Archiv der Kategorie: Africa

Ethiopia, World Trip 2018-19

Trekking the Simien Mountains without a tour

Mai 15, 2019 Just Booked A Trip Hinterlasse einen Kommentar

It’s been a while since we went hiking, so we were excited for the Simien Mountains and to see some of Ethiopia’s nature. Most tourists come on organized tours, but you can very well organize the trek yourself! All we had to do was pay the entrance fee and get a scout (mandatory) at the national park office in Debark. And we had to lie about having arranged transport out of the park already, as the transport mafia doesn’t allow tourists to travel of local busses or trucks that ply the route (and which we were totally planning to do).

To begin with, we took a tuk tuk until the park entrance, from where on we hiked to Sankaber – easily achieved within an afternoon – our campsite for the first night. It was a nice start into our hiking days: first passing through some traditional villages, then hiking along the cliffs with some awesome views!

The first night’s dinner, lunches and breakfasts we carried food for ourselves. Luckily, one of the cooks of the tour groups was nice enough to supply us with hot water for our instant noodles.

On our 2nd day, we hiked from Sankaber to Geech, passing by the almost dried out Jin Bahir waterfalls. Again, we were treated to some really nice views! Even after hiking so much in Patagonia, the Simien Mountains are impressive – just so different again!

It was our shortest day and we already arrived in Geech in the early afternoon. After some relaxing, we decided to walk to the viewpoint Kedadit for some later afternoon light and sunset photos.

What we hadn’t known is that every evening you can also watch big groups of Gelada monkeys migrating down the cliffs to sleep there. It was a really cool spectacle to experience!!

On our last full day, we had a long hike in front of us: Geech to Chennek via Imet Gogo mountain. The first part until Imet Gogo went relatively quickly and we reached this – in our opinion – best viewpoint of the entire hike before lunch. Amazing views in all directions!!

What followed, after a short descent, was a loooong way up to Enati. It was tough, but in exchange we saw some Gelada baboons again aaaaand were incredibly lucky to spot the Ethiopian wolf shortly before reaching Enati. So cool!!

From then on, it was mostly down, but still quite a while to go until Chennek. Fortunately, there were again and again pretty viewpoints along the way which made it much easier and enjoyable.

In the end, we were the fastest ones to arrive in Chennek, even though we were with our heavy backpacks and took lots of photo stops. Haha, sometimes I don’t feel that fit compared to Mathijs, but days like this one show me that I’m probably fitter than I think! Chennek is probably the most beautifully located campsite with amazing viewpoints within short walking distance of the camp. We took some time to walk around again and waited for some Gelada baboons to show up. There was no big migration to observe like at the viewpoint at Geech, but it was still nice to see some more.

Next day, all we had to do was get a truck to take us back to Debark. After bargaining hard, we hopped onto the back with a bunch of locals and off we went to a long dusty and bumpy ride. At the park entrance we had to hide under a blanket for the officials not to see us (which they still did and our scout had a bit of a discussion with them, but in the end we were allowed to move on). Phew! Felt like refugees smuggling into a country for a moment…

All things considered, it was very well worth the little extra hassle to hike the Simiens independently! We saved about 170 USD each, and were able to hike at our own speed, when- and wherever we wanted.

Ethiopia, World Trip 2018-19

Gondar & Axum – two historical towns

Mai 15, 2019 Just Booked A Trip Hinterlasse einen Kommentar

From Bahir Dar, we took a minibus to Gondar – which didn’t take long but was quite annoying and gave us a first taste of Ethiopian transportation and the guys involved in it: after agreeing on a price, they suddenly wanted extra for luggage and refused to give change. They then dropped us about 15 km outside of Gondar, saying this is it. We wanted to stay on and force them to bring us to the agreed end destination, however a group of Frenchies was stupid enough to get off and agreed to take a chartered minivan to the center for an over-inflated price… so we had to come with them. Some people…!!

