news when and how we can enter. Everyday we were saying each other to leave tomorrow but there was coming new messages that it was not a good idea pass the next day. So we waited, waited, waited almost two weeks. When we were staying there she was waiting next to the chicken to have eggs for breakfast. We ate a lot of Turkish food that she really missed; also I start to like it more and more.
Tried to go Lake Turkana was a terrible experience for us!
When we were waiting to pass the Moyale border we decided to go for a little road trip, go to Lake Turkana and pass the Sibiloi National Park to Ethiopia. But everybody was telling us DO NOT TRY! Because of the rain season. North of Kenya side has a lot of river crossing and it’s a very remote area. We can’t find petrol in 600 km, find water or food is problem also if anything happened nobody around to help. We can listen them to don’t pass to Ethiopia from Lake Turkana but we could go to Loiyangalani for a couple of day to see Lake Turkana. We were waiting in Marsabit so just have fun….We put all our bags in the guess house. We took our camping stuff, enough water and petrol and hit the road.
First, we went to Laisamis to South Horr after that our plan was keep continue to Loiyangalani but we couldn’t. 🙁 The road was quite ok with gravel, sometimes hard and sometimes with soft sand.
After turned to the Lake Turkana road we had the first river crossing in 25 km. It was fun to pass.
We ride 30 or 35 km later we came another river crossing. Yeap, we passed it as well. It was deeper then the first one. We were talking; “If we come another river, which is deeper than this we should turn back. If the rain comes again we can’t turn back and we will be stuck”
After the river we saw a local person who we suppose one of the Samburu tribe. He couldn’t walk well and he was so tired. We help him to go next village. And we kept continue to our road.
Until two guys attack us with big knife for money. 🙁 It was soft sand and a lot of camel around. We were waiting them to cross and took some picture.
We didn’t see somebody around. He was trying to pass soft sand. Same time we saw two guys was running to us. They came next to me and one of them was telling, “ All area is mine, the road is mine. Pay 500.” I wanted to move but he took out his knife and blocks the road. He was looking where he can cut it. Ferry was screaming to I have to run to me but if I do that I know he will run to Ferry and will have a big problem. Another guy was more relax and calm, especially after see women rider he didn’t want to do anything. After that he tried to keep the guy and that moment Ferry was just behind me. So, we could open the gas together and leave.
It was enough experience for us in 100 km on the Lake Turkana road. We decided to turn back. We saw in the night it was good choose to turn back because of the rain, which was like a shower and didn’t stop for hours. Everywhere got like a lake where we were staying, so we ride around, couldn’t make it to Lake Turkana and had our own lake around us 😉
Leaving Kenya. Do we need to pay road tax now?
Finally, we leave from Marsabit after two weeks later we were on the road again to Ethiopia. We woke up very early to ride because we had 290 km to the border and we know that Ethiopia border closes on lunchtime. So we must be there before lunch to exit Kenya and enter Ethiopia.
We were so lucky with the weather. 🙁 The day started with foggy, we were riding so close but almost it was impossible to see each other. After that it was rain. So, we arrived the border almost 2 pm. It was good because Moyale border close between 12 pm to 2 pm.
When we were in the customer service of Kenya They said that we have to pay 20 USD road tax for each motorcycles. We were planning to stay in Kenya only two weeks, so we didn’t pay road tax. But we stayed almost a month so it was time to pay. We explained our situation why we couldn’t come to the border. Of course they know what was the problem because it happened at the border town. They were really so friendly and helpful. They told us we can pass and we don’t need to pay the road tax. It is gift from them….
How did we decide to have Sw Motech, motorcycle bags?
It was a big challenge for us to choose bags. Because we didn’t know which one is good for our world trip and how much space do we need? After talk with some riders who has a lot of experience on the road they told us SW-Motech, soft motorcycle bags can be good for the journey.
It was not look like SW-Motech has a lot of stuff for small bikes in the beginning. We have been riding Honda CRF 250L. So we must find bags to almost perfect match with Crf 250L. After search sw moto website we found a lot bags and accessories 🙂
A short video from our adventure with our bags :
GS
When we started our world trip we had only their side bags, dakar saddlebags. We used them a year. We liked it therefore after that we had all our bags from SW-Motech.
First of all, we didn’t want to have hard cases. Our motorcycles are already small we didn’t want to have heavy bags. And we didn’t have any experience to ride off road, gravel road… etc. it means that if we fall down we will easily give damage to the hard cases. So, we more focus soft motorcycles bags.
Which motorcycle bags have been using from Sw Motech?
