As I have
mentioned and as is apparent from my earlier altercation with a goat, the
livestock on the roads is a major consideration when driving in Ethiopia.
Ive
covered quite a bit of ground now while seeing various sights in Ethiopia and I
thought Id share what Ive learned about the animal road users here…
There are
basically five different animals that you have to deal with and they each have
different “personalities” that it is helpful to consider when you encounter
them while driving:
Cows:
Pretty
much all varieties behave the same which is basically to pretty much ignore you
and carry on doing whatever they were doing before you arrived. The good thing
about them though is that whatever it is that they are doing, they are
invariably doing it very slowly!... That means they are very easy to predict
and therefore easy to avoid. If you are not going stupidly fast and come across
one suddenly as you round a bend then you should have no problems. Cows will
actually take evasive action if you ride right at them but it is slooooow
action and only once you are within a few metres. They can however be quite
frustrating when they are in groups of a dozen or more… In these cases they are
usually blocking the whole road and you have to pretty much come to a complete
standstill and use plenty of horn (no pun intended) to get them to move aside to
allow you through… But other than that they are no problem.
Sheep:
Lots of
these about though North Americans are probably pretty unfamiliar with them.
They are pretty docile little guys but seeing as how they are no where near as
massive as cows, they are significantly more maneuverable and so drivers need
to watch them a bit more. But they are very much herd animals and if you bear
that in mind they are largely very predictable. If there is s single animal
away from the group and it gets startled then it will invariably run toward the
group… nice and predictable J They are more easily alarmed by
vehicles than cows and will try to avoid you while you are still at about 10m
of range… well that is if they are not actually sleeping on the road (which
they often are). If you do startle them and there is no group to run to then
they will predictably run toward the side of the road that is farthest from you
(ie the quickest path to cover that is away from the threat… again nice and
predictable. The only exception to this is little lambs that when startled will
pretty much always run toward their mother (and quite quickly too), and that
may be across your path so watch out for the little ones.
Goats
Goats are
a lot like sheep but they are quite a bit more trouble for drivers. They have a
more “adventurous” and “inquisitive” nature than sheep and this causes
problems. First off, they are more self interested than sheep and will tend to
ignore possible threats until they become definite threats… This means that
they will stand there in the road way doing whatever it is they are doing
(sniffing the road usually) and pretty much ignore you (despite lights and
toots on the horn) until the last moment. Then when you are only about 5-10
metres away they will suddenly pay attention and make a mad dash for safety…
The trouble is though that their version of safety is not very predictable…
sometimes it is to the nearest clear space, sometimes it is toward the rest of
the herd, sometimes it is to their best friend (another goat). So they are
inattentive, self-involved, quick, and unpredictable… You need to give them
very close attention and slow down more than you think!
Donkeys
There are
lots and lots of these guys around Ethiopia… Not in Kenya and not so much in
Sudan either but they are the most common beast of burden in Ethiopia and Id
guess that pretty much every family in the country owns one or more of them.
Many a small water delivery business has a group of 6-10 of these plying the
lanes of small towns along the highways. Donkeys are… well, Donkeys! They are
of the horse family and are therefore capable of quite flighty behavior… But
they have been domesticated and have specifically been bred for docile
characteristics that are good for load bearing. They tend also to be completely
self-involved and pretty much ignore anything that is not of immediate interest
to them… So they will blithely walk straight into your path (quite possibly
deliberately!) no matter how fast or slow you are moving or if there are
flashing lights or blaring horns… Yes they see you but they don’t care! They
care a little bit about their owner’s prods and whips and beatings but not much…
But what they do care about is other donkeys and they have a social pecking
order that they are always reinforcing… And so if there is a donkey in your path
then it will probably behave like a cow and just ignore you… But it could also
suddenly surge into your path for some random “donkey” reason and even if you
are stopped then it could still ram you!
They are plain dangerous and other than dogs, Ive seen more of them as
road-kill than all of the others put together.
Dogs
Well we’ve
all seen these guys as road kill. Dogs are very intelligent and well able to
move suddenly and very quickly. They are also for the most part very logical
and when they see you as an approaching threat they will do their utmost to get
out of the way and they will do so in the most logical (ie quickest way) direction
to get away from you… But their failure is that they get over-confident and
inattentive…It seems that they spend so much time around roads and vehicles
that sooner or later they are looking the wrong way and walking on the road
when a fast vehicle comes along. In many cases I think they are just so worn
out and tired (the life of a street dog is pretty tough) that they eventually
just make a mistake at the wrong time. The other main failing that gets young
dogs is that they are distractible by things of “dog interest” and get so zoned
in that they stop paying attention to traffic. The good thing is that its
usually not too hard to give them a hand… When you see a dog that is in your
path or is headed that way then all you need to do is get its attention (if you
can see that he has not yet seen you) with a toot of the horn or two and once
he sees you, he will do the right thing and get out of the way … easy to deal
with J
… and as
quickly as it had appeared it disappeared… I came down out of the hills and I
was on the green plains… and there were no animals!… and no people… just miles
and miles of open green plains… It
turned out that I had left Ethiopia and was now in Sudan!...
