Thanksgiving Day at Nechsar National Park and Lake Chamo

Itinerary Day 20: Thanksgiving at Arbaminch-Nechsar National Park - Lake Chamo 

In the morning, will have a game drive around the Nechsar National Park. This national park, with thrilling landscapes of mountains and lakes is one of the most attractive parks in the country. We will have the chance to see different mammals which inhabit the park including, the endemic antelope, Swayne’s Hartebeest, Gerenuk, Grants Gazelle, and Burchele Zebra. In the afternoon, we will have a boat cruise over Lake Chamo to see some of the biggest African crocodiles. Hippopotamus, and many beautiful aquatic birds including the lovely Kingfisher and African Fish Eagle.

Journal:  As I write this the blog is hopelessly behind, due primarily to the absence of adequate internet for much of the trip.   Decided to leap ahead and post our Thanksgiving Day now, and will continue to fill in the sizable journal gaps as time and internet availability permits.

Awoke on Thanksgiving Day thinking about the great Thanksgiving Day feasts we've enjoyed with friends and family in the bay area and in Chicago.  We'll miss the meal and the camaraderie,and the meal, and the meal.  But... we still had a great day in store.

The plan was to pick up a boat captain and a "Scout" (always required in the National Parks - think armed park ranger), drive to Lake Chamo, take a boat tour across the lake, a nature hike in the park on the other side, and see what there was to see.  As it turns out - there was a lot to see.

 On the drive over we saw these Guinea Fowl by the side of the road.

All I could think was how they would look roasted and stuffed in lieu of a turkey. On arrival at Lake Chamo we found our boat and the captain poled us out.

I forgot what the captain's real name was....

... we all called him "Captain Obama".

First stop - Crocodile Cove

There be monsters here.

We're told this where you find the largest crocs in Africa, and I've no reason to doubt it. They're the biggest I've ever seen by far. Some looked as long as the boat. Still... I was thinking... tastes like chicken... maybe - instead of turkey... stuffed croc kinda sounds good.

More sightings on the cruise across...

Fish Eagle

We watched him snatch a fish but didn't get a great shot

Hippo

Pelicans

Pelican air ballet

Giant Monitor Lizard

On the other side we disembarked and hiked up over a dry hot rridge. Then it got even better.

We found the herd of Burchelles Zebra we hoped to see. They strolled right by us. We watched and walked with them for almost an hour.

click to biggify

Sigrid could not get enough...

I don't know how many hundred of pictures she shot. This is just a sampling.

All in all, it was pretty frggin' amazing...

 ... and a truly great day.

But I still missed my traditional Thanksgiving Dinner.

Roasted chicken legs, processed mashed potatoes and a side of spaghetti was as close as I could get. 

I know...



Editors Note: I intend to pre-load and schedule automated blog posts with the daily itinerary for our Ethiopian adventure. For those interested, this may be an easy way to follow along. Since we will not have internet access for most of the trip, my hope is this will make it easier to add some pics and journal commentary if and when we run across an internet connection. If there are no pics or commentary, you'll just have to wait until we get back. We'll see how it goes.