EVO Enduro LT strap tank bag
We started with our tank bag. Our motorcycle is small we can’t put a lot of luggage in front. We have 5 lt. tank bags. You can think it is small but not. (You can make 7.5 liters as well if you want.) We carry in what we need easy access like phones, camera, cables to charge, external charge, small first aid…etc.
Sometimes when we go to shopping we carry eggs there as well. 😉
Drybag 80 tail bag
All our soft bags have extra waterproof bags inside except the tail bag. It is one bag, totally waterproof. We use them in front of motorcycle up to the engine protection. What we don’t need to use really or we must protect rain anytime they are in it.
Cargobag tail bag
It is 50 liters bag. We are calling it, clothes bag. Because all our clothes fit in it also it has extra zips left and right. One side for our shampoo, soap, creams… another side sun cream, mosquito sprays, washing powder…
Rearbag tail bag
It is 24 to 38 liters bag. Which size you want to use just open a extra zip. We need to be organized and find everything easy in one place. 🙂 So, It is our kitchen bag. For cook we just need the bag. Our stove, plates, pots, food… etc. it is more than enough for us to use as a kitchen.
DAKAR saddlebags
Each side bag is 32 liters. All of course has a name. 😉
One is camping bag. Our mattresses, sleeping bags, pillows, hammock, chairs and table are in it.
Other one is computer bag. All electronics are in it also our motorcycles pants and jacket extra liners. But still the name is computer bag.
Another one is shoes bag. Shoes, flip-flops and jeans are in it. Therefore still we have space 😉
Last one is extras bag. We put everything in it what we need extra on the road. Like water bag, soft cooler bag, chain oil, extra food, monopod, hammer, extra hook etc.
We said more than enough space we have with SW-Motech bags. General, we don’t take out bags because we sleep next to it in the tent. If we stay in a motel a day we can just take the inside bags. It’s easy to get it in and out. Actually so easy to take bags because each has only four clips to take our ropes and carry. We love their clips because they never get lose and shake when we ride all the bumpy roads.
Just keep in your mind to check bags after a day of heavy rain. Waterproof bags are fine keep dry stuff but water can be between main sides and inside. If the bags can’t see sun a couple of days they cannot get dry.
Backpack
We have two backpacks from SW-Motech as well. We don’t have anything in them. We carry them under the Cargo bag. Maybe we are traveling around the world by motorcycles but we like to go to hiking or make a backpack trip as well during our travel. We went to Madagascar, climbed Kilimanjaro also Nyiragongo Lava Lake. We put our motorcycles in a garage and took our backpacks to travel.
We have Sena 10C intercom to communicate, Prism helmet camera and Sena Gp10, bluetooth gopro pack. We are on the road almost two years and I suppose we have three years more. When we ride motorcycle most of the time we keep continue all day. Therefore, talk each other is so important because the roads are long also if we have any problem we can communicate with each other. Means, we need an intercom. 😉
When we choose a intercom we want to have a camera as well. We have a action camera to use up the helmet or on motorcycle but we had a lot of problem in some African countries. If police or military stop us on a checkpoint we always need explain to them that the camera is not on… etc. We knew that if we have a intercom with camera we don’t have this kind of problem. We were right. After start to use Sena 10C nobody bother any more because it is just a intercom to talk. 😉
A short video from our adventure with gears :
Sena 10C
I would like to explain all detail about 10C but that’s impossible because it is so much functional, I need to write many pages for it. I want to give basic details what we use a lot. Still we have been learning day-by-day more function to use. It is crazy how you can put all of them in it.
First of all intercom system; Before Sena, we were using one basic intercom but we hate it because we never hear each other well also if it was raining it was out of order until it get dry again.
– We are happy to have 10C because we can hear each other very clear now. We don’t have any problem with any weather. Of course, sometimes we can forget to ride together when we enjoy so much mountain roads with corners and we can be far away from each other of course that moment we can lose connection we have 5 km minimum between us, corners and mountains. 🙂
– Charge is no problem. When Sena said I have low battery I can take a cable and I can charge it while riding and use it at the same time.
– We can easily connect to our phone to don’t miss calls but when we are riding we don’t want to do that, just enjoy ride and view. 😉
– Listen music sometimes so nice.
– We love the camera as well. It’s easy to use when ride. Anytime, we can make a video or take a photo at the same time. This is really good option because I want to record the moment to edit videos for our journey but I also want to have a photo for our articles 😉
– We have been using them almost a year but every-time we can learn new things as well. One thing is so cool the video part; we can record only our sounds clear or we can choose to mode to record outside sound and our voice.
We saw on their website 10C Evo which is coming soon. It is similar with 10C but smaller. It is look like no way to see it has a camera. Maybe we can have 10C Evo for the future.
