Chad Adventure III. Aloba, Five Arch Rock, and Main Camp

Our next days in Ennedi were spent exploring from a base camp in the center of a region of incredible features and landscapes.  It was nice to know that we would be staying in one place for some nights instead of packing up and driving like crazy. 

Kelly’s thoughts… 

As we left Bashikele we drove past Julia Arch one  more time.  We both agreed it was the best introduction to the Ennedi ever, and one of the best things we had ever seen.  Now, as we think of going back to Ennedi one day to see more, that will be the first place we visit. 

Bashikele is along the southeastern edge of Ennedi, and so we traveled northwest along the southern margin of the Plateau among the cliffs and monuments.  All along the way were amazing spires and cliffs, arches and holes. The Ennedi cliffs rise straight out of the sandy, flat surface of the plain, in some cases hundreds of feet.  A tortured collection of canyons, from broad to slotted, extend into the plateau.

The low areas were dotted with scrubby acacia and low grasses and wild desert goard plants (colocynth).  Clearly the area is somewhat greener during the rainy season which had ended about a month ago.  We were there at (for us) a perfect time for weather… 80s during the day, 50s at night.  Our colleagues, Yves and Armando, were freezing in the morning!  But we were really comfortable.  There was a bit of a wind from time to time, but not enough to trouble us. 

There are no real roads in this area, but we followed tracks that crossed the ouadis and went around the sandy areas, avoiding the spiny acacias.  All along the route were small portable homes of the Daza and Tubou peoples who are sub-nomadic herders or form somewhat more stable farming communities near oases.  Many of their homes are made of beautifully woven huge grass mats that can be rolled up and loaded on camels for transport. Everywhere there were the camels, goats, sheep, donkeys and cattle, the menagerie that is so characteristic of the area.

 

 

Aloba 

Our main stop of the day was the… amazing?… overwhelming?… magnificent?… other superlative?… Aloba Arch. There are arches in the world that have broader spans, a couple that may be taller, but there are no arches that have the combined immensity of Aloba.  At about 250 ft wide and 394 ft high, it ranks among both the longest and tallest arches in the world. The only other arches with comparable immensity are in the Colorado Plateau and areas of China also making Aloba among the most remote giant arches and most difficult to visit. It should be noted that it is difficult to measure.  The greatest span is in the middle of the arch, up vertical faces, and it’s height is so vast that it’s difficult to measure directly, as well.  Best estimates have come from extrapolations from direct measurements from photographs. It reminded me somewhat of Rainbow Bridge in Utah, another incredibly remote, beautiful span.

We wandered through and all around the arch and the phenomenal canyon where it resides.  We found slots and other smaller arches and great sand dunes and other wonders.   In a cliffy area we found a collection of rock hyraxes (dassies).  Although they look and behave a bit like rodents or rabbits and their relatives (they remind me of pikas), they are the nearest living relatives to elephants. 

 

We had lunch within view of the arch and some small children came from nearby to observe the observers.  They were shy, but sold us a few trinkets they had made.  Of course, Riki fell in love with them. 

Five Arch Rock 

We left Aloba and continued along the Ennedi south margin.  More holes and arches and other features were visible all along the way.  Then in the distance we could make out what looked a little like a rock gazebo in the desert, Five Arch Rock!

Many of the vast number of holes and windows in the rocks of Ennedi are sort of diamond-shaped.  Five Arch Rock is an isolated monument with five of these holes through it, the largest of which is big enough to easily drive through.  It’s a truly unusual formation.  Nearby are several other holes and an interesting assemblage of canyons.  We were there only a short time, and would love to camp there or at least spend a couple hours. It was such an interesting site. 

Main Camp 

From Five Arch Rock it was some distance to our main camp for the next days.  Before arriving there we stopped in a small collection of huts and permanent buildings, including a school and hospital.  We never learned the name of this village (possibly Gedi?), but we would visit it numerous times the next few days since it was central to the area we explored. 

From here it was a short distance to our main camp which was set at the base of a huge prominence rising hundreds of feet about the surrounding area that was visible from all around the valley.  This rock had several holes through it, including a large one at the base where we camped. Camp consisted of several tents along a sandy hill where we slept, a cave where Armando had his kitchen, a small pit toilet surrounded by a woven mat, and a shower area, also surrounded by a woven mat.  We never used the shower since the pump to get water into it did not work. The camp is a seasonal establishment by Eyte’ Safaris.  Other tours would be here later as the season went on, but we were the only white people in the region for now. 

