How to get there:
From Jimma, drive towards Addis Ababa, then leave the highway where
it makes a "U-shaped" swing and drive into the town of Omonada.
From here, follow the road that has been posted as a track
on Peakbagger. Park near the highest point of the road just
next to the final slope to the summit.
Route description:
Ascend the slope above the road. The best route is likely shown
as my descend route on Peakbagger (Track posted). Near the top,
a small, short trail enters the dense vegetation and crosses
the summit area.
Comments:
I decided to do this peak as a day trip from Jimma. We started
driving at 0730 and arrived without any issues in the town
of Omonada. From here, the maps showed 2 alternatives, a shorter white
road that looked as it might not be driveable, then a longer yellow
road that made a big arch, but eventually merged with the
white route higher up. Google suggested this route. I already knew
from experience here in Ethiopia that Google should NOT be trusted,
however, all available data suggested that we should drive the
somewhat longer route.
However, as it turned out, we soon ran into a sequence of problems.
The road led us to a bridge that
we clearly should not drive across.
We found a bypass crossing the small river without a bridge. Next, we came
to a road block with armed men, they refused to let us pass. We returned
a short way to a small village center and immediately got permission
to pass by the local chief. Back to the road block, this time passing.
After only 300 meter a second road block, but no big issues there.
However, our road got increasingly worse and we were still more than 20 kilometer
from the peak. Finally, we arrived at another bridge that could not be
crossed (safely) with a heavy landcruiser. Turn around. We considered the
option of finding a motor bike that could take me from here. That would mean a
very long ride. Driving back to the first road block, a man told us that we
should have taken the other, alternative route.
OK, we needed to go all the way back to town. There, I carefully navigated
to find the smaller "white" road. This road was indeed very rough and
steepish, clearly worse than the route we had already tried with respect to
the first kilomter.
At this point, everything changed for the better.
We entered a BIG road
that came from below, obviously from the town. This road had not
shown on my maps at all. We noticed that it was completely new and still
under construction.
The rest was a piece of cake, easy driving to
the base of the hill, then a
10 minute ascent towards the summit,
avoiding bad bushwack by following
a trail the very final part.
The summit
was a small clearing in the bush. Returning to the car,
I had a nice and easy drive back to Jimma.
