On this day pick up from Jinka Airport, and head to Ari village near Jinka. The Ari inhabit the northern border of Mago National Park. Ari villages have neat compounds in fertile and scenic land with coffee plantations. The men tend to large livestock herds and the villages produce large quantities of honey. The women wear skirts from the banana-like tree, called Enset. They are well known for their pottery and blacksmith skills.   Along the way, we will stop and view monkeys and baboons — some of which know that tourists bring bananas to feed them.

Drive to visit the Mursi Tribe through Mago National Park. The Mursi are known for their extraordinary body decorations, including their trademark ‘saucer’ lip plate (dhebi a tugoin) which has become the chief visible distinguishing characteristic. A girl’s lower lip is cut, by her mother or by another woman of her settlement, when she reaches the age of 15 or 16. The cut is held open by a wooden plug until the wound heals. It appears to be up to the individual girl to decide how far to stretch the lip, by inserting progressively larger plugs over a period of several months. Some, but by no means all, girls persevere until their lips can take plates of 12 centimeters or more in diameter.  Afterward, drive to Turmi. If it’s Thursday we would visit the Key’afer market, if it’s Tuesday or Saturday we have a chance to see Alduba or Demeka market, both are on the way. Overnight at Turmi .

Drive to Omorate on the Kenyan border to visit the Dassenech Tribe. We will cross the Omo River in a wooden log canoe, hike back to the road, and travel to a remote village at the Kenyan border.   The Dassanech live in the Omo Delta on the northern side of Lake Turkana. They are the most southerly tribe living in Ethiopia’s Omo Valley. Their name means ‘People of the Delta’. However, despite the lake and delta, it is an incredibly dry region, there is nothing but desert to the west and southwest. And the afternoon we drive back when Turmi on the way we will see the Karo tribe’s village and drive back to Jinka via Turmi.   Cattle are central to the lives of the Dassanech, just as they are for the other tribes of the Omo Valley. The Dassanech Tribe is not strictly defined by ethnicity. Over time the Tribe has absorbed a wide range of different peoples and it’s now divided into eight main Clans. Each Clan has its own identity and customs, its own responsibilities towards the rest of the tribe, and is linked to a particular territory.   Afterward, we head back to Turmi via Turmi to Jinka drive back.