We immediately explored our local area, the holes and rocks and canyons.  Riki usually led the way on these excursions… she was a wonder to behold, so new to any of this, but so eager to experience.  As our trip continued on, I was continually impressed with her.  Our camp was surrounded by the same livestock and people we had been encountering.  We stayed here for the next three nights exploring in several directions. 

Riki’s thoughts…

Ahhhhhhhloba!  As Kelly mentioned in an earlier post, we LOVE arches! The first time Kelly brought me to New Mexico for a visit, he stopped along the way at Crow Canyon Arch, just on the border between New Mexico and Colorado, south of Aztec. From that first arch, we have delighted in exploring arches in that area. I suppose it does not make us experts on arches, but we do qualify as well-exposed to them, anyway.  There is something about scrambling around and through arches that impacts me in a way that is difficult to describe. I will try, though. When I feel that sandstone under my boots and palms, fear is overtaken by confidence. I feel more free, more self-assured, more myself as I am exploring these desert geologic landforms than at any other place I have been. Kelly is there to help me determine the safety of what I am attempting. There have been a few times that my confidence was trying to bite off a climb that my skill could not chew. He then gently tells me that maybe we should find another area to climb. Most of the time, though, he is either right behind or in front of me, or standing back to get a picture. 

When we first got to Aloba, the vista stunned me into a stupor. Quickly, though, the varied surface under and around the arch (some dunes, some rock steppes) called me from my stillness into exploration mode. Kelly and I parted ways for a bit, both of us diving in and headed in different directions around the arch. He found the rock hyrax colony while I enjoyed a barefoot scramble up an inviting sand dune. The arch leads into a bit of a rock cove surrounded by steep impenetrable cliffs. The cove was just the right size to explore while Armondo was preparing our lunch.  

Our lunch companions (or audience) were adorbs. They watched us with whispers and big, dark eyes. I was saddened by the general sense of mistrust that the children had toward us. They were curious but reserved. I think their first language was not French, or if it was, it was of a strong dialect that made it very hard for me to understand what they were saying. It was wonderful to see Yves interact with them, though. He brought smiles and laughter with his teasing and mock anger. I would have loved to connect with them in the same comfortable way that he did.

Five Arch Rock

The Five Arch Rock and the arches in the surrounding areas were amazing, but we were not able to stay nearly as long as Kelly and I would have liked. I felt like we explored the entire area at a jog. It is definitely a go-back-when-we-can site.

Main camp

Our camp was a treasure hunt of caves, slot canyons, and animals (both wild and domestic.) The down times we had between exploration events often found Kelly and I exploring the formations at and around camp. Not far from camp, there was a lovely rock formation that had a peninsular outcrop that contained a feature that was the equivalent of a playhouse carved from solid rock. The main arch at ground level had rock ledges that were perfect for tables and couches for one with a wild imagination. It even had a second level that attached to the main arch through a narrow but navigable tube about five feet up that opened up into a larger cave that conveniently had other tunnels to either side of the peninsula. It was like a little loft. One afternoon, as Kelly was resting at camp, I went out and spent some time journaling in the little loft. 

One of our explorations took us more deeply into the formation containing my peninsula play fort. There was a tunnel that I was dying to explore, but it was a tiny bit narrow, and I wasn’t sure if I could squeeze through. I decided to give it a try, but when I climbed up to the ledge (maybe 6 feet up?) I found a decomposing kid goat who had gotten up but could not get down. Either that, or it was a cache for a predator who was saving the carcass for later. I decided that maybe I didn’t want to crawl through the tunnel, after all. 

As we explored a bit further, Kelly and I went two ways at a fork. His way took him around a bluff, and I decided to scramble up the bluff to go over the top. I was so glad I did! When I finally got over the top, and started heading down the other side, I found an incredible formation that had several arches connected by wide tunnels. It was delightful, and I was excited to share my find with my amazing fellow explorer.

There were several slot canyons in the formation, as well. We had been exploring a while, when Kelly commented that he was surprised we hadn’t seen bats in any of the caves or canyons. At the VERY next slot that I scrambled into, I disturbed a bat, who ricocheted off my forehead in his bewildered exit. He was ok, though. (So was I. . .) and he quickly found his way back into the slot to continue his sleep. It was hilarious, once we realized that no one was any the worse for the encounter. I blame Kelly for the jinx.