Photos from Gondar

Here is the second installment of 'Photos I would have uploaded at the time if it were possible'. Yes, bit of a mouthful.

These tell the story of my visit to the town of Gondar - a bit of a hassley place by Ethiopian standards (read compared to Egypt quiet and serene) but an interesting place. Guess you'll have to scroll back a few posts to find out all about it!

Street in Gondar. There were a lot of 'ramshackle shacks' that were being lived in.

View of Gondar from a nearby hill.

King Fasil's baths - every epiphany they are filled (the bottom section) and people are baptised in their hundreds, if not more.

Castle inside the Gondar citadel, pretty much in central Gondar.

Next I have to upload photos from the Simien Mountains trek. That will be a challenge - so many photos and I have to choose five or six!

Photos from Lalibela

Cactus along the main road, Lalibela

Well safely home in sunny warm Melbourne now, I have the chance to finally add photos from Ethiopia - in stages mind you. I present six photos I took from Lalibela in this installment - more to come from the trip soon!

Church at Lalibelia (St Mercurius?)

Bet Griyorius (Church of St George)

Roads to the churches

Bet Maryam (Church of St Mary)

Priest inside Bet Medhane Alem

Bahir Dar back to Addis Ababa

Hey there folks
Well I'm in Addis Ababa again, and in less than 24 hours I will be on a flight home to sunny Melbourne!
In the last few days I travelled from Gondar to Bahir Dar, a warmish town on the shores of the rather large lake Tana. I visited the Blue Nile Falls from there, which were gushing at quite a rate. Sometimes they are pretty weak thanks to a hydro plant there, but for us they were certainly magnificant. Unfortunately no photos as yet.
The next day I took a boat on Lake Tana to the Zege Peninsula which is heavily forested - a bit of a jungle. We saw some monkies swinging in the trees and also visited a monastary after passing more souvineer stands than one could poke a stick at.
Yesterday I took a 5.30am bus to Addis Ababa from Bahir Dar which was pretty comfortable and arrived at around 3.30pm. When I get back to Melbourne I will write more - I want to write about this amazing country in general, and of course post many pictures!
Au Revoir until then!

Star trekking, across the Simiens... (part two)

DAY TWO
Gich Camp to Chenek (3600m) - 22km
Gich Camp was on a plateau akin to something from a far off moon. It was mostly short grass with these amazing trees that looked like part cactus (not prickly) and part palm tree, called the Lobelia. The mountains were all covered in some unique and different flowers as well.
We had two challenging climbs today, the first was to the peak of Imet Gogo, 3920 metres above sea level.
I pushed myself and felt a bit better. The last section to the peak was a bit of a scramble over rocks, and I was fairly exhausted by the time I reached the top. Magnificant views, peaks one way, smaller mountains all around. What a special place.
Off we went downhill, and then up again to the next peak. Less than halfway up my body started to tell me this was too much. I was nausius and the result was predictable. Better out than in right?
Yes. Our lunch was watched by the most common bird of these parts - the thinkbilled raven. A very odd looking bird indeed, almost completely black, like a raven but with the long bill of an African parrot.
I was feeling better and marched on to the top of Natia - at 4070 metres above sea level the highest point we would reach (the highest in all the Simiens is Ras Dashen at over 4200 metres). That felt like an achievement and the rest of the walk was mostly downhill to Chenek Camp. It was a little hairy though - along the tops of sloping cliffs at times!
This camp was much nicer, had a stream nearby and also many more trees. We had a fire too which we really should have had the first night. Helped enormously as the temperature dipped to about zero again.

DAY THREE - 3-11-09
Chenek to Sankabar Camp (3000m) 21km
Day three and I started to feel much better. I could take air into my lungs and climbing became easier, I was moving a lot faster, I presume I was adjusting to the altitude.
The walk was perhaps less memorable, and slightly more downhill than up, certainly the easiest of the days. We paused on occasion to see the Walia Ibex - a special sort of antler or deer endemic to the region. They seem to like to sides of moutains particularly. Saw some in a pack, but often in ones or twos.
Sankabar Camp was the busiest by far of all the camps. We had a couple of big groups there and a plethora of tents. These people were doing it mostly by bus though! However, our fire was the one popular with the locals. At one point we had about four or five scouts around it with their rifles - too bad if the jackals went for the group of 13 Germans...

