Awash National Park

Sunday 23rd

Heading on towards our lunch stop, a brief Abdim's Stork over roadside fields was new for everyone on the trip, and we had a Dark Chanting-goshawk on roadside poles. Lunch was in the Adama Ras Hotel in Nazaret, where we felt slightly scruffy having an excellent buffet lunch alongside the townsfolk in their Sunday best! For those with the energy to explore the "garden" afterwards, we turned up Pied Wheatear, Isabelline Shrike, Blue-naped Mousebird and an African Harrier-hawk (a.k.a. Gymnogene) sitting quietly among the trees.

Onward we drove, heading north-eastwards into ever drier country, with roadside camels and groups of the nomadic Karayu and Afar people herding their goats in the acacia savannah. The scenery was getting ever more rugged and mountainous too, and the birds were subtly changing. Good ones en route included a rather technical pair of Eastern Imperial Eagles, a brief African Hobby, and the first of many Abyssinian Rollers and Isabelline Wheatears.

Lake Basaka, close to Awash, made a brief but windy late afternoon stop - African Darter, Wattled Starling, Gull-billed and White-winged Black Terns were here, but sadly we could find none of the local crocodiles! After passing through Metahara, we reached the Awash parkgate with about an hour of daylight left, and worked our way along the 5km track to our campsite - with some success!

Birds included a stunning male Eastern Paradise-whydah, with his extraordinarily long tail plumes, Red-billed Hornbill, the localised Eastern Chanting-goshawk and a single Buff-crested Bustard - but it was the mammals that stole the show, with some 15+ Beisa Oryx, several Salt's Dik-diks and a female Lesser Kudu.

We reached camp to be greeted by our cook, Alex, and his team of busy camp workers, settled in to our tents under some huge trees, right by the Awash River, and soon sat down to a superb meal of spicy soup, fresh fish, and fruit and fruit cake, the latter topped by a candle to mark Ian's birthday.

Excited at the prospect of a night under canvas in the African bush, we retired quite early, and dropped off to sleep….

Monday 24th

….except nearly everyone slept rather poorly, disturbed as we were by the unfamiliar sounds of the African night - insects, frogs, and even a roaring cat (variously thought to be Lion or Leopard) at 0300 - and more mundanely, the local donkeys and dogs!

But it was an excited band of Naturetrekkers that wolfed down a hearty breakfast, and then boarded the fun bus for our drive deep into the National Park. We picked up our two armed guards, and set off!

Swiftly, we added lots of good birds - Crested Francolin, Yellow-necked Spurfowl, Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse at point-blank range, White-bellied Go-away Bird, Masked, Northern White-crowned and Rosy-patched Shrikes (today was to be a "big shrike day"!), Yellow-billed Hornbill, White-browed Sparrow-weaver, White-headed Buffalo-weaver, European Quail, Slate-coloured Boubou, and some good raptors too - Martial Eagle, African Pygmy-falcon and two Gabar Goshawks (including one of the rare melanistic form). Abyssinian Hare was new for the mammal list!

We drove right across to Kudu Valley, where we dismounted for a hour's walk around a spring-fed watering hole, fringed with dense woodland. Here, we found a large troop of Hamadryas Baboons, plus an absolute wealth of birds, most of them various finches and weavers, coming down to drink - highlights included Cut-throat Finch, Chestnut Sparrow, Common Waxbill, African Silverbill and Rueppell's Weaver. A startlingly blue Woodland Kingfisher electrified the scene, and in the dry scrub near the bus, we found both Orange-bellied Parrot and Northern Crombec. Most exciting of all, perhaps, we found some very fresh Lion tracks by the pool - gulp!

In reality, the main security concern in Awash is the presence of groups of nomadic people tending their animals - while they are perfectly friendly to tourists, they don't necessarily get on with each other - so when two rival groups appeared to be approaching the waterhole, we decided it was time to withdraw and head back towards civilisation!

We drove back to Metahara for a tasty local lunch, before returning to camp (via a roadside Golden Jackal) for tea, a siesta (supposedly!) and a bit more local wildlife - notably a Nile Crocodile right by the kitchen tents and a Leopard Tortoise a short distance away.

At about 1530, we headed off into the field once more. This time, Andreas and Yilma took us eastwards towards Awash Gorge, slowly making our way through much more open savannah than this morning. As a result, we saw more mammals - 24+ Beisa Oryx and several of the regionally endemic Soemmerring's Gazelle - and stacks of good birds, especially shrikes: Common and Somali Fiscals, Isabelline, Woodchat and Southern Grey, including one of the form pallidirostris, sometimes split as a separate species, Steppe Grey Shrike.

Also on offer were Montagu's and Pallid Harriers, three recently fledged Black-chested Snake-eagles, Harlequin Quail, Chestnut-back Sparrow-lark, Red-winged Lark, Superb Starling, Yellow-bellied Eremomela, Carmine Bee-eater and White-bellied Bustard. We thoroughly enjoyed a golden couple of hours of daylight as the sun set behind us - this is the way to enjoy Christmas Eve!

At dusk, we had a round of drinks at the Kereyu Lodge (actually a collection of static caravans in a field!), and enjoyed the stunning views over the gorge as it got dark. We took the 12km home nice and slowly, lamping all the way. We turned up another Golden Jackal, many Abyssinian Hares and brief Common Genet and a Mongoose sp., plus a Sombre Nightjar on the track and a scattering of roosting birds in roadside acacias.

Arriving back right on cue at 2000, we had yet another excellent meal courtesy of Alex and his crew, and crawled off to bed, hoping we were more acclimatised to bush nightlife this time!

Tuesday 25th

We were! All much refreshed, we headed out for an early walk at 0630, westwards along the river. We added a few nice species, such as Sulphur-breasted Bush-shrike, Diederik Cuckoo, Red-faced Crombec, Red-fronted Tnkerbird and Tropical Boubou, and had decent views of Olivaceous Warbler, and slightly less good views of Lesser Whitethroat and Thrush Nightingale!

After still more food (thanks Alex!), we struck camp and drove a short distance to the scenically attractive Awash Falls, where we saw two new wagtails - African Pied and Mountain. Near the park gates, we added a pair of Abyssinian Scimitarbills, and while we couldn't find any Kori Bustards, we did see a rather distant Bateleur.

It was time to say goodbye to Awash, but Yilma had just one trick left up his sleeve. On the far side of Metahara, we pulled up at a most unlikely looking spot - all lava, clinker, diesel and tar! But, right on cue, he found within just a couple of minutes an extremely localised regional endemic - the Sombre Chat. It was not much more exciting to look at than its name suggests, but it was a bit of a "mega-bird" nonetheless!

Continue to the Rift Valley lakes