[Lucky 1]

Africa's Great Rift Valley


Cutting a deep jagged line right through the middle of Ethiopia on the eastern side of Africa…..it is here that scientists say that around 200,000 years ago, a powerful new competitor showed up on the ecological scene…..a new predator that made its mark not by being larger of body or having bigger claws or sharper fangs but instead armed with something even more dangerous; the largest most powerful brain ever seen in the animal kingdom.……Homo Sapiens.

Sporting an erect carriage and remarkable hands with opposable thumbs… and an omnivorous digestive system capable of turning just about any animal or vegetable it came across into food; it was like no other animal the world had ever seen.

Paleo archeologists and DNA researchers have proven with out a doubt that modern humans originated from a single location in Africa’s Great Rift Valley.

For the first 125,000 years or so, mankind made its home here, slowly extending his range north and south….then….disaster!

The fossil DNA record shows that about 70,000 years ago the human population….never very large…..suddenly dropped precipitously!

Why? Nobody knows. A lethal new disease our immune system couldn’t handle? Perhaps natural disasters like an earthquake or volcanic activity in the Rift Valley? It is after all a rent in the earth’s crusts where two tectonic plates meet.

Whatever caused the human population to plummet, the result is that our species was at one point numbered just 41 woman of childbearing age.

41 females of childbearing age in the entire world…those few girls would fit on a city bus and yet they were all that stood between us…and extinction!

DNA researchers tell us that today there are only 41 different distinct genetic lines of humans… meaning that every single man, woman and child white, black or brown alive today owes there genetic heritage to those 41 surviving woman.

Every human being alive can trace their deep genetic ancestry to a primordial forest in Ethiopia….70, 000 years ago……..

And so here I sit on a promontory rock overlooking the Awash river and the lake it drains into…. Sweating in the equatorial sun, I am slathered head to toe in Bullfrog 100 sun block and a double dose of insect repellent.

I can feel the energy of this place. It is a quite and subtle energy yet it flows through everything….the valley, the river, the mountains, the people and animals that live here…. the very dirt I stand on!

Sitting here cross legged for…well I don’t know how long….30 minutes…and hour? Just sitting and taking it in. The sights, the smells, the sounds of the jungle.

I feel that energy and the hair on my neck stands up because I know…I can feel it waaay down deep in that primitive lizard hind brain we all have from the time our species clawed its way from the primordial ooze that this is it!
This is where “we” come from….This is the “hot bed cradle of man”….and I’m right in the middle of it!




The Sacred hunt……
Oct 11th, 2013, Addis Abba airport, Ethiopia


The Great Rift Valley……I’ve wanted to go there for years…walk the trails through the primordial forests….meditate and feel the ancient energy of this place….. And hunt the animals that our earliest ancestors’ survived on.

There are many commercial hunting concessions in Africa. They cater to the wealthy who want to mostly ride around in a jeep with a high powered rifle…stay in a fancy lodge with nice beds and air conditioning after a hot day out in the bush and eat 5 star meals prepared by a great chef.

And I take nothing away from that and do not denigrate those who hunt that way…..For hunting Africa is hard no matter how you do it.
Dangerous and hard….

But my hunt would be different…..no fancy hunting lodge…no professional hunter backing me up with an expensive English made double rifle waiting to save my bacon if I get in trouble…..and believe me…its easy to get in trouble here!

Mine would be different because my hunting trip to the Great Rift Valley was as much spiritual quest as a hunting trip…..and instead of a rifle….I was bringing a single Recurve bow….my intention was to find a village willing to take me in for 3 to 4 weeks…to live with the tribe….help with chores…be one with them….and hunt the paths that humans have hunted since we came on the scene 200,000 years ago.

Having found a tribe through much back and forth with the consulates in Addis Abba and Dimma the last 6 months…..I travel out of the capital city by overland truck into the jungle with my bow in it’s hard case, another hard case filled with arrows, broad heads ,assorted archery gear and wearing a single large backpack loaded with minimum needs for 3 to 4 weeks living with a tribe in the jungle, a sleeping bag and sleeping bag ground cushion and a “just bought” 10X12 wall tent ordered from Cabelas.

After being dropped off at the village…the greetings begin….Aside from one local who travels to the city and knows passable English….I don’t speak there language…and they don’t speak mine.

To be continued as time allows.......