An 8 night trip covering the endemics available on a southern tour.

The recent publication of two books, namely Birds of the Horn of Africa by Nigel Redman, Terry Stevenson and John Fanshawe and the site guide Where to Watch Birds in Ethiopia by Claire Spottiswoode, Merid Gabremichael and Julian Francis encouraged me to book a short tour.

Travelling in a bus with a group of a dozen birders is not my idea of fun. I got in touch with Negussie Toyo of Nurgi birding tours and booked an 8 night tour. It transpired that my guide was Merid Gabremichael, the author of the aforementioned book.

When planning a birding trip to Ethiopia you need to bear in mind three important factors.

It is not cheap.

Hiring a self-drive saloon car and driving to all the sites as we did is just not an option. You really do need a high clearance vehicle with 4X4 if it is wet. A Landcruiser with driver is around USD150 per day. On top of this is the cost of your guide and all food and accommodation. The going rate, all in, is around USD270 per day. But this is for solid guided birding on an individual basis. It compares as slightly more expensive, when air fares are stripped out, than commercial birding tours. Certainly to cover all the twitchable endemics and not be too rushed you would need a 14 night tour, not leaving much change from USD4000 and not including the airfare.

Of course you could just travel by local bus and bird on foot the key sites, this would certainly be a much cheaper option but it would double the total tour time as the time travelling would be dead birding time.

You cannot plan on travelling at night.

For most of my birding trips night is when you do the long drives between sites, so saving daylight for birding not driving. You cannot drive after dark in Ethiopia for two good reasons:

1.      Insurance is invalid half an hour after sundown and your driver will simply not drive then.

2.      Driving at night is dangerous; not just the usual dangers of unlit roads, vehicles without lights and crazy cyclists, pedestrians and animals but a real risk of armed banditry away from towns.

If you are in a big town then no problem with driving to a restaurant at night and no problem with a pre-dawn start. However in the remote areas such as Negele to Yabello it would be possible that you would encounter real danger if you drove in the middle of the night. Again, it is not your choice to make; you will not be travelling at night. This factor increases tour lengths by 10-30% and decreases daylight birding time by a similar proportion, compared to one with night drives.

It is seriously remote and undeveloped away from cities.

If you have a life-threatening accident you may not survive the delay in getting to a hospital. There is just nothing to eat or buy away from towns, no shops, no food outlets just remorseless, grinding poverty, though I did not witness obvious malnutrition. Wear your seatbelt at all times and hope your driver is as careful and temperate as the one I had. Take lots of dry food and snacks with you to keep you going through the day. The choice and quality of food even at the best available hotels outside cities is not good and in some cases the quality of the rooms is dire.

However, on the positive side are these factors:

Mobile coverage is very good, even in the remotest areas, all of our night stays had good coverage.

Personal safety is not an issue most of the time. Walking in a park in Awassa I felt much safer than I would in say, Kenya. You do not get much bother from children or inquisitives.

The scenery and range of habitats is awesome.

The birding is of the very highest order. Without trying for a trip-list I saw 308 species in 9 days, of these over 120 were world ticks (I had done two brief trips to Kenya 20 years ago and trips to Botswana and Gambia in the distant past).

The birds are generally tame and allow close approach.

The quality of the roads is generally good, long stretches of highway are completely pothole-free. The graveled roads are of good quality and journeys such as Wondo Genet to Dinsho now take 4 hours not all day.

The people are genuinely warm and friendly.

The key target species.

According to Redman, Appendix 1, of the 61 Horn of Africa (HoA) endemic bird species, 39 occur in Ethiopia.

Of these 39, Nechisar Nightjar is known only from a single roadkill so can be ignored from a target list. 7 species are simply out of range on the southern tour, they are fairly easy on a northern tour: Harwood’s francolin, Sombre rock chat, Rüppell’s Black Chat, White-billed starling, White-throated Seedeater, Yellow-throated Seedeater and Ankober Serin. That leaves 31 species. Of these, Little brown bustard and Somali wheatear are out of reach. That leaves 29 species which could be possible on the tour I took. However, Abyssinian Black Wheatear, Philippa’s Crombec and Somali starling were only outside possibilities. Salvadori’s Seedeater does occur in the Negele area but it would have needed an extra full day to have a strong chance of seeing a difficult bird.

