Fishing in the Bale Mountains
It’s cold in Dinsho. More than 10,000 ft in the southern Ethiopian highlands, I’m nestled in below 5 thick felt blankets, at least one which I think was formerly a curtain based on the metal rings sown into it that are lying heavily across my feet. My shoulders and ever-growing bald patch are cool to the touch. Every 20 minutes or so, a rumbling CNCO truck rumbles into the compound shaking the building, the driver walks up and down the row of 10 rooms knocking on each door and shouting “hello” until the attendant wearily opens the door to the “reception” office. So how did I come to be lying in a Pension Motel on the main/only road in Dinsho, 250km south of Addis? I came looking for trout. During my last trip to Ethiopia, I had seen one sentence in the Lonely Planet guide book that mentioned, “a fishing guide can set you up with a rod and reel.” That was enough to get my mind racing. A quick google search revealed that at some point there were trout in Ethi...