Shashamane sits on the main highway south from Addis Ababa, in the great Rift Valley, and it is exactly the sort of crossroads town that keeps a country moving. Trucks, minibuses, horse-drawn carts and motorbikes jostle in the streets, and the market sells everything from maize to mobile phones. About eighty-five thousand people live here, and the town has fuel stations, mechanics, cheap hotels and plenty of places to eat, making it a very practical place to begin a ride into the mountains. Hawassa, a larger lakeside city, is about twenty kilometres to the west.
What makes Shashamane special is a community that lives in one corner of it. In 1948, Emperor Haile Selassie granted land here to the Ethiopian World Federation, a Black American organisation, as a gift for people of African descent who wanted to return, and from the 1960s many Rastafarians from Jamaica and elsewhere settled in the area. Haile Selassie is revered in the Rastafari faith, and the community has kept its culture alive for generations, with music, colours of green, gold and red, and a strong sense of faith. Visitors are welcome in the community, if they come with respect.
The Rift Valley around the town is a land of lakes: Langano, a warm, brown lake popular for swimming, and the neighbouring Abijatta and Shalla, which lie in a national park full of flamingos and pelicans. Acacia trees, red earth and wide skies fill the landscape, and the air is warm. From Shashamane, a road branches east toward the Bale Mountains, climbing from the valley floor up to a cool, forested highland, a change that you notice in your lungs.
For the rider, this is a stop for supplies. Top up the tank, check the tyres, buy water and a snack, and ask about the state of the road ahead. Traffic is chaotic, with livestock, pedestrians and tuk-tuks all competing for space, and heavy trucks can be a real hazard. Avoid riding at night, when unlit vehicles and animals appear without warning. The dry season, from October to February, is the best time, while heavy rains from June to September can turn rough roads to mud.