Ethiopia 3rd week

• Thursday 2nd August
  
  We stayed at the Lal Hotel and they allowed us to camp in the grounds and just use a room to shower in – clean, hot showers – what a pleasure! We woke up early and set off at 7am with our guide, Tamru, to visit Yemrehanna Kristos, a built up church in a cavern 42 kms from Lalibela. On the way, we had our next car disaster but luckily we were going about 10kms per hour as this was the most potentially dangerous mechanical fault yet– the left front steering arm came completely loose and dropped out!! Had we been going faster we could have had a terrible accident, as it was, we just stopped and Dave fixed it – luckily, he is so capable!
  We reached the parking area and walked up a steep path to the cavern to see this church which is built with alternating layers of wood and granite, and is thought to date to about 1087. Under the rock floor of the cavern is a subterranean freshwater lake which is supposed to be curative holy water and in medieval times it was an important pilgrimage site for Christians. Behind the church, in the cavern, lie the bones of about 10 000 Christian pilgrims, who traveled from as far as Syria and Egypt to die here – it certainly made the dark cavern very eerie! The church itself was beautiful and inside the priest showed us the ancient Holy book written in 2 languages and illustrated - all on goat skin parchment! We then made our way back to Lalibela – I slept most of the way as I have a terrible head cold! This is my 3rd ailment in as many weeks and I certainly hope my last! After lunch, Tamru was taking us on a tour of the rock-hewn churches in Lalibela.
  
  We started our tour at 2pm and these churches were really amazing to see. In fact, if you stop and think that they are carved out by hand, from solid rock below ground level and to such intricate designs – you have to think that there was some supernatural intervention! They should certainly be listed as one of the wonders of the world. As it is, they are relatively unknown and what adds to their wonder even more, is that they are still actively used as a place of worship by 1000’s of locals. The churches are HUGE and full of symbolic meaning. There are 2 clusters of churches, one with 7 and one with 5 churches and then a 13th church, Bet Giyorgis, stands alone. Most of the churches were excavated from below ground out of pure rock and are surrounded by trenches. If they are completely excavated on all 4 sides ie free standing, they are called ‘monolithic’ others are excavated from vertical rock faces and the back is still attached to the rock face.
  
  Lalibela was the younger brother of the incumbent king but as a child he was covered by a swarm of bees and his mother took this as a sign that he would be king. His brother tried to poison him but only succeeded in casting Lalibela into a deep sleep for 3 days during which time Lalibela had a vision of the rock-hewn churches which the angel instructed him to replicate. The older brother abdicated in favour of Lalibela and Lalibela set about carving the churches – legend has it that at least one of the churches was carved in a single day with the help of angels!
  The photographs we took can not do justice to the wonder of these churches but we will remember them in our minds for ever!
  Tamru told us that he needs B300 a month to live – he is a bachelor and his rent is B30 and then he can survive on the remainder! B300 = R240
  
  
  Friday 3rd August
  
  We had a good breakfast with lovely fresh eggs that we had bought from a monastery. Then we set off W towards Lake Tana and Bahir Dar. We were going to go up to Axum in the N but we have had to cut back a bit as Garfield has cost us over R11 000 in repairs! We covered about 200kms all at 3 000m altitude and the scenery was once again spectacular. It is the rainy season and so everything is lush and so green. Luckily, the rain comes mainly at night and late afternoon, so it does not trouble us too much. We drove into the Ghion Hotel in Bahir Dar in the afternoon, and there was the yellow overlander truck – we were back with friends! We had planned to meet up with them in Gonder to travel through Sudan together but now we had met up earlier. In addition, we met Johan Botha, a fellow South African, who also met up with the overlanders and is also going to share the ferry with them from Sudan into Egypt. After chatting to Johan for about 10 minutes, he suddenly clapped Dave on the shoulder and exclaimed that he recognized Dave from army days in Tsumab! Can you believe the coincidence? We spent an enjoyable evening socializing and it looks like Johan(who is in a sponsored Toyota Landcruiser traveling around the whole of Africa) is going to join us through Egypt and Libya. We will then go Tunisia – Sicily, while they carry on over the top and down the W coast of Africa.
  
