Simien Mountains.......

Gee, what a journey!

As planned we were out of Axum and on the road to Debark by 6 am. The road was not nearly as bad as we were made to believe, or else we have just got used to the roads after travelling nearly 5000 km in Ethiopia. It was cold in the early morning and we passed many people on their way to the nearest town or village all wrapped up in the traditional white cloth that they all use to cover themselves for any occasion or reason. It remains to me remarkable that people walk so much in this country. This was Saturday and then you see hundreds of people on the road all walking to their nearest village as Saturday is mostly a market day. Needless to say many things have to accompany one to the market, as in donkeys for carrying merchandise, goats for selling , chickens tied together by their feet, obviously for somebody’s Sunday meals and the rest is carried on the backs of woman and children. Doesn’t look like men carry much. Once in the villages, the men mostly sit about and drink the “local brew”. We are not sure what it is and have not been tempted to try either.

Sometime during the morning we saw another vehicle approaching with a roof tent on, a strange sight in this country. As the Isuzu twin cab approached, we saw that it had a EC registration number. Both we and the other vehicles stopped immediately. I mean to see another SA car here is exceptional. It was a guy from East London and he and his family had travelled from East London to Nairobi and then the family flew back. His wife had to go back to work, while he is continuing to Germany on his own. We all chatted for a while and exchanged info and the normal “where have you been and what have you seen” bit and then we were off on our separate ways again.

Again the scenery was awesome. I just do not have words to describe it and the photos will have to tell the story. We must have travelled up and down at least 8 mountain passes and they are not “Mickey mouse” passes either. One minute you are at 825 m and the next at over 3000m and the roads are winding and narrow and gravel and never mind how high you are in the mountains, the moment you stop to take a picture, there are at least 5 kids around you looking at you and the more confident ones will always risk asking for a pen or they just say “you you”. Kids are fantastic and the same everywhere. The moment you interact with them, you have them in the bag. We crossed at least 4 rivers flowing strongly. It is the raining season after all.
About 70 km from our destination for the day the rain started. Firstly gently and in spurts, however the higher we climbed, the narrower the road was, the harder the rain was and the muddier the road became and the visibility decreased proportionately and the road remained windy as ever. We were now moving into waterfall world, with waterfalls everywhere with gurgling brown muddy water. This seemed to be OK and presented several photo opportunities. The moment of truth came when we were confronted by 2 waterfalls about 30 metres apart doing what waterfalls do best across the now extremely muddy road. Thank God there was no truck coming from the opposite side and I was extremely grateful that my mother was not in the car at the time. Well, never to be outdone by the moment, we switched on the video on the camera and drove through the 2 waterfalls with zero visibility for a few seconds. I am still not sure if Dick did it with eyes closed or open, but I can assure you we were happy to have put that experience behind us. We were very relieved to get to Debark in one piece and all ideas of camping were put aside for the night. We booked into a hotel, with a proper shower and HOT running water and a proper loo and we felt much better the next morning as we set off for the Simien Mountain National Park with our scout Aftamo.

We spent 2 and a half days in the park. It was cold and we were happy for rain jackets and warm track suits and beanies and scarfs that had come with. The Simien Mountain National Park is one of the renowned places in Ethiopia and visited by many overseas visitors and the big thing there is to do trekking. The altitude is nearly 4000m and the air is thin and clean and breathing can be a challenge, if you are walking or climbing. We did the driving bit! I think that Philip Briggs, of Bradt guide fame, refers to the Simien Mountains as a cross of Lesotho and the Drakensberg and that is the nearest that I could come to as well. The scenery is mind blowing and we took many pictures. One thing I can say is that the conditions in those mountains can change really fast. One moment you would be in sunshine and the next covered in thick mist, or rain or a thunderstorm. We camped for the 2 nights and that was in basic conditions. Thank goodness the roof tent is waterproof and we were warm, despite the conditions. The days were sort of sunny and misty. Our scout, with extremely limited command of the English language, was great. He quickly clicked that we were into photos and showed us some viewpoints that is nowhere on a map, so we hope that again the photos will tell the story. There are 3 specific animal species that you can see in the park, being the Wallia Ibex, the Galada baboon and the Simien fox/wolf. We did not see the wolf, as they are very rare, apparently only about 80 in the whole park, however we saw many Ibex and hundreds of the Galada baboons.

Well, dirty and happy after the nearly 3 days we left the park, dropped our scout off in Debark and off we were to Gondor for the next walk through the history of Ethiopia. On the way to Gondor we passed 3 boys waving to us and then the little bastards threw stones at us and did some serious damage to one of the back windows, so arriving in Gondor, we had to have that seen to first. That is a story on its own as well. Dick is getting real good at dealing with these guys in their own way. After all the dealings to fix the window we were off to look for camping accommodation for the night. Well after we saw what was on offer, all plans of camping for the night was put on the back burner and we booked into a pension with hot shower, etc. The fact that the electricity only came on at 8.30 pm is irrelevant. We still had a hot shower and went to bed clean and refreshed.

This morning bright and early we were ready for Gondor and its historical offerings. We got a good guide, our second Benjamin of the holiday. He showed us around the castles and churches and informed us on the history and was very patient with us as there were many photo stops. He ended the day with us in a traditional Tej Bet, where we tasted the honey wine type of drink which is traditional to Ethiopia. We got home a little tired after the long day!!Tomorrow it is off to Bahir Dar and the last few days of our trip.