Married Hamer women have characteristic copper-coloured braided hair painted with ochre. In addition, first wives wear easily recognisable heavy metal necklaces. Traditional bull jumping is an initiation ceremony for boys coming of age. The boy must jump over a line of 10 to 30 bulls four times completely nude without falling. During this ceremony, the women provoke men to whip them on their bare backs. This is extremely painful and causes severe scars - which are a symbol of their devotion to men in their tribe.

Kara women decorate their faces with beautiful, elaborate dot patterns - while men do decorative body chalk paintings. We will visit a more remote Kara village, which only sees tourists a couple of times a month. We will witness the face painting process, and participate in a morning coffee drinking ceremony with the village elders. Get ready for some questioning - Kara people are a curious lot!

The famous lip-plate tribe is perhaps the best known of the Omo Valley tribal groups. Women of the Mursi tribe have their lips cut around the age of 15. A small clay plate is then inserted into the lip. Through the years, larger plates are inserted into the lip causing it to stretch. The larger the clay plate, the more the woman is worth before she gets married. Mursi men have a reputation as the fiercest warriors in the Omo Valley, and they occasionally fall into conflicts with neighbouring tribes.

Dassanech tribe lives in the fertile Omo River delta, close to Kenyan border and Lake Turkana where they hunt crocodiles (the villages are actually beyond the border check so we need to take our passports with us!). Dassanech girls have beautiful hair bead patterns, while men wear leopard skins and tall fur hats for major ceremonies. It is permissible for a man to take up to 12 wives, each costing a dowry of up to 50 heads of cattle.

The Arbore perform many traditional ritual dances, they believe that singing and dancing eliminates negative energy and that by expelling it the tribe can flourish. Their dancing is mostly in the form of synchronised jumping - with men jumping really high. Women dance bare-chested by adorned with plenty of beaded necklaces, while young men sport headscarves or fashionable hats. The Arbore build elaborate houses with additional covered patio for socialising in a shade.