Sena Prism, Helmet action camera
Sena prism action camera
It is small action camera. When you compare the price it is cheaper than other action cameras and more than enough to use on motorcycles or trekking, hiking… etc.
We have GoPro more than 4 years and I’m so much use to it. After that we have prism. We really like the quality from photo and videos. It’s easy to use. Colors tell you what you are going to do. 😉
It can connect to the intercom and when we recording with prism it can still record our talking.
Maybe you don’t need a remote control to use Sena Prism for outdoor but we can highly recommend to have one for the motorcycles. Video, tags, photos… etc will be easy to use with one finger when you ride.
Sena GP10 bluetooth gopro pack:
Two riders and one prism therefore one of us still use gopro with Sena gp10 bluetooth pack. We can record all our conversation from Sena 10C. It is easy to use. If you have sena intercom and want to use gopro also like to video editing like us we can recommend to have bluetooth pack.
When we were planning our trip around Africa by motorcycle the Omo valley, Ethiopia was in our top list to see in Africa. because We read a lot about Ethiopian tribes. We traveled in Africa more than 1.5 years to learn their culture, lifestyle, language…etc. So, you can imagine why we went to Omo valley. 🙂
We stayed 10 days in the Omo Valley. We wanted to share what we saw and learn about tribes, how you can travel by yourself backpack, motorcycle, car…etc.
Please, keep in your mind what we are writing about Ethic groups culture, lifestyle…etc., we learned in the region from local people or guides.
Let’s start with the Omo Valley and tribes (ethnic groups) info and than how you can travel by bus or your own vehicle, how much money you need.
Ethiopian Tribes : Omo Valley Ethiopia
The biggest city in the Omo Valley is Jinka this is the capital city of the region. The Omo valley is a very famous area in Ethiopia and also well known in whole Africa. It is like another world what we know about life and culture because of the ethic groups. They have 16 different ethic groups in the Omo region. The biggest ethic group is the Ari with a population around 300.000, and smallest is Karo (Kara), with a population of 1.600, in the Southern Omo Valley. The most famous ethic groups are Mursi, Ari, Hammer, Kara(Karo), Banna, Thsemay, Bashada and Daasanach because they are the more reachable ethic groups (tribes) in the Low Omo Valley. Also, you can see or hear a lot about Nyangatom and Surmi(Surma) ethic groups (tribes) but it’s not so easy to find a tour or transport to reach them because they live close to the South Sudan border. After Jinka, more known cities are Key Afar, Dimeka, Turmi and Omorate.
Which ethic groups (tribes) do live close to which cities?
Ari tribes is around Jinka
Banna and Bashada tribes (ethic groups) are around Jinka, Key Afar, Dimeka and Turmi
Hamer tribes is around Key Afar, Dimeka and Turmi
Daasanach (Dashech also called Dasenech) tribes is around Omorate.
Dashnech people
Karo tribes is around Dimeka and Turmi. Easy to go from Turmi.
Mursi tribes is in Mago National Park, Jinka
Tsemay tribes is around Key Afar and Dimeka
Nyangatom is around the Omo river, close to South Sudan.
Surmi(Surma) is in the Omo National Park.
Little Ari kid
ARI TRIBES :
They live around Jinka and their population is around 300.000. They wear their traditional clothes on special days, wedding, funeral… etc. They are hard working farmers. They grow mostly coffee and sorghum. It is look like they can grow everything on their land. The make honey and their own alcohol. Cattle are important as well. They make their hammer, knife, ax, shelf etc. from any metal. Some women make ceramic to use and sell.
Ari tribes in Jinka
We asked our guide about Ari people wedding celebrate and how they choose their wife. He told us that the beauty is not important. What does her ability? When they decided to married he (or his father who had money) must pay 30.000 birr and cattle. How many cattle’s they will pay depend on the family negotiation. And wedding time his family must give blankets as well to her family, grandfather and mother, aunt and uncle. Each blanket is around 2000 birr.
Ari people are so friendly…
Wedding day, the broom waits outside with a goat, families and the bride go inside. They can start to eat and enjoy the moment. After a while her father can go out to call the broom. He can give the goat to his father-in-law and than can go inside. They can eat and drink a lot, cut a lot of cattle’s to celebrate. They can get married more than one woman if they have enough money for it.
He is making an ax, Ari village
Also we wanted to learn about funeralceremony if they have anything special. The body can wait maximum one year in the house for the ceremony. They cut a lot of cattle and cook food. How many people can go to ceremony they must have enough food for them, people need to be full to eat. So, they worked in their land until they have enough vegetable, sorghum…etc.