So I had a list of 25 key target species, as it turned out, all were seen well, see the species accounts, List A for details.

The itinerary

To follow the route you too will need to get a copy of Where to watch birds in Ethiopia by Claire Spottiswoode et al. The book is excellent and I will try my best to avoid repeating information readily found therein. The site numbers refer to the site references in the book.

Day 1, Wednesday 28th December 2011

Arrival at Addis from Doha via Dubai with Emirates. The airport is modern and disembarkation was by jetty; a pleasant contrast to the perpetual bussing prevalent in the Gulf. The web states you need to get a visa before departure but the London embassy told me as long as I was just going as a tourist for a short stay, had a full valid UK passport etc, I could get a visa on arrival. This is certainly the case; they do not even need a photo. The visa takes up a whole page and is valid for three months. It costs USD20/EUR17 at the airport, this is considerably cheaper than that charged by their embassy in London. Please check before you travel that you can obtain one on arrival.

I was met by Merid and taken to the waiting Landcruiser driven by D (sorry can’t recall names). The vehicle was fairly new, of the model prior to the latest incarnation by Toyota which are a common sight in Doha. However it was the V8 Diesel, manual box, which is not available in my part of the Gulf. We set off south, leaving the airport at 12:30 and taking over an hour to reach our first stop, for lunch, at Dreamland, Lake Bishoftu. (Site 20, Debre Zeit Lakes) Lots of birds below the restaurant including close views of mocking cliff chat.

Driving south along the busy main road we stopped briefly near lake Koka (Site 21), where the road passes extensive wetland crossing the Awash river. This proved to be a reliable site for black crowned crane.

We continued south to Lake Ziway (Site 22). On the approach track to the jetty there is marshy habitat which gave close views of species like black crake, african jacana and malachite and african pygmy kingfishers. It was here, on this first afternoon that we may have found the discovery of the trip, Moustached warbler, (or not as the case is not yet settled; see the species accounts).

We continued south and well after dark reached the Wabe Shabelle hotel at Wondo Genet. On the drive up the hill we passed a large number of Coptic Christian pilgrims, wearing white capes on their way up to the church which is next to the hotel. For the next 36 hours the soundtrack of the hotel grounds was continual (truly non-stop) chanting, sometimes accompanied by what sounded like a child’s kazoo. To be honest the sound was somewhat soporific and not annoying, fortunately the PA system broadcasting the continual dirge was on the other side from my bedroom so I had a decent sleep.  The food was served in a restaurant clearly designed by an architect obsessed with seventies sci-fi. The room was reasonable with plenty of hot water but, as with all the accommodation I stayed in, the lighting was so dim that the writing of notes had to be done in the restaurant.

Bird of the day was African Pygmy Kingfisher, excellent close views in perfect light at Lake Ziway and my 2500th bird.

Day 2, Thursday 29th December 2011

Awoke at dawn at Wondo Genet, strolled the grounds with Merid trying to get to grips with masses of birds moving through the trees, the sheer number of birds and species at dawn was almost overwhelming. An amazing time. After breakfast met up with a local guide and friend of Merid, Nurul. Like many tracker/guides Nurul has phenomenal eyesight and a superb ear for calls. That morning we turned left out of the hotel and followed the rough road due east, out of the village and up the spine of a ridge. We travelled no more than 2km up to a clearing where 8 yellow-fronted parrots sat for us (GPS N07° 04’ 57.9” E038° 39’ 22.7”) On Google Earth the track can be clearly seen running off due east from the hotel. This trail was simply superb. On our return at lunch we had a day list of 55 species of which 30 were world ticks and had scored 7 of the target endemics: YF parrot, Banded barbet, Abyssinian woodpecker, slaty flycatcher, oriole, thick-billed raven and brown-rumped seedeater.

In addition to the endemics we had views of Ayres’s hawk eagle, Bruce’s green pigeon, Lemon dove, white-cheeked turaco, double-toothed barbet, lesser honeyguide, mountain wagtail, Rüppell’s robin chat, Abyssinian ground thrush, white-rumped babbler, spotted creeper, Sharpe’s starling and red-headed weaver.

If you visit Wondo Genet this walk up as far as the parrot clearing is essential. If you have the time it would repay two full mornings. Beyond the clearing the forest closes in and birding is more restricted.