Gondar itself surprised us as quite a pleasant city. After late lunch, we went for a first walk around town and checked out the castle Ras Gimb. Quite impressive in the afternoon light and well preserved, at least the outside! The scruffy interior and museum was less interesting.

Next day, we went off to explore the main castle complex of Gondar, Fasil Ghebbi. And I must say, I was really impressed!! I didn’t expect such cool-looking castles here. We spent quite some time walking around the grounds and taking loads of photos.

Later on, we took a minivan to the Fasil Baths a bit outside town, which were equally surprising. It must be really awesome to experience Timkal here, when the pool is filled with water and the devotees go for a bath!

As a last sight of the day, we walked to Debre Birhan Selassie church, one of the oldest churches in Ethiopia with beautiful paintings on the wooden walls and ceiling. The walk there and back led us past some photogenic market stalls.

After Gondar, we ventured into the Simien mountains, from where we only returned for a night to catch a connecting bus to Shire next (early) morning. It was a long, uncomfortable bus ride, squeezed into our seats for 10 h, then involved a change in Shire to get to our final destination – Axum. Bus travel here is among the most exhausting we have ever experienced!

We just wanted to spend one day in Axum (and you don’t really need more), but I caught a stomach bug that forced me into a rest day. Somehow recovered, we finally set out to see the old stelae that Axum is famous for – but to be honest, they were a bit disappointing. I understand these are old and historically important columns, but…we thought they were ugly and not that impressive. We also walked outside town to see some more – even bigger disappointment. Only the Dungur palace was still kind of nice…

But at this point, the heat and my exhaustion from being sick the day before got to me and I had to skip a visit of the beautiful Cathedral. Mathijs went and had a great time, being able to take lots of nice pictures of the locals.

All in all, Axum wasn’t that great for me, but I seem to have missed out on the best part (cathedral). Oh well… can’t have it all!

Ethiopia, World Trip 2018-19

Bahir Dar and the monasteries of Lake Tana

Mai 15, 2019 Just Booked A Trip Hinterlasse einen Kommentar

Bahir Dar was a welcome change to Addis! After dealing with the taxi mafia at the airport, we were welcomed by streets lined with palm trees and lots of nice little cafes. It was still very busy on the street of course, but it had a more relaxed vibe.

On our first afternoon, we just walked around town a bit and discovered the colourful local market which was really really nice. After a while, Mathijs didn’t feel too shy about taking photos anymore, and there were just so many great subjects and scenes to photograph!

Later, we took a minivan to the Nile Bridge to see if we could spot some hippos. We did see two, but they were mainly under water and far away.

Next morning, we woke up very early to take the public ferry to the Zeghe peninsular. You can go on lots of tours to see the colourful monasteries of Laka Tana, but we always prefer to do things on our own. Ferry might be a bit of an exaggeration for the small boat, but it departed on time and the ride was beautiful and peaceful in the morning light.

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At Zege, we were welcomed by some chanting coming from the monastery Ura Kidane Meret. So we quickly walked up, past the still empty souvenir stalls to the ticket office which had to be opened up for us. Tours usually arrive here 1-2 h later only, so no one had expected tourists yet and we arrived to this amazing atmosphere. A group of men who were dressed as if they had climbed out of a history book were playing old musical instruments and chanting. It felt mystical and as if we were experiencing this very old culture.

It was special because there were no other tourists yet and it seemed like something they just did every morning, but that we were able to be part of that day. The paintings in the monastery were beautiful and nicer than expected, so we spent quite some time here – listening to the men and walking around taking pictures.

Later, we walked on to another monastery – Azwa Maryam – which was nice too and had some elaborate cruel paintings. Overall, it was quite similar to the first monastery though, and we imagine most other monasteries around the lake to look alike (unless you have a special interest in this area), hence concluded that seeing two of them would be enough for us! We were lucky to catch the same ferry on its way back to Bahir Dar and see some locals in their photogenic boats.

We still had some time left, so went back to our favourite market once again for another walk around and lots of pictures. This is more the kind of markets we like, compared to Addis‘ Merkato.