They were showing how they make alcohol
One thing was so interest for us to drink “ Coffee soup” We visited one of the Ari house. She collected coffee leafs, boiled with some spices and garlic. The taste was really good. Also we tried the traditional foods.
Trying coffee soup and local food
They showed us how they make their alcohol and gave us to taste. I am not sure about the taste it was so strong for me.
We also watched how they can make ceramic, tools and knifes. Their traditional house is a circle but now they have more square houses as well. Where we were Ari people were so friendly and welcome. We leaved from the village so happy.
Ari tribes house
MURSI TRIBES :
Mursi people live in the Mago National Park and their population is round 8.000. They are not a farmer, raising cattle is most important for them. They make their clothes from cattle skin and sleep on it as well.
Mursi Tribe’s women
Mursi people are most known for the lips-plate by the women. The girl cut a hole in her lower lips when she’s a mid-teenager (around 15-16 years old.) They put a little wooden stick in it to don’t close the hole. Than they make to hole bigger and bigger slowly. The hole can be around 12 cm. They also pull out their four lower front teeth to make the lower-lip hole big. They made their lips-plates and paint what they want. They use plates if it is necessary because it doesn’t easy to eat and they need to keep their lips and plate with their hands all time, lips cannot carry the plate.
We are not sure still a tradition to have a large ear holes anymore because we saw some women has big ear hole some doesn’t. They cut a hole in the ear when they are five.
Mursi women with plate on low lips
They live in a small village. The house is small circle made of dry grass. Also, Mursi man tradition is (or was) stick-fighting. We are not sure if they still do because stick-fight is illegal now and they never do it in front of tourist anymore.
Surmi (or some people is called Surma) tribeslife style, culture and women tradition is almost the same. So hard to understand which woman is belong to which tribe. But Surmi people live in Omo National Park and their population around 45.000. And they also grow Sorghum and maize. They don’t try to survive only with cattle like Mursi.
Mursi village in Mago park
HAMMER TRIBES :
They lives around Turmi and Dimeka, their population is around 47.000. They grow sorghum and maize, also some vegetables, raising cattle. Make honey and tobacco is one of the important things in their life. They are more known for their hairstyle, dance and bull jumping ceremony.
Bull jumping ceromny
Women mix ochre, water and a binding resin (like Himba women in Namibia) and than put into their hair. They wear leader, made from cattle.
Hammer tribes womenWomen dance before bull jump
One of the important ceremonies is “Bull Jumping”. If a man doesn’t jump over the line of bulls he cannot become a man and can’t get married. The family decides when their son jumps. The boy can go to the ceremony when he is 13 to 30. Also, the family decides which son goes to “Bull Jumping” first. The ceremony starts with women dance.
And than men hit women (who relative with bull-jumping boy) back with stick. How bigger the scar is deep and bleeding it means to show how much they love their boy.
And than who support him when he jumps to the bulls. They paint their face. After that the bull-jumping boy gets totally naked and they pray together before the jump.
A lot of bulls come to the area and they can choose 8 to 15 bulls. The boy has to jump/run over all of them in one time. If he falls down they call him half-men (something like that) and he never have second bull-jumping ceremony. If he succeeds to pass all the bulls the first time he must turn around and do same thing four times.
Bull jumping time
We asked about Hammer tradition married how it is and how can choose their wife or husband. Unfortunately, the boy or girl cannot choose anything for the first marriage. His family chooses the wife for him. Also, the family pays everything for the wedding. If two families agree about the marriage his family gives 5 cows and around 30 cattle, goat and sheep. Also they pay for all the food and what they need for the wedding ceremony. Hammer tribes man can have two or three wife if he has money. He chooses the second and third wife but he needs to ask the first wife if she is agree about the next wife.
To be a first wife is an honor. When the women get married she started to carry some kind of special necklace to show she is the first.
First woman is first wife
The second and third woman has a necklace also but just metal one.
Banna and Hammer tribe lifestyle and tradition are so close each other. What do we know about the difference; Banna women can wear blue color but Hammer women don’t. Hammer like more dark color, not so much colorful. Also, Hammer Ethnic groups make a bull-jumping ceremony close to the river. Banna ethnic group make the ceremony in their village.
DAASANAC (DASHNECH) Tribe
Daasanach people live around the Omo River, between Omorate and Lake Turkana, the population is around 45.000 and they are the poorest Ethnic group in the valley and the government helps them. They grow the same as other tribes, maize and sorghum. Also Dashnech (Dasenech) tribe people like tobacco so much and grow it. But their main thing is a cattle.
Dashnech(Daasanach) people
Dasenech women like colorful necklace so much and they change their hair style when they are single, married or pregnant.
