Melanie McGrath, writing for The Times, tells of her trip into the Omo Valley in Southern Ethiopia.
‘The Omo’, we are told, ‘is a twitchers paradise’ – one which Will Jones is awake to at the crack of Dawn with binoculars at the ready to experience. It’s more than just birds though. The Omo contains more than 20 semi-nomadic pastoralist tribes, who depend on the river for their livelihood and ‘whose fortunes’, Melanie tells us, ‘mirror those of the river’.
With Will Jones, JbD’s managing director and Lule Fessha, local born guide, whose knowledge spans from the intimate call of a carmine bee eater to the bride price of the local women, Melanie guides us through the rites and history of the valley’s residents. She tells us of those that reside in the blood-red terraced valleys of Konso, encountering first the Hamer and then the Kara and Mursi tribes, famous by their lip plates worn by the women.
Classic luxury is hard to come by in the Omo but another kind, impossible to force by human hand, is apparent in its space and remoteness.
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