In the afternoon we set off for a walk south-south east from the hotel to a clearing/quarry face/half built factory/small pond at GPS N07° 04’ 34.8” E038° 38’ 32.4”. Slightly different habitat provided another haul of new species including 2 more target endemics; lovebird and white-winged cliff chat. Plus African olive pigeon and little rock thrush at the quarry and semi-collared kingfisher along the river near the hot springs on the way back.

So finished the day with 9 of the 25 target endemics in the bag, all with good to excellent views.

Bird of the day, however, was silvery-cheeked hornbill of which several pairs roost in the hotel grounds and give excellent views at dawn and dusk.

Day 3, Friday 30th December 2011

Awoke at Wondo Genet, strolled the grounds, had breakfast, packed up and away for 08:00. Some years ago they would leave before dawn for the all-day drive to Dinsho. Now the road is tarmac for all but about 30km which is well-leveled gravel and still being surfaced. We stopped briefly to admire particular species such as Abyssinian ground hornbill and red-breasted wheatear. The main stop was approaching Dinsho where at a roadside pool we had our first views of wattled ibis, blue-winged goose, Ethiopian cisticola and black-headed siskin. We walked further along the scrub bordering the road and got views of Abyssinian longclaw and Rouget’s rail. Other species seen on the long drive to Dinsho included Lammergeier, steppe eagle, dusky turtle dove, moorland chat, streaky seedeater and red-billed chough.

We met up with the park guide, Abdullah, who was walking with trekkers back to the park HQ at Dinsho. After a an hour of pleasant waiting at the car park at the Bale mountains HQ Abdullah turned up and off we went in search of the local specialties. If you want to get the best out of the area around the park HQ you will need Abdullah, Merid left me with him for the next three hours. The first target was roosting in a tree within 20m of where we set off; African wood owl. Another 50m further on we had excellent views of an Abyssinian ground thrush feeding in the rubbish pit. We went uphill into the open woodland and quickly located a small flock of white-backed tits which gave good views. We then got the star birds; a pair of Abyssinian owls at roost. Chestnut-naped francolin was next but Abyssinian catbird proved difficult to see although we had at least 4 birds singing. Eventually we had a good view of a catbird feeding inside the canopy of a tree and we returned, triumphant, to Merid.

The hour long drive from Dinsho to Goba provided the only view of Erlanger’s lark of the trip, a pair in a roadside ploughed field. The endemic white-collared pigeon was seen on the way as was my first groundscraper thrush.

We arrived at the Wabe Shabelle hotel, Goba at 5:15 and I strolled the grounds until dusk. The food was marginally better than at Wondo Genet (that is not saying much) but the room was really very poor. It had clearly been built in the 1980’s and not a penny had been spent since. One light worked dimly, all the other electrical fittings were hanging off the wall, in the bathroom both taps on the washbasin were falling off, wiring was dangerously exposed. The hot water was a dribble and the general feel was of complete neglect. The second night there was not a drop of water, apparently due to the Chinese road builders severing the water main. There was also no electricity and, astonishingly, no backup generator available. Not good, but not much choice at Goba.

Finished Day 3 with 20 of the 25 target endemics in the bag. Bird of the day went to the bouncy and charming red-breasted wheatear.

Day 4, Saturday 31st December 2011

Awoke at Goba, away at 07:15 for a full day on the Sanetti Plateau.

Drove out of town on the newly surfaced road, the tarmac runs out close to a bridge across a river, this is a site for African black duck but not on the occasions we scanned. The road then climbs first through alien larch plantations and then through beautiful Hagenia trees, all in full flower. Eventually, after much climbing you reach the gate to the national park, the habitat is now high moorland becoming rocky and desolate at the highest point.

It is about an hour’s continual drive to get from the park gate right across the plateau to the point where the road descends down to the Harenna forest. On the first part of the track we encountered several coveys of chestnut-naped fancolin and then a small covey of moorland francolin. Francolin are easy early in the morning but then just disappear. We got views of cinnamon bracken warbler at several spots.

We stopped to scope some distant Ethiopian wolves and a spot-breasted plover settled on the road behind us. The bird was walking calmly on the road with white-collared pigeons. I was able to approach to 20m and had fantastic, prolonged scope views. It was at this point that Richard Webb, an acquaintance from the 1980’s UK twitching scene turned up, he was concentrating on mammals whilst I was more focused on birds. When I had the choice of viewing wolves or spot-breasted plover the plover won instantly. Merid had used Richard’s seminal trip report from the 1990’s as a basis for a lot of his birding.