She is getting married and changing hair style
Also they make necklace from plastic or bottle tops (caps) for their kids. If a man kills one of their enemies to protect the village or his cattle he becomes a hero and his sister makes a tattoo on her shoulder.
She is sister of Hero, Dasenech tribe
It was look like they love alcohol so much. We were there in the morning and almost everybody was drinking in the village include little kids and baby goats. But they don’t make their own alcohol they just buy from other tribes.
Daasanach (Dashech also called Dasenech) village, Omorate
KARO (KARA) TRIBE :
Karo people live northwest of Turmi. Their population is around 1500 and they have three villages, which are Gorcho, Dus and La Bok. Karo tribe tradition is to paint their body with white color. Some women can use different color for their face. They also grow sorghum and maize, the cattle are important for their life.
Karo people village
We went to Gorcho to visit them but we didn’t like the people behavior. 3-4 guys were sitting in front of the village door and drinking beer in the morning. They wanted double than other villages to enter. We didn’t sure that the money will go to their beer or the village. Already all women and kids came to the door when we were talking guides. We decided to don’t enter and turn back. We couldn’t take any photo but we already saw the village and people.
Gorcho village entry
OMO VALLEY MARKETS:
Almost all towns have markets days. They are so colorful and possibility to see some tribes there if you don’t want to go each village and pay it can be good opportunity to see them in one place.
Jinka Market
Jinka Market is on Tuesday and Saturday. Saturday is the biggest market. You can find all fruits, vegetables…etc. Of course, most of them are Ari people. In the cattle area, you can see Mursi people because they come to the market to sell their cattle.
Key Afar Market is on Thursday. It is not rich like the Jinka market about fruit and vegetables. They sell more sorghum, maize, cattle also clothes and accessories. But it is chance to see Tsemay, Banna and Hammer tribes there and take a photo. Because some of them go to the market with traditional clothes for photos and make money.
Thsemay men, Key Afar Market
Dimeka Market is on Tuesday and Saturday. Most colorful market is on Saturday because Tsemay, Banna, Hammer, Bashada and Karo people go to the market. So, it can be a chance to see Karo people there. To be honest, we didn’t go to Dimeka market after saw everything.
Turmi Market (Hammer Market) day is Monday and Thursday. It is Hammer market but possible to Bashada people as well. They sell cattle, maize, sorghum, tobacco and honey, also a lot of accessories. If you are not interest to go to a Hammer village you can see Hammer people anytime in Turmi, especially in the market and take photos.
Hammer market, Turmi
Omorate Market (Daasanach – Dashnech); they told us Daasanach people has Omorate Market on Tuseday and Saturday. We were there on Tuesday and asked everywhere include guides but nobody knows about the market.
Also Arbore, Giyo, Kangaten, Kako, Weyto and Hana Mursi towns (or village) have their own markets. But we didn’t go there so we have no idea about details. 🙁
When we were going to Omo valley Ethiopia, of course we had a lot of questions in our mind; Is the Omo Valley dangerous? Can you travel without a tour company? Is there any cheap way to visit Omo valley? How can I find a guide? How are the road conditions in the Omo valley? Is it safe to ride motorcycle? Does is possible and easy to travel Low Omo Valley by public transporter?
After spending 10 days in the Omo region we wanted to write an article and try to answer all questions what we had in our mind. You can find info about Omo valley roads, how to travel between villages, where to stay in Omo valley also where can you eat, how much to visit tribes of Ethiopia…. So,
How is Omo Valley roads? What about fuel? Can you find petrol easy?
When you leave from Konso and turn to the Omo Valley road the region says hello to you with an amazing landscape and nice mountain roads.
Key Afar road from Konso
Key Afar is 112 km from Konso and all the way is tar road; you just need to be careful for potholes and the local busses.
Jinka is 40 km far from Key Afar. It is a tar road with some potholes.
Turmi is 83 km far from Key Afar. Dimeka is the first village on the road, which is 56 km far and than Turmi is only 27 km from Dimeka. Road is still under constriction therefore it is a gravel road with some corrugation. Still the road to Dimeka and Turmi has some problems in the rain season. 🙁
Karo Tirbes, Gorcho village road
Gorcho (One of the Karo ethic groups village) is 50 km far from Turmi. First 30 km is gravel road with some corrugation after that hard sand road, sometimes soft sand. But it is impossible to reach the Gorcho on the rain season. Dus is 19 km far from Gorcho and most of the road is soft sand.
Omorate is 71 km far from Turmi and it is a brand new tar road (2018).
