TomKal foto

Etiopia 11/12-2019 - Introducing text - Prince Ruspoli's Turaco
Coming back to Africa is an important experience for me. This time i went to Ethiopia - cradle of civilization, because that’s the place where Lucy (2 leg creature from 3,2 billion years ago) is from. The purpose of a trip was to photograph birds. I couldn’t skip the specific of this marvellous country and comparisons to Tanzania. These were 2 different trips. In Tanzania we slept in a tent near wild nature, away from civilization. In Ethiopia we moved mostly on paved roads, passing villages. In total we travelled 2000 km, from the capital Addis to Abeby. Ethiopia is a powerful country, because the surface is 1,1 million square kilometers. We saw only a part of it, but it was also very diverse and beauty. I hope that i could show it ni gallery Ethiopia landscape (link). Similar to Tanzania we visited national parks. Expressions from these 2 countries were entirely different. We were often alone in parks in Ethiopia. Animals weren’t used to cars, differently than in Tanzania. Animals were skittish and hard to photograph. The benefit of these parks was possibility to leave from the car in every moment. There weren’t any lions, elephants or buffalos, that could harm visitors. In Tanzania we photographed Oxpeckers, which were sitting on buffalos and giraffes, but in Ethiopia they were sitting on horses and cows. Moving in Ethiopia was much easier, because the lion’s share of roads was paved. Despite the good quality of roads it could always be a huge hole, which could end our trip. Cows, camels and goats could also create threats on the road. There are no rules when it comes to transporting people.  They believe they can take as many passengers as it’s possible. I saw 6 grown men on one motorcycle. It creates another threats on the road. Moving 200km - 300km could take all day on unpaved road. We could do it all thanks to the most sympathetic driver in Ethiopia - Mtuku. Regards and thanks for safe trip and smile, which could cheer up everyone. Driving on unpaved roads was connected to dust, which was everywhere. There were so much of it that we couldn’t see the road. It wasn’t difficult to see car accident. We passed a few of truck or bus accidents, which looked very dangerous. I posted some photos, which depicted them in gallery Ethiopia others (link). In Ethiopia we had constant contact with local people. Despite of the dust and difficulties with water Ethiopians had always a lot of energy and were dressed colorful. When they saw oncoming car they waved their hands. Kids ran to the car. It wasn’t right for men to express emotions the same way, so they stand next to the road with their thumbs up to show, that everything is ok. Despite of the target of our trip, which was bird photography, I had to take photos of such photogenic Ethiopians. Every time we refueled car, eat meals in restaurants we took photos of them. Not everyone wanted to pose and we didn’t take photos of them. Some wanted to pose for money. Some women wanted to be photographed, but not every of them, for these we had to use trick. After refusal of possibility of taking picture i took photo and came to women to show them. If they didn’t like it we deleted it together, but when they did i kept them. They always let me keep the photos with a smiles on their faces. Fortunately it helped me create many interesting photos. I hope it gives back the beauty of Ethiopian women. There were so many of pictures that I had to create 3 galleries of Ethiopians: “ETHIOPIANS children's portraits” (link), ETHIOPIANS adults’ portraits (link), ETHIOPIANS others (link). In the province girls were dressed traditionally, in the cities they prefered modern outfits. Because of so many meetings with Ethiopians i had to create new galleries to commemorate them. The idyllic landscape was disturbed by machine guns. On the turnpikes of the city there were sentries with such a weapon. Shepherds were also armed in machine guns. Sentry of a park were also armed. A moment after a truck accident armed men appear to control the chaos. Night watch in hotels is also armed in machine guns. For a tourist it’s quite difficult to accept commonness of a weapon in Ethiopia. Nothing happened to let us see the usage of them. Maybe only awareness of it is enough. But that’s the end of this bad accent that kept us away of birds. There was no day not to be satisfied with some successful photography sessions. Of course birds aren’t everywhere. We had to find them in specific places. We could do that thanks to Girum. Thanks for professional organisation and creating possibility of photographing birds. 1 more information for people who are planning to visit the Ethiopia about hotels. In the capital of the country there were plenty of good hotels. In the province it looked another way. We were only sure about the bed in our room. The other facilities such as water or other equipment was optional. 1 of hotels offered us water in buckets because of a “breakdown”.  In half of them we had only cold water. In 2 of them we had electricity only from dusk to 22. There is no alternative in the province. The lack of water provoked me to propose our guide tour the changing of a hotel. A moment later i realized that it was the best hotel in our area. We shared same conditions with British, Italians and Germans. In the most of other hotels we were the only guests. But we didn’t come here for comfort. We came to Ethiopia to photograph birds and that was of the utmost importance. We managed to photograph so many good quality pictures that we were satisfied. The best proof of it are new galleries. In slightly more than 2 weeks we managed to photograph 200 species of birds. For me 86 are new species and 118 are only changes in galleries. This time i changed more galleries than created. The reason of that is my visit in Tanzania. So in many galleries i changed the quality and amount of presented photos. I also recorded 30 voices of birds. Thanks to Girum we had so good effects because of his involvement and our determination to photograph all day long. It was possible thanks to atmosphere of my friends. Tadeusz, Krzysztof, Piotr greetings and thanks for next successful trip. 

 I added main text to Prince Ruspoli's turaco - beautiful Ethiopian endemic. I managed to take some interesting photos and record the voice. Ethiopians haven’t chosen their bird national symbol yet. I hope when they do, they choose this bird. It lives only there. When i look at Ethiopia’s map it lives on a very tiny area. It wasn’t easy to photograph Prince Ruspoli's turaco. We met many difficulties such us unpaved road and local people. When we stopped the car next ot the road, suddenly some men showed to pay them for photographing. We made a decision we’re going further. 1 or 2 kilometers further we had similar situation. The atmosphere was tense, because we were so close to Prince Ruspoli's turaco, but we didn't have it’s photos. Fortunately in the next place local people were interested in us, not in taking money for photographing. We left the car and we found Prince Ruspoli's turaco. I thought that now it’s the time for recording the voice. I was so absorbed with it that i didn’t mind talks of local people. It was very harmful for the quality of the record. When i took my microphone there were about 50 young men behind us. There were no women  there. They probably had something more important to do. I put my pointing finger on my mouth to let them now that i beg for quiet. They understood and did it. The quiet was only disturbed by sounds on the road. I regret not making a short movie out of it. Several dozen people stood among the trees, there is a small stream and everyone listen to Prince Ruspoli's turaco.

Traditionally there was posted in each and every gallery list of new galleries and the ones that were changed. The list contains links of these galleries. If there is a letter “E” after the name of a species it means it’s endemic ethiopian species. If there is a letter “T” after the name of a species it means it contains text, if “V” it contains voice.