Having got the key bird we drove on, scanning for wattled crane but this was to be one of the few misses of the trip. We drove to the top of Mount Tullu Demtu (4377m, 14360ft, spelled Deemtu in the book). It was a great view looking south but rather chilly in the wind. We had a pair of Verreaux’s eagles fly past the summit and the area was remarkable for the number of large eagles. One of the highlights was a close view of a wolf carrying a hare which was then attacked by a tawny and a steppe eagle and robbed of its meal. We drove back and stopped at a campsite a little way off the main track for tea and a picnic.

The Sanetti plateau is a unique environment and cannot be missed, but the bird diversity is rather low and once you’ve seen the plover and (in our case, dipped) the crane there is not much to detain you. The dryness and altitude makes birding here rather tiring. I would suggest a full morning would probably suffice here.

After lunch we headed back downhill, a little below the park entrance is a green mosque, nearby we had griseiventris brown parisoma. A few km further down we decanted and walked down-hill about 4km past gorgeous flowering Hagenia trees until we met the alien larch plantations. This is a walk that Merid often does and it is well worth the time, we saw our third Abyssinian ground thrush of the trip, Rüppell’s robin chat, yellow-bellied waxbill and brown woodland warbler.

By now it was mid afternoon and we returned for 4pm to the hotel for a well earned shower but instead faced a complete lack of water. I consoled myself by drinking the local beer and watching Man U lose at home 3- 2 to Blackburn on a live satellite feed.

Just the one endemic target today but, without doubt, bird of the day and clear winner of bird of the trip: Spot-breasted plover. Good job we saw it today as not seen again.

Day 5, Sunday 1st January 2012

Having slept soundly through the New Year awoke to find no water or power in the hotel. After a basic breakfast we were away by 07:15. We drove with very little stopping back over the Sanetti plateau and down into Hagenia forest. The drive today must rank as one of the great road journeys of the world, from 4,000m you drop rapidly to 3000m then to 2000m through the ribbon of dry forest that is Harenna. The forest, being dry season was quiet during the day and birding was generally thin though I did see black and white manikin at the roadside. We drove on, gradually losing altitude, the forest gave way to open acacia woodland with giant termite mounds each sporting a chimney up to 3m high. The road was good quality gravel track all the way. We stopped for lunch in a small town, saw black-billed barbet nearby then continued on south. If you do not like spending all day being driven along an un-surfaced road you may want to consider carefully this part of the trip. I found it fascinating but tiring. Eventually we came across the Genale river where they were repairing the bridge. The almost complete lack of traffic on the road was demonstrated by the fact that the bridge had been closed for some time yet there were less than 4 vehicles waiting to cross. After about a twenty minute delay they put the planking back and we were able to cross. After this bridge there is a mostly dry riverbed to cross, when wet this can simply be impassable and this is the point where a saloon car would seriously struggle. We were now in the highly scenic Genale valley (site 33). It was hot and dry and early afternoon but Merid was fairly confident at his Prince Ruspoli’s site. He had mislaid the auxillary speaker for his laptop but within a few minutes we had located the call of a bird. After about thirty minutes I had achieved close, but tantalizingly brief views of a bird. We also had northern brownbul and a wonderful pair of brown-throated wattle eyes here. Further on we had black-billed woodhoopoe.

We continued on eventually meeting and turning east onto the Addis-Negele road getting into Negele in late afternoon. On the way our last stop was at a roadside flash where there was a pair of wooly-necked stork and then small flocks of starling including Shelley’s at the roadside.

I stayed at a brand new two storey hotel in Negele which will doubtless be the place to stay in future. The room was spacious and the bathroom big with plenty of hot water. The downside was that the window frame simply did not fill the hole and there was a lot of noise from other guests and staff outside the room. It was nice to see mosquito nets as standard here. The other disadvantage of staying here is that there is no food at all provided, this may be remedied when the hotel is finished. I was driven over to the Nile hotel to eat but the range of food was not inspiring; spaghetti with meat was lunch and dinner.

So finished day 5 with one more endemic, Prince Rupoli’s Turacao in the bag with just 3 more to get. Birds of the day were the obliging pair of brown-throated wattle-eyes sitting inside a bush at the PRT site.