Where to find fuel in Omo Valley? It was one of the big question in our mind when we were going there. We bought petrol in Konso, it is look like only one petrol station sells petrol which was 22 birr. Another option Jinka to find petrol. One petrol station is so much busy because they have petrol, which was 19 birr. We didn’t see petrol station Key Afar, Turmi or Omorate but they have many motorcycles there. So, if you ask one of them they can help to find petrol but price will be more high between 30 to 50 birr. When we were leaving Jinka we calculate how many kilometers we ride and took extra petrol with us.
Where to stay Jinka, Key Afar, Dimeka, Turmi and Omorate in the Omo Valley? Safe, cheap, clean hotel, motel, pension…
We can highly recommend staying in Jinka and Turmi because you can find a lot of option to stay.
Key Afar has two-three pensions. We didn’t stay in Key Afar because we know that people complain about cleanliness and security. Dimeka has the same problem. You can visit Key Afar and Dimeka at the market day. Easy to go with public transport and turn back. We went to Omorate for a day and we couldn’t see nice place to stay around, only some basic pension.
Normally, we have been staying in tent in our journey but we skipped to do it in Ethiopia. We have many reasons for it; it is rain season now. Each day, we have rain maybe half an hour but everywhere getting mud and roads can be like a river. Also, we have a lot of electronic with us. We don’t want to leave them in the tent when we go to visit Ethic groups. In Omo Valley, people like to touch everything a lot. It is not maybe because of they want to steal something; maybe they are only curious. But we don’t feel comfortable to stay with all our bags on the motorcycle. Other reason was price; some camping sites are more expensive than basic rooms. Also, they can be far from the city center. We don’t want to walk 3-4 km under the sun everyday to find food in the city center.
You can find a hotel for yourself, which you like. We wanted to share with you what we know.
Orit Hotel, Jinka (basic room site)
Jinka Pension & Hotels
Who went to Jinka before us they recommend three different hotel/pension to us. Nardos Pension , Goh Hotel and Orit Hotel & Pension. Three of them are clean and close to each other in city center. Nardos and Orit have Wi-Fi (some times good sometimes slow, depend how many people use at the same time.) You should remember that you can always negotiate the prices especially if they are not crowded.
Nardos Pension has a room with private shower and toilet but don’t have many rooms so can be full fast. The rooms with share bathroom are more available. We went there but they didn’t have a room with private bathroom. The room price is 300 birr. They asked 250 birr for a room with shared bathroom room.
Goh Hotel has many rooms and the price starts 350 birr. It was look like ok. We went there only for lunch and we didn’t like the food.
Orit Hotel and Pension has many room because they are famous place for tour operators. They made new building with high quality room (when you compare to Ethiopian standards). We asked the room price and they said 740 birr. We stayed in the cheaper rooms, this is an old building with simple rooms but including shower and toilet and it was clean. They said that they have water problem therefore only bucket shower. (We are not sure that the water ever works J) They said 300 birr but we paid 250 birr. They have bar and restaurant. Food was ok.
Turmi Pension & Hotels
Turmi has many options to stay but its not like Jinka. The prices are higher and the quality is less compared to Jinka.
We stayed in the Green Hotel. They were thinking two guys on the motorcycle and said that 700 birr a room. After they learned that we are couple the price was 500 birr. After negotiated we paid 400 birr for the room, which has a double bed, clean and has running water. It is in the center of the village. (We went to Gosho and Omorate from Turmi and turn back the same day.) Green hotel is so much noisy place. L Because they have TV and local bar, therefore people drink and watch TV almost until midnight.
Tourist Hotel is next door of Green Hotel. We asked the price to them when we were staying in Green hotel, which said that directly 400 birr to double room with private bathroom. They have share bathroom room as well, 100 birr. I suppose it’s similar to the Green Hotel.
We asked price to Kizo Lodge. They wanted 35 USD For the room. It was looking good but it was too expensive for us. They allow camping there. They want 10 USD but you can get 5 USD per night. When we were there they didn’t have internet but local people said that we can use WIFI there. It is in center of the village.
Another option is Mango (Kaske Campsite). Their price for camping 150 birr and basic room is 300 birr but if it is not busy easily you can get price to camping 100 birr and to room 200 birr. It is 4 km far from the center. So, if you want to go shopping or restaurant to eat you must walk.
If you want to go Omo Valley to really discover you can stay in the ethic groups villages as well. This is possible with the Hammer tribes. Of course you need to pay for this. 🙂 When we asked the price they said that 300 birr, per person, for village camping. Also, you can stay Dassenech (Dashnech) village as well but you need to organize with guide where you can find them.