  
  Saturday 4th August
  
  I am still feeling full of flu and Dave is starting so we decided to have a day of rest. We shared an omlette at the hotel for breakfast, chatting to others we had met last night and checking out the birds on Lake Tana. Afterwards we walked to the bank to draw money and then looked at the local market, before coming back to the hotel to wash Garfield, do maintenance and catch up with the webpage. We then went and sat at the hotel’s pavilion on the waters edge in the evening for drinks and then Jeff, Luke and Terry from the overlander joined us. We had dinner together and then the boys took us to a local nightclub – packed in like sardines with a dance floor one metre square but with a musician and a local singer/dancer plus the odd patron dancing – it was very festive although we were sitting on beer crates! It was good to see how the local Ethiopians have fun together.
  
  
  Sunday 5th August
  
  We woke up and took a walk along a path around Lake Tana. Lake Tana is the largest lake in Ethiopia and is the source of the Blue Nile – remember we saw the source of the White Nile at Jinga in Uganda? It is only 14m deep but has about 36 islands, many inhabited and with monasteries on them.
  It was a clear day so we came back and did laundry and then had breakfast before driving 30kms SE to see the Blue Nile Falls where the 400m wide river plunges over a 45m drop in 3 separate streams. We were a little dubious as we had read that, due to the hydro-electric plant that has been built at the falls, the falls hardly existed anymore! But we were pleasantly surprised and it was quite a sight to see. It took us 2 ½ hours as we did a circular hike around and to the bottom of the falls, which entailed us wading through thigh high water at one stage! So we have certainly done a bit of exercise today. Then we relaxed and had dinner with the overlanders at their truck. There are only 3 of them here at the moment as the others have gone on an excursion to Lalibela. They cooked for us and it was a real treat!
  
  Monday 6th August
  
  We left and traveled up N towards Gonder, doing a detour to see some hot spring but it was a bit of a disappointment. We continued up to Gonder and then because it was so miserable and we could not find a decent hotel, we decided to push on to Debark and into the Simien Mountains. It was a very wise decision as we reached Debark just in time to pay our park fees and pick up the mandatory armed scout, and still get to Simien Lodge. Here, we really have scored, as the room rate is $100 per person per night- however, we asked to camp and they allowed us to for $20. Then they gave us the use of a room to shower and we had wonderfully steaming hot showers before coming down to the pub where we are sitting in front of a roaring fire sharing a bottle of red wine before going in to dinner! Dinner is $10 each for a 3 course meal so that is not bad at all. A crummy hotel in Gonder wanted to charge us more than $20 to camp and have the use of a common cold shower!! So we are VERY happy with our change of plans. There is only one other couple here and the staff are treating us like royalty! The ‘cherry on top’ was when they presented us with hot water bottles to take to bed with us. We had a very cosy night with our duvets, crocheted blankets and hotties – despite the temperature going down to 6 degrees!
  
  
  Tuesday 7th August
  
  We woke up at 6am, had a cup of coffee and then set off to do the scenic drive through the Simien Mountains, one of Africa’s largest ranges with a dozen peaks that top 4 000m in height. The scenery was wonderful and we were lucky enough to spot the Ethiopian wolf(only in the distance) and the Walia Ibex – both endangered and endemic to this region. We also saw loads of Gelada which are endemic but not endangered. The gelada is a strikingly handsome baboon with a flowing golden mane and long whiskers. The male has a heart shaped red chest patch and a matching red ‘winkie’, while the female has red teats and red on her buttocks. The geladas are unique in that they are the only surviving ‘grazing’ monkey and they feed predominantly on grass. We really enjoyed observing them for a while and they were not timid so we got within a few metres of them. The males bare their teeth by pulling their top lip right back, and of course the babies are playful and romp around play fighting. Garfield did very well as the highest view point we reached was 4 300m! The mountains themselves are rugged and spectacular with sheer cliffs on which the gelada sleep at night to avoid predators. Of course, photographs can never portray the extreme beauty that we were exposed to all day!
  Our initial plan had been to camp out at one of the hikers camps, but we had been so well treated last night, that we decided to return to the Lodge. We got back at lunch time and just spent a peaceful afternoon in front of the fire in the pub reading, playing cards and generally relaxing, as Dave has now got my head cold with a vengeance – we are both coughing and spluttering!