Thu 19th: We walked 200 yards down the road from the hotel to the 'tourist office' where we were shown five ancient wagas and given a talk about Konso tribal tradition. Drove through hills to a village and then walked through woodland for ten minutes to a well, one of the famous "Singing wells of the Borena". Three men passed buckets of water from the bottom of the well up to cattle troughs at the top, singing as they did so. Some camels had just been watered there and we passed them on the path. Drove on to our hotel at Yabello where we had lunch.
Cattle troughs above the well
The top man empties his bucket
Then we took a dead straight road for an hour and a half to El Sod crater. Walked down into the crater with James, Geoff, Norman and Dan. James sets a cracking pace and I couldn't keep up on either the descent or ascent. We walked around the crater lake and saw the salt collectors, many of whom were naked. The salt is washed, put in sacks and brought out of the crater by mules. I found the climb out extremely tough and was exhausted on reaching the top. Gave 2 birr to a small boy who had 'helped' me down. In fact, he fell over and I'd had to help him! Returned to the hotel for a shower and another good dinner.
