World’s Last wilderness - that’s OMO
27 July 2014 10:02 PM GMT
Omo Valley, Ethiopia’s primary World Heritage site (UNESCO), is one of the world’s extremely unique places. Ethiopia is often referred to as the water tower of Eastern Africa because of the many rivers that pour off its high tableland, and a visit to Omo Rift Valley, studded with lakes, volcanoes and savannah grassland, offers the visitor a true safari experience.
Omo Valley is virtually free of human habitation but it is rich in palaeo-anthropological remains. According to research conducted in 1982 by the University of California at Berkeley, hominid remains from the Omo Valley probably date back more than four million years. Much of Africa's volcanic activity is concentrated along the immense 5,000 kilometers crack in the earth’s surface known as the Rift Valley.
It is the result of two roughly parallel faults, between which, in distant geological time, the crust was weakened and the land subsided. The valley walls 97 daunting blue-grey ridges of volcanic basalt and granite - rise sheer on either side to towering heights of 4,000 meters. The valley floor 50 kilometers or more across encompasses some of the world’s last true wildernesses.
The Omo River tumbles its 350 kilometers way through a steep inaccessible valley before slowing its pace as it nears the lowlands and then meanders through flat, semi-desert bush, eventually running into Lake Turkana. Since 1973, the river proved to be a major attraction for white-water rafters. The season for rafting is between September and October when the river is still high from the June to September rains but the weather is drier.
The river passes varied scenery including an open gallery forest of tamarinds and figs, alive with colobus monkeys. Under the canopy along the riverbanks may be seen many colorful birds – Goliath herons, blue-breasted kingfishers, white-cheeked turacos. Emerald-spotted wood doves and red-fronted bee-eaters are all rewarding sights, while monitor lizards maybe glimpsed scuttling into the undergrowth. Beyond the forest, hippos graze on the savannah slopes against the mountain walls, and waterbuck, bushbuck and Abyssinian ground hornbills are sometimes to be seen.
Animal checklist
Eland, Lion, Buffalo, Leopard, Elephant, Burchell’s Zebra, Giraffe, Lelwel Hartebeest, Cheeta and Topi.
An interesting identifier - The headrest
The Omo valley in south Ethiopia is inhabited by many tribes and ethnic groups. These ethnic groups have their own unique tradition and way of life. Many tribes like Tsemay, Karo, etc have a culture of using head rest. When men and boys wander with their cattle this head rest is always with them. The headrest has two main functions - to rest their head when exhausted and for sitting, when they get tired.
Omo Valley is virtually free of human habitation but it is rich in palaeo-anthropological remains. According to research conducted in 1982 by the University of California at Berkeley, hominid remains from the Omo Valley probably date back more than four million years. Much of Africa's volcanic activity is concentrated along the immense 5,000 kilometers crack in the earth’s surface known as the Rift Valley.
It is the result of two roughly parallel faults, between which, in distant geological time, the crust was weakened and the land subsided. The valley walls 97 daunting blue-grey ridges of volcanic basalt and granite - rise sheer on either side to towering heights of 4,000 meters. The valley floor 50 kilometers or more across encompasses some of the world’s last true wildernesses.
The Omo River tumbles its 350 kilometers way through a steep inaccessible valley before slowing its pace as it nears the lowlands and then meanders through flat, semi-desert bush, eventually running into Lake Turkana. Since 1973, the river proved to be a major attraction for white-water rafters. The season for rafting is between September and October when the river is still high from the June to September rains but the weather is drier.
The river passes varied scenery including an open gallery forest of tamarinds and figs, alive with colobus monkeys. Under the canopy along the riverbanks may be seen many colorful birds – Goliath herons, blue-breasted kingfishers, white-cheeked turacos. Emerald-spotted wood doves and red-fronted bee-eaters are all rewarding sights, while monitor lizards maybe glimpsed scuttling into the undergrowth. Beyond the forest, hippos graze on the savannah slopes against the mountain walls, and waterbuck, bushbuck and Abyssinian ground hornbills are sometimes to be seen.
Animal checklist
Eland, Lion, Buffalo, Leopard, Elephant, Burchell’s Zebra, Giraffe, Lelwel Hartebeest, Cheeta and Topi.
An interesting identifier - The headrest
The Omo valley in south Ethiopia is inhabited by many tribes and ethnic groups. These ethnic groups have their own unique tradition and way of life. Many tribes like Tsemay, Karo, etc have a culture of using head rest. When men and boys wander with their cattle this head rest is always with them. The headrest has two main functions - to rest their head when exhausted and for sitting, when they get tired.
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