Today we didn’t have to drive much, since we only wanted to reach Lake Langano, approximately 200 km south of Addis Ababa. We barely drove two hours and arrived at the Bekele Mola Hotel around 10 am. Bekele Mola is an Ethiopian hotel chain, comparable to Holiday Inn or Best Western. This hotel was located directly on the lake shore and consisted of quite a few bungalows, a bar, a restaurant, a mini shop and a huge beach. The view over the lake was scenic, especially because the lake’s water has a slightly russet colour that resembles a cup of strong English tea - with a dash of milk. Quite famous for it, the lake’s waters are clean and it’s one of the few lakes in Ethiopia to have been declared bilharzia-free. (Bilharzia is a disease quite common in Africa. It’s transmitted by minute worms and can be contracted if you swim in rivers, freshwater lakes, ponds or any shallow water. The worms enter through your skin and can infect the intestines or other organs of a human host.)

When we arrived at the hotel, the rooms had not been cleaned yet, so we had a drink at the bar’s terrace and waited to get into our bungalow. This was actually the first time I got a bit of a sunburn ever since I was in Africa. Normally, I always put on sunscreen before even starting my day but today, I must have forgotten it and only put on lotion in the afternoon before going to the beach. Well, these – what, 45? – minutes at the terrace were enough to slightly burn my arms and I had T-shirt sleeve lines for the rest of my trip!

Around lunch we could finally move in our bungalow and while Xavier and Ihab when straight to the beach, Mohamed and I took a little break on the bungalow’s front porch. It was really hot and I definitely prefer the shade at this time of day. So I sat in a chair and was reading my book, when Mohamed started to peel a mango and suddenly a HUGE male baboon appeared on top of a wall to my right! I swear it was the largest baboon I’ve ever seen; just sitting he was almost 1 meter tall, and that only two meters away from me. I thought, well, as long as I don’t do anything to him, he won’t do anything to me, so I tried to continue reading but it was almost impossible to focus on my book. I kept watching him out of the corner of my eye and saw that he was clearly starring at Mohamed’s mango. I told Mohamed and when he had finished eating it, he threw the remaining stone a few meters away, thinking the baboon would run after it. But the ape didn’t move an inch. So Mohamed brought up a new mango and started playing around with it, throwing it up in the air, etc.. The baboon had his eyes fixed on the mango again and I felt kind of weird because I was basically sitting between him and the object of his appetite. He looked quite scary with his long silver-grey hair, a huge snout and somehow small, fierce-looking eyes. I just told Mohamed to stop teasing the animal because I had heard that a baboon of only regular size can bite off a human arm with his bare teeth, when suddenly the ape jumped in our direction! I can tell you, I never came out off a chair that quickly and Mohamed just threw away the mango. Luckily, the baboon ran after the fruit. Hugh, what a shock!!

Further to that, he peacefully sat in the middle of the driveway and ate the mango. Later he climbed up the tree in front of our bungalow and I also saw him digging in a public garbage bin, searching for food (which was repeated by the white horses you could rent on the beach later that evening). Luckily, we didn’t see the baboon that close anymore but I could hear weird noise on our roof all night. At least, Mohamed never played around with food in front of an animal again!

After this scary encounter with the giant baboon, I finally set off to the beach and spent the rest of the day relaxing in the sun. It was great and almost felt like holidays. I felt reminded of Dahab (in Egypt). The only disturbance here were millions of tiny ants you couldn’t escape from because they were everywhere. Something else you couldn’t escape from on this beach were other tourists, almost all of them white. I was surprised big time when I heard quite a few of them were speaking German! Compared to Wondo Genet, Lake Langano seemed to be more of an “international” holiday destination, not as luxurious and intimate, but somehow still at least as pleasant. Maybe just because it felt more familiar amongst whites? I don’t know but I really enjoyed our time here.

In the evening we had dinner at the hotel restaurant – where else, since there was nothing else around. Afterwards we lit a candle (don’t forget it is dark half past six here) and sat on our front porch for quite a while, exploring all sorts of topics. Ihab, I’ll never forget our conversation about reincarnation – I’m sorry I couldn’t convince you! ;o)