I arrived in Addis Ababa late in the evening after leaving Minneapolis for Amsterdam the previous afternoon; then a nonstop from there to Addis Ababa. I was met at the airport by Fred Rademeyer, my friend and PH from several other African safaris in East and Southern Africa. We headed into the city which by then was quite quiet, and arrived at the Jerusalem Hotel. After passing through metal detectors, somewhat recently installed because of terror groups operating in Africa, I managed to get some much-needed sleep.
Early the next morning Fred and I were joined by Siszy who was to be our Ethiopian guide and hunter, as well as the local outfitter. After getting into his Land Cruiser, we headed south to the Bale Mountains. Leaving the smog behind we wound our way down from the city’s 8000 feet elevation to the town of Nazareth (notice the connections to Israel), then Assela where we had lunch. From there we left civilization on rutted roads through