DAY FOUR - 4-11-09
Sankabar to Debark (2800m) - 22km
The road winds back to Debark from Sankabar and is about 36km in distance. Our guide took us a shorter route. This could only be done one way however, instead of going around the mountain peaks, we went over them. And quite a few. It challenged the second day as the most difficult. The sun was beating down and there was little shade.
One group who'd been at Sankabar went with us to the first peak and then returned. They passed us on the road and waved from their minibus. We were not amused.
Early in the day we got really close to a group of Gelada Baboons. There was thirty or forty in some sort of family pack, it was the highlight of the day.
We kept going down then up again. The sun was murder, even though I was 98% covered. I applied cream after cream but soon I was burning on my ears and face. It went on and on, the scenery was less interesting, and more and more kids ran up to us cheerfully yelling 'Hello!' and asking for pens. The last hill to Debark was almost it. So very very steep, it was possibly the hardest twenty minutes of my life.
As we rejoined the road into town with 15 minutes of walking left, a bus stopped and offered us a free lift. Where was he three hours earlier??? No way, I was going to finish this. As I walked through the market I was in delrium, yelling hello to everyone like I'd just returned from war. The hotel was the sweetest site ever - Debark is very flat, but the hotel at four floors stands above with pride.
It was probably the most physically challenging thing I have ever done. 79 kilometres. The downs were in some ways has hard as the ups - very steep.
But I did it. Not for the enjoyment, but for the achievement.

Whew.
I now have a very nice hotel tonight in Gondar with multiple jets in the shower.
I earnt it.

Trekking the Simiens Part One

Hello folks of the world!
I am here in Gondar with internet for the first time in nearly a week. Somehow I survived. Let me tell you the story of the trek through the Simien Mountains I have just completed.

Unfortunately pictures seem not possible at this stage the computers here do not read my card unfortunately.

Day 0 : 31-10-09
Gondar to Debark
In preparation for the trip we left (that's myself and my two travel partners Graham and Nila) Gondar at around half past nine in the morning to head to Debark, at the foot of the Simien Mountains.
The bus was old, but left in good time and it was one person per seat. This didn't last, and a supposed three hour trip turned into five and a half hours. Through slum like villages but beautiful hills we rolled. People filling up the aisle, bags, baby vomit.... oh we had the works.
In Debark we ventured to the Simiens National Park Office to organise our trek for the next day. We needed - a guide, cook, scout (to protect us from naughty animals), and transport to the camp of Sankabar, from where we would start our trekking. Suddenly I turned around and all these people were already assembled! We bought some food earlier in Gondar and them some more with our cook in Debark, organised a tent and sleeping matresses as well as cooking equipment and we were one night's sleep awaay from the trek of a lifetime.

Day the One: Sankabar (3000m) to Gich Camp (3600) - 14km

I'll not lie - I was feeling decidedly seedy at 6am when I woke to start the trek. The hotel's toast was not an inspiring breakfast either. I sat in the bus, which I had understood was just for our crew, but they were giving lifts to others as well. At Sankabar we hired mules which would carry all our things over the mountains to our camp spot for the night. Our main packs, food, tent etc. There is nothing really out on the mountains so we had to take everything with us.
The trek began by nine thirty am with everything sorted. The views were amazing. The mountains are very green but not highly vegetated. There is a lot of wheat, grass and eucalyptus trees abound it seem here and all over Ethiopia.
We saw a waterfall and I soon got a stark reality of how it was to climb at altitude. Up one very steep hill I could barely breath, and was barely moving at all. Locals live in the Simiens and feed off the tourists. Suddenly a man was offering me a horse. NO! No way. Not so early. I pushed on.
The afternoon walk was easier, more downhill and flat. We had not had a lunch prepared though and had just eaten empty bread rolls. Not so good.
The last section was a long climb to Gich Camp. And boy was it hard on me. I started to feel very dizzy, and when I finally got there I was extremely light headed and blacked out for a fraction of a second. After some popcorn I scored a goal in a small football game the local kids were playing.
The temperature had dropped now (18ish during the day) and it was incredibly cold. Three people in a small tent kept us warm. Toilets were a fair distance downhill (and not pleasant) it was almost a mini-trek to get back up. One day over, three left!