Day 6, Monday 2nd January 2012

Awoke at Negele, left 06:30 to get to the Liben plain (site 35) early for displaying Liben Lark. The tactic here is to arrive early, position yourself in the middle of the grassland about 1.5 km SE of the junction at the radio mast/old army base and look for displaying larks. They go up, hover a bit then drop back down. We saw two birds in display but I never got a decent view on the deck. Astonishing to think that the world range of this species is basically a rectangle of grassland 7km by 4km. Merid says they are becoming increasingly rare and difficult to guarantee a sighting. Certainly the rarest bird of the trip. We then returned to Negele for a late breakfast with good birding in the acacia scrub just before the checkpoint into the town.

We then drove back east past the Liben site to a large lake, this provided excellent views of two Egyptian vulture (my first sighting since 1979 in Pakistan, I think Merid was surprised I had been birding for so long!) as well as a flock of Abdim’s stork and fantastic close views of plain-backed pipit. We then drove around looking for White-crowned starling; easy around a group of houses. We returned back to Negele stopping for a walk round another lake which yielded views of Reichenow’s seedeater and spent time looking for Prince Ruspoli’s Turaco (PRT) at the well-known site half way out to the Liben plain, but all rather thin in the heat of the day.

After lunch and a rest spent the late afternoon walking the Liben plain hoping for a deck view of the lark. No luck but did get outstanding views of Somali short-toed lark at our feet. Driving at dusk back past the PRT area, unbelievably a PRT flew straight across in front of the vehicle and perched 8m away in perfect evening light, calling continually. I was dumbstruck; quite amazing and easily bird of the day.

Day 7, Tuesday 3rd January 2012

Awoke at Negele for a pre-dawn departure at 05:30, headed south-west to the Dawa river for 07:30. This is site 38 and is well-detailed in the book. We started by driving north up the west bank of the river for as far as you can drive (about 1km) then walking north for perhaps another 2km. We spent over three productive hours in this area before driving on westwards and encountering a good bird-flock in the Acacia-Commiphora. We got a lot of the target species quite easily: African white-winged dove, Red-fronted barbet, greater honeyguide, bare-eyed thrush, yellow-vented Eremomela, Somali long-billed crombec, banded parisoma, red-fronted warbler, black-bellied sunbird, slate-coloured boubou, Pringle’s puffback, Jubba weaver and Somali bunting.

There then followed many hours of driving with a stop to get black-capped and grey-headed social weavers, it was at this stop that I had good views of Red-naped bush shrike. We had a few other brief stops including one to get views of a large covey of vulturine guinea fowl, memorable as they brought up my world list to 2600.  Eventually we approached the Soda area with a scenic volcano rim to the north, a huge male Kori bustard was close to the road and we checked the fiscals for Somali but could only find Taita. Because of time restraints we had only an hour to clinch the two Yabello specialties, fortunately Merid had an easy site for Bush-crow and white-tailed swallow. Because of dusk closing in we had to leave by 5:15 to drive north to Yabello before it got too late. We arrived at the Yabello motel after dark to find that they had no ensuite rooms available, apparently the best rooms had all been booked by tours. This meant a communal squat/asian toilet facility of which the less said the better. To be honest the room was clean and tidy with a very comfortable bed and mosquito netting, the lack of a bathroom was annoying but it was only for one night. The food was edible, and the restaurant the only place with enough light to write notes. A power outage was remedied within ten minutes by a backup generator.

So by the end of day 7 all 25 of the target endemics had fallen. If I was planning the trip I would have penciled an overnight drive to the northern highlands and be at Ankober for the next morning. However, as discussed previously this is not possible so half of the next two days were spent driving north to Addis with a stop in Awassa.

Bird of the day went to Pringle’s puffback; we had two males in full frothy back display with two females, they are not called puffback without a good reason.