What can you eat or find in Jinka, Turmi or Omorate? What is the price for a meal? Restaurants and markets in Omo Valley…
They have a lot of restaurants in Jinka. We ate sometimes in Orit Hotel. Food price starts 50 birr. Small coffee 5 birr, soft drinks 12 birr and beer 16 birr. We can also recommend Besha Gojo Restaurant. Prices are almost the same as Orit hotel. They have a lot of options in the menu but the quality is better. They have different prices for local and tourist, which is almost double for tourists. For example, our guide ate FirFir 40 birr and we ate 70 birr. He drunk beer 14 birr we paid 23 birr. 🙂 (Some market prices; an avocado 5 birr, local orange 1 birr, a banana 2 birr, a tomato 2 birr and 2 liters water is 15 birr, a sandwich bread is 3 birr)
You can find small markets around to buy drinks, cookies, fruits etc. If you plan to see the Jinka market on Saturday you should wait to buy fruits and vegetables there because it’s so cheap.
Jinka Market
Unfortunately, we cannot say the same thing for Turmi. They have some local restaurants to eat local food. Or hotels have food but they don’t have many options. In Green hotel, local food prices were around 50-70 birr for tourist. We ate only one time there and than we cooked our self most of the time.
You can find easily small markets to buy water and soft drinks. But you can’t find a lot of fruit or vegetables around. Tomato, cabbage, onion, bread and eggs are easy to find. Market day, we found avocado and banana as well. (Some market prices; a small avocado 5 birr, 3 eggs are 10 birr, small cabbage is 5 birr and 2 liters water is 15 birr, soft drinks 500 ml is 20 birr, a sandwich bread is 3 birr).
Two nights we went to Evangadi Lodge to dinner. Local food was 35-40 birr, pizza was 80 birr (you need to order in the day time to dinner) and meat was around 100 birr.
You can try local food; Injera is some kind of bread. You will like or not, nothing between. Shiro is the sauce; you make it with garlic, ginger, tomato and spices. Tips fir-fir is injera with mince meet.
In front: Tips firfir. Behind: Injera with shiro
How much to hire a guide, village enter fee, rent a car, national park enter fee…? Do you need a guide in Omo Valley to explore?
Around Jinka
They don’t have any fix price for hire a guide in Jinka. But most of them want to 500 birr to go to the Mursi Villages. To visit the Ari Village is around 200-300 birr. If you want to visit the Jinka market with a guide (which is not necessary) you can find them on the road when you walk. They can say 150-200 birr you can pay less after negotiate. J Villages enter fee is 200 birr per person. If you want you can hire a guide in a day to visit the Mursi and Ari village also to market. Just you need to negotiate for the price. 🙂
How much did we pay to visit a Mursi village?
500 birr for the guide
270 birr is Mago National Park enter fee per person
54 birr is Mago National Park enter fee per car
200 birr village enter fee per person
150 birr is the ranger price. They don’t allow to you to go the village without ranger. When we were entering the park they didn’t have any scout there. We were in the park at 7 am and looked like they were sleeping. When we were turning back they ask how we enter without anybody. Our guide said that you didn’t there. Answer was “It doesn’t matter you must pay 150 birr” Yes, they didn’t come or do nothing but took the money. So this did not feel good for us!
2000 birr is rent a car. Our guide booked it from “Travel to Tribe”
Mursi Village
You can go to Key Afer alone by local bus we can recommend to have a guide there because life is more easy to take a photo, shopping, info etc. When you walk to the market they will come for a guide to you. You can negotiate for it. Price can be 100 birr. Or you can have a guide from Jinka who is your guide to visit the villages you can ask in the beginning when barging for the price. Don’t forget, most likely they want to charge you full price.
Around Turmi
I suppose that Turmi has only fix price to hire a guide. They have a Evangati Youth Association in the village and they fix the price; village enter fee is 200 birr, guide is 300 birr, bull jumping is 600 birr, dance performance 400 birr and village camping is also 300 birr. You can walk around the market by yourself. When we were there the market day and bull jumping was at the same day. Therefore, we went to the Hammer market with our guide and ask a lot of questions to him (without extra costs).:)
We went to Omorate to visit Dashnech (Daasanach) tribes. Sometimes we really think about where the money goes because it is look like some people do some kind of business 🙁 If you don’t have any vehicle you can rent a motorcycle or hire one. I suppose the price can be around 300 birr.
How much did we pay to visit Daasanach (Dashnech) tribes?
150 birr each person to the village enter fee
400 birr to guide (for group or a person same price)
100 birr for photos. We gave it when we were in the village. You are free how much you want to take photo after pay.
150 birr per person for canoe. They are next to the bridge and easily you can walk to the village. They told us we can walk and pass bridge but we still have to pay for the canoe. Which kind of business it is we are really curios like Mago national park security. You just have to pay!
