Schlagwort-Archive: backpacking

Ethiopia, World Trip 2018-19

Touring Danakil Depression

Hinterlasse einen Kommentar

Our next stop after Tigray was Mekele, the starting point for excursions into the Danakil Depression – one of the most amazing volcanic landscapes on Earth. Unfortunately, we arrived in Mekele on a Sunday which apparently meant that most tour offices were closed and comparing and booking a tour turned out a bit more difficult than we expected. After whatsapping with some agencies and bargaining a lot, we finally decided to go with ETT – Ethio Travel and Tours – who are known for their big groups, but who just offered the best deal, including a transfer to Lalibela afterwards.

So next day, we were off to Danakil, with our first day consisting mainly of driving and stopping at some viewpoints along the way. In the late afternoon, we drove a bit across the big salt lake. On the way, we came across some camel caravans who are transporting salt 400 km further. Hard work for the men and animals!

We then passed by a little pool in the salt lake (which otherwise like Uyuni is solidified on the top so you can drive across it). Some people went in for a dip, but we weren’t keen on being completely salty for the remainder of the tour, so we just walked around a bit and took some pictures.

Our last stop for the day was to see the sunset over the salt lake which was quite pretty, even though the sun set behind some clouds eventually.

The night was spent on wobbly makeshift beds outside. It was nice to sleep under the stars, but I’ve had my fair share of nights under stars, so wouldn’t have minded if they had built a simple hostel like those on the Uyuni tour.

IMG_5277 (2) (Medium)

Next morning, bright and early, we went to see the highlight of the tour: the volcanic landscape of Dallol. At first, when we arrived, I was a bit underwhelmed to be honest. There was some pretty yellow underground, but nothing thaaat amazing. That was before I saw all of this:

W.o.w. I had high expectations towards Dallol, but they were wayyy surpassed! I didn’t know there would be these little terrace pools, and I didn’t expect new crazy views wherever you went.

Only to see Dallol, it was already worth doing this tour – even though it was expensive. After seeing this unreal landscape, there were two more stops we made. One at a bubbling lake (volcanic activity but apparently not hot), and some cool looking rocks that reminded us a bit of Ciudad de Itas in Bolivia, but on a much smaller scale. We also passed a place where locals were cutting salt blocks out of the lake, to transport them onward on the back of their camels. It’s very hard work, that – as so often – pays very little.

After that, it was back to our lunch stop from day 1 and then back to Mekele town. Even without seeing the lava lake at Erta Ale (it’s not visible anymore at the moment), touring the volcanic landscapes of Danakil Depression has been amazing and something we won’t forget too quickly.

Ethiopia, World Trip 2018-19

Visiting the rock-hewn churches of Tigray

Hinterlasse einen Kommentar

From Axum, we took a minibus to Adwa, then to Adigrat and finally to Hawzien in Tigray. Tigray is known for its rock-hewn churches – little cave churches that have been carved into the rocks many many years ago. Some of them can only be reached by some climbing and hiking – an adventure that sounded just right for us! Like the Simiens, most people visit this region on an organized tour… but since that’s not our style, we did it by ourselves – some hassle involved but so much cheaper!

We first took a minibus from Hawzien to Megab, where we were supposed to pick up a (mandatory?) guide for visiting the churches. However, after realizing that we didn’t have our own transportation but wanted to go by public minibus and walking, none of the guides was interested to accompanying us anymore. Lol. So we just started walking, then caught a minibus to where the road forks off to Abuna Yemata Guh – probably the most famous church. We were the first ones to arrive and the ticket „office“ was still closed (meaning: there was no one sitting under the tree yet, selling tickets), so we just walked on – getting hassled by two teenagers so much that I had to threaten to call the police if that didn’t leave us alone. Their attitude changed from one second to the other and they disappeared. Luckily!

We hiked on until we reached the point where you have to climb up a wall. There were already 2 scouts and another guy waiting to „help“ us up (you’re forced to accept their help and then tip them for help you didn’t need and want). Firstly though, the priest had to go up and await us up the steep rock mountain to open up the church for us. Once we had reached the top, the views were incredible! You’re walking on a small footpath with a steep drop-off just next to you. Really impressive!

The church itself was beautiful too with some nice paintings that the priest pointed out. It’s crazy how they built this church all the way up in the rocks!

After some more hassle on the way down and back, we hitched a ride back to Megab from where we walked along the road to Debre Maryam Korkor and Daniel Korkor – the two other churches we had planned to visit. It was a dusty, hot walk, but the views were nice so that made it better.

IMG_5089 (Medium)

Again, people tried to force us to take a scout with us but we plainly refused and were able to walk by ourselves. The hike took longer this time, but there was no real climbing involved. We basically had to climb a whole mountain, which came a bit as a surprise for us! At times, the trail was hard to spot, but with Maps.me we were fine. Also, we just ended up following some groups here and there. The churches themselves didn’t excite us that much this time – but the views were again stunning!

Tigray is a beautiful region and I’m sure there would be some beautiful hikes that you could do. Unfortunately, at this stage there is no infrastructure for independent travellers, you would have to go on an expensive tour for seeing more churches over multiple days. But for us, this was good enough! I believe we saw some of the most impressive churches and after a day with lots of hassle, we were ready to move on…

Ethiopia, World Trip 2018-19

Trekking the Simien Mountains without a tour

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.