Day 8, Wednesday 4th January 2012

Awoke at the Yabello motel, away by 06:00. A long drive north on the main Kenya-Addis road, arriving at Awassa for 12:15. The hotel here was the United Africa hotel, (site 27) easily the best accommodation of the trip though the food remained at the satisfactory/edible level. I loved the extensive grounds with colubus monkey sitting in the trees and lots of easy birding. Best views of double-toothed barbet, black-winged lovebird, woodland kingfisher, white-browed robin-chat, African thrush, African harrier-hawk, scarlet-chested sunbird, Rüppell’s starling, red-billed firefinch, bronze manikin and steel-blue whydah, all within the grounds. A pair of pink-backed pelicans sat on the treetops with the ever-present Marabou. At 3:30 I met with Merid and we walked through the back gate and turned north along the shoreline. A really nice place to go birding, lots of marshy habitat on the landward side of the lakeshore path. Many species recorded, the best were: African pygmy goose which were common on the lake, Hottentot teal, Woodland kingfisher, African reed warbler, black crake, and many jacana.

We returned to the grounds at dusk where we had blue headed coucal and a yellow-shouldered male black cuckoo-shrike. I missed Grosbeak weaver which Merid had briefly.

My last night in Ethiopia was marked by very pleasant accommodation in wonderful grounds. Bird of the day went to the crippling scope view of double-toothed barbet.

Day 9, Thursday 5th January 2012

Awoke at Awassa, up at dawn to get onto the shoreline early. On the way finally got a view of an Ethiopian boubou in a bush, this species had been heard often and was becoming the bogey bird of the trip. The early start was rewarded by views of two white-backed duck sitting motionless on the lake and a lesser swamp warbler. I also finally caught up with grey-backed fiscal.

After breakfast and packing my last 30 minutes in the grounds yielded best-ever views of blue-breasted beeeater, buff-bellied warbler and another not-quite-good-enough view of Thick-billed raven. At 08:50 we set off for an area just north of the old fish market. This was a site for Abyssinian waxbill, but not today. We did get excellent views of more blue-headed coucals, spectacled, little and Rüppell’s weavers, and greater blue-eared starling. The bird of the site and my last new bird of the trip was an immature Allen’s gallinule.

We drove north, stopping for lunch at a restaurant at Ziway. White-browed sparrow weaver, beautiful sunbird and black-headed oriole were all seen from the dining table in the mature trees of the grounds. Our last birding stop was at the causeway at Ziway. We again saw what we both thought was moustached warbler with several sedge warbler. I then changed and packed my stuff and we set off for the long drive to the airport, arriving at 17:20 for the early evening flight to Dubai.

So ended a well-organised, safe and productive birding trip.

If you are considering a trip to Ethiopia and using the 4x4 plus guide option I would suggest the following itinerary, this is certainly the tour I would have done, with hindsight,  if I had had the time and budget.

Day1: Get to Wondo Genet
Day2: All day at Wondo Genet
Day3 Drive to Dinsho, stay at Goba.
Day4 Do the Sanetti Plateau
Day5 Drive to Negele
Day 6 Liben Plain for Liben Lark
Day 7 Spend a day for Salvadori’s seedeater
Day 8 Leave Negele early for a full day at the Dawa river and associated Acacia-Commiphora, return to Negele.
Day 9 Drive Negele to Yabello.
Day 10 Yabello to Awassa, stay at the United Africa hotel in Awassa.
Day 11 All day around Awassa
Day 12 Leave Awassa, drive to the northern highlands.
Day 13 – 15, Should be enough for the Northern endemics.

The first 12 days are the same as my 9 day trip except I have put an extra two days at Negele, one for time to get Salvadori’s seedeater and the other so that more time can be spent at the Dawa river, which is a key site, though not for endemics. By having a day dedicated to the Dawa river you can get over to bush-crow country much earlier in the afternoon the next day so you will not be so rushed for bush-crow and white-tailed swallow. The third extra day is at Awassa which I think has more to offer given more time. You may also want an extra day at Wondo Genet.

You may wish to extend by a few days to visit the Awash area.

I am planning on doing a northern endemic plus Awash trip in the summer when whydah birds are in breeding plumage and will let you know how I get on.

If you want to make the most of a single visit to Ethiopia then you really need a minimum 14 day tour, probably 18. If you are planning a cheaper tour involving bus and foot then I think you would need a full four or five weeks.

The species lists (74kB .pdf)

This report may be used freely to help travelers and birdwatchers. If you quote widely from my report you should give due credit:

Grunwell, M.J. Ethiopian southern tour bird report January 2012

If you would like to comment please contact me on mjgrunwell@gmail.com

Michael Grunwell, Al Khor, State of Qatar.