Chad Adventure II. The Ennedi, Julia Arch and Bashikele

Northeastern Chad includes a large mountainous area just north of the Sahel Region rising out of the Sahel and Sahara, the Ennedi Plateau.  Near the border with Sudan, this region is exceptionally remote from the world most of our readers are used to.  With an area of 23,000 square miles, the Plateau is characterized by incredible sculpted landscapes of cliffs, spires, arches, and canyons.  Much of the Plateau is poorly explored by outsiders and its geology and biology remains largely unstudied.  Although part of the Sahel and Sahara, the Plateau is characterized by alternating dry and rainy seasons, with broad flooding of areas often occurring in the rainy season. This results in oases and springs that persist even in the dry season allowing for people and their livestock to persist. 

Ennedi Plateau

Extensive evidence of human occupation is present in the Ennedi. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site in part for its amazing land forms, but especially for its remarkable collection of historical rock art, engravings, tombs and other archeological sites with some of these dating back some 8000 years or older. Even today we encountered a surprising (to us!) number of people living there.  About 30,000 semi-nomadic people live in the broader Ennedi Ouest and Ennedi Est political departments.  They traverse the region with their families and communities and livestock according to the rainy/dry seasons living as people have in the region for hundreds of years.  There are extremely few, small population centers nearby where small schools and hospitals can be found along with products from Niger, Libya, Sudan and farther south in Chad.

Although known as a tourist site, the Ennedi Plateau requires three days of driving on very difficult “roads” and roadside camping, or an expensive chartered flight to visit.  We used the “road” method.  As we approached the Ennedi from Kalait we could see cliffs and smaller plateaus rising out of the sandy desert, sometimes hundreds of feet high.  Then we were among the landforms, and around us we could see spires and arches near and far.  In late afternoon we arrived at our first site, the incredible Julia Arch (the “Arch of Bashikele”).

Julia

At 107 feet high and 46 feet wide, Julia sits on top a pedestel at the opening of a magnificent canyon.  Although from certain angles it appears extremely delicate, from other angles it can be seen to be a robust “abandoned natural arch.”  It’s one of the most beautiful arches or land forms we have ever seen.

We spent the short evening exploring the arch (including climbing to its base) and areas nearby, viewing it from multiple angles and perspectives.  The sunset and the night sky were amazing, and seeing the arch against the stars was incredible.  As you might expect, this area of the world has really no light pollution, so the sky at night was as bright with stars and the Milky Way as can be.

The sandstone that makes the landforms here is extremely hard and not crumbly at all.  Julia is made of this stone and seems incredibly resistant.  I found an article in Climbing magazine from a while ago detailing ascending the arch (link).  Riki and I climbed to the base, but declined to ascend further!

We spent a beautiful evening and night near the base of Julia.  The next morning we roamed all the way around the base, seeing the arch from every angle (see photos below).  I climbed a nearby high area for viewing and found a number of Chadian tourists from Fada (the only small village in the Ennedi Region).  They took maybe 50 pictures of me, me with them, me shaking hands with each of them, etc.  Then they took another batch of similar pictures with my phone.  I think it was a testament to the few white tourists who visit this area.  They were very friendly, but only spoke French, Arabic and some Italian, so it wasn’t a really interesting conversation.

We climbed up and over the base of the arch one more time.  By then, Yves and Armando had packed up camp, and we were ready to begin our first full day exploring the Ennedi.

By the way, if you didn’t know, Riki and I love arches.  One of the main reasons to go to Ennedi is to see arches, but we were only able to see a tiny fraction of them.  I found a great website documenting some of the arches of Ennedi along with descriptions and a KMZ file in case you ever feel ambitious and visit there (link).

Guelta de Bashikele

Our first stop was nearby, the Guelta de Bashikele (guelta is Arabic for, “water pocket”), a gorgeous canyon with pools and a stream flowing through.  Every day, local people bring hundreds of their livestock here to water and to get water for their own purposes.  This beautiful canyon is filled with Ficus and palm trees.  Patas monkeys come in the morning to drink before escaping up the canyon walls.

We wandered upstream along with the animals and locals, attracting attention from all. So different from the surrounding landscape, the canyon is a beautiful oasis. We also had our first experiences with the endless slot canyons of the Ennedi.

The palms in the canyon provide small “coconuts” that are used to eat, to make excellent cooking coals, and for decorative carving.

Our introduction to the Ennedi with Julia and Bashikele was amazing.  We left this area bewildered and ready for our next experiences.  We were headed for our main base camp for the next few nights and days of exploring.

Riki’s thoughts…

After three days of hard driving, our camp the third night was at the base of a breath-taking arch. The arch is known to the locals as Julia Arch. Julia sits on a hill that she shares with a spire. It is a bit of a scramble to get to the base of the arch, but there is a navigable path between the arch and the spire. The views from the base are 360 degrees of gorgeous Chad landscape. The valley below is filled with burros, camels, sheep, and goats. There are small, round, thatched-roof homes scattered around, as well. There are two buildings that are partially-constructed. At first, I thought they were military forts, but Yves later explained that they are the start of a hotel whose construction was blocked by the locals, because it was being made of materials not local to the area.

The amazing thing about Julia Arch is that she looks different from every angle. Kelly captured some beautiful sunrise and sunset pics of the arch. He even got some of the arch at night. We got to hike the arch and watch the sun set over the desert. We slipped into a new schedule very quickly in Chad, where we rose before the sunrise and were exhausted when the sun came down. It was not uncommon for us to be in our tent by 8pm, and asleep shortly afterward. The sun was up a bit before 6am, and we were usually awake to greet the sunrise. The days were warm, but not blistering. The nights were pleasantly cool (though the locals and our team did not like the temperatures in the 50’s, complained about how cold it was.)

We thoroughly enjoyed scrambling up, over, and around Julia Arch in the evening and the morning. After breakfast, we had a short drive to get to a ouadi that was a piece of paradise, a lovely, lush river with sandy shores, palm trees, and a non-stop parade of herds of livestock. We hiked down the riverbank, took in a few slot canyons at the river’s edge, and watched the people watering their animals and gathering water in jugs on little donkeys to take back to their round huts.

Wandering down the river as camels, donkeys, goats, and sheep surrounded us, moving by as if we weren’t even there was a memory I will treasure always. I have heard of oases in the desert, but being there was beautiful beyond words. Water is life, they say, and it is true. We found abundant animal and plant life in that amazing place!

The children we encountered at the river were fascinated but nervous. They were curious about us and our cell phones, though many of the families had basic cell phones, but they were uncomfortable with us taking pictures of them. One wonderful exception was a lovely little girl that was walking toward the river as we were leaving. Yves recognized her as a girl that had befriended a German tourist from a few years before. Yves has stayed in touch with the tourist, and after a short conversation with the child, asked if he could take her picture to send to the woman. She consented with a shy grin. Yves amazed us repeatedly with his engagement with the locals. He is originally from the area and knows the culture well. His knowledge guided us countless times in our interactions.