Daasanach (Dashnech) tribes, Omorate
Visiting Karo village this is a bit far away from Turmi, you can rent a local motorcycle for 400 birr to make the trip. First village Gorcho is about 50 km single way. They wanted 600 birr each person to enter the village. 3-4 guys were sitting in front of the village and drinking beer. It was before 11 am. We didn’t like their behavior and we didn’t sure to our money is going where. Therefore, we didn’t enter the village and turned back. We were enough upset and a little angry about all cost, it felt that we were paying money for somebody get rich or drunk! (To be honest, we were so much disappointed each village about money. Because we are not sure all money going village or somebody making money from their lifestyle.)
Gorcho Karo Village entry
Don’t forget! If you want to take a photo from a person they will charge you. One photo is 5 birr. Sometimes, they can calculate the clicks, so every click is 5 birr. Only in Key Afer market one girl did it. Other times we just paid 5 birr. And most of the time old people want 10 birr for the photo. If you take a general photo from the village or market it is fine, nobody says something for it. When you go to a village you pay enter fee but this doesn’t mean that you don’t need to pay for the photos. Still you must pay for the photo if you want to take it from a person.
When we were visiting the Ari village we took photos how much we wanted. Nobody ask for the money because it is free after pay for the village.
How can I find a local bus (public transporter) to reach the cities?
You can find local busses to travel between the cities easily especially around the market days in the Omo valley. We have been traveling by motorcycle but we used the bus in the Omo valley as well to visit small cities.
Go to Jinka from Addis Adaba:
You can get a bus from Addis AdabatoArba Minch. They have a daily bus between the two cities. It’s about a 10 hours journey and the price is around 250 birr. You can find ticket office next to the stadium (National Museum) for “Selam bus”. If you look more cheap bus you can take public bus from Merkato but we can recommend to use private bus for safety and comfort.
From Arba Minch (in Sikella bus station, everyday) to Jinka is about 6 hours and costs 120 birr. Generally, buses leave when they are full so there is no schedule and they will stop many times that’s why it’s so hard to say how long it will take.
Also, they have a lot of busses from Konso to Jinka every day.
Go to Key Afar from Jinka:
You can find a lot of mini busses that will go from Key AfartoJinka. They leave when they are full. It cost 40 birr and takes about 45 minutes. Especially on Thursday day have many buses to Key Afar from Jinka as its market day in Key Afar. Other days, you can wait long to bus get full.
Key Afar to Jinka
Go to Turmi from Jinka:
It is easy to find a bus on Tuesday and Saturday from Jinka to Turmi. It takes around 3 hours and costs 100 birr.
Go to Dimeka:
You can reach Dimeka from Jinka, Key Afar or Turmi on Tuesday and Saturday. The price is between 30-80 birr.
Go to Omorate:
It is not so easy to find public transport to go to Omorate. A bus is leaving from Jinka on Tuesday and Saturday to Omorate from via Turmi. It is 110 birr and takes around 4 hours. The bus turns back from Omorate the next day. You can get the bus from Turmi as well it takes about one hour and costs 40 birr.
Note:Other days you can find trucks to travel, which local people always take. But we don’t know about the price or safety part. It’s easy to get to Jinka. Therefore when you are making a plan to visit the Omo Valley you should get all bus details in Jinka. Just remember that you can find a bus to go Key Afar, Dimeka, Turmi and Omorate when they have market.
When the sunset was coming we watched their traditional dances. They have many different dances for rain, sick, sun, welcome, etc.
It’s an 80 km ride on a gravel road and the last 6 km are sand, doable with a 2-wheel drive as well. If you are not on your vehicle We didn’t see any public transport so most likely it’s hitch hiking from the main road. (GPS : -19.24479 , 19.23921)
Last part was the hardest part of me because it was so steep and windy. If you are lucky with the weather you should enjoy with the view.
We just walked around a little and enjoyed the view after that we had dinner. We carried all our stuff up our self so we made our own dinner.
At the same time we were watching the sunrise on the other side it was so beautiful.
Sounds good, let’s do that. We woke up early to get ready, opened the windows and see it was poring down rain. No way, not today! But yes unfortunately it was raining, we said goodbye to our friends who we will meet somewhere again around the world and ride through the poring rain to our interview. It was our first time in front of the camera and it was pretty cool to do 🙂
First, we went to Laisamis to South Horr after that our plan was keep continue to Loiyangalani but we couldn’t. 🙁 The road was quite ok with gravel, sometimes hard and sometimes with soft sand.
And than who support him when he jumps to the bulls. They paint their face. After that the bull-jumping boy gets totally naked and they pray together before the jump.
