Abaya And Chamo
Arba Minch meaning ‘forty springs’ is situated at an elevation of around 1300m in the foot hills of the Rift Valley and amid a country with abundant water, on a high, cool ridge overlooking two of the southern Rift’s most beautiful lakes Chamo and Abaya. The town is directly opposite Nechisar National Park entrance. ‘Nech’ means white and ‘Sar’ means grass- and the combination ‘white grass’ clearly describing the broad plains area of Nechisar National Park supporting a good number of mammals including, the large greater kudu, with spectacular spiral horns and white-striped flanks, the tiny Guenther’s dik-dik, usually seen in pairs, herds of Burch ell’s zebra, which mingle with Grant’s gazelle and an occasional Swayne’s hartebeest – an endemic subspecies.
The two lakes are divided by a hilly ridge with the delightful name of the ‘Bridge of Heaven’. . Many small rivers empty into both lakes. Crocodiles and hippos abound and hippo hunters from the local Ganjule and Guji tribes carry on a lucrative trade in those parts of the lakes not inside the national park. There is also a crocodile market at the mouth of the small Kulfo River which flows into Lake Chamo. Further north on the shores of Lake Abaya is a crocodile farm, also outside the park boundary.