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Kosoye Viewpoint
Brent Sutton...or Calvin Klein?The second destination on our travels is Ethiopia, a country I was really looking forward to seeing, but also held some doubt simply due to the unknown.
Addis Ababa
We flew into Addis Ababa, from Cairo, to a pleasant 25dg (had been hovering in the high 30dg in Egypt) and were met by our friendly airport transfer. Upon leaving the nicely paved roads leading from the airport we began to realise that we were definitely no longer in Kansas... The streets in Addis Ababa tend to be a combination of main arterial routes, which are ashfelted, with a spider web of side streets of the gravel variety. We arrived at the Mimosa Hotel without any incident and proceeded to familiarise ourselves with the local neighbourhood. This is when we discovered that in Ethiopia the streets literally have no name... (had to fit in the cheesy U2 reference for Cath's benefit :-). The hotel reception proceeded to give us directions to the local ATM which involved a turn right to the end of the road, turn left, then turn right for 200m. Off we went armed with the these definitive instructions in the quest for local currency. 20 minutes later, and
no cash machine in sight, we stood defeated and decided to retrace our steps to the hotel. The helpful hotel staff came through and gave us a lift to the cash machine. This is when we discovered that 200m could also mean 400m or 1km in Ethiopia.... The same sort of 200m directions were offered when we went to get water in the afternoon :-) Shortly after getting back from the water run the weather made a sudden change from a pleasant summers afternoon to the opening of the heavens. We were knackered and happy to be inside to catch up on emails and getting the first blog up. Had a pretty good dinner that night at the hotel restaurant and retired for the night.
Gonder
The next day we got on our first internal flight to Gonder. Fortunately we had access to email and received notification that our flight was going to leave half an hour early. Apparently this is very common in Ethiopia and that is why they advise you confirm your flights the day before you are due to fly. The planes flying internal routes are the smaller propeller type. The fleet are quite new and
Taxi driver
Above and beyond service comfortable to fly in but obviously the smaller the plane the more prone it is to turbulence... Let's just say I got used to Cath's nails imprinted on my arm during the flight hehehe
Arrived in Gonder without any issues and got a shuttle into the town. We arranged to stay in Atse Bekaffa Hotel in central Gonder. After checking in proceeded to look around the hotel. We had been on the go for about four hours now. We were ready for a refreshment so headed to the restaurant to grab a beer and sit on the balcony. Sitting there sipping a beer when Cath glanced at her watch. It was 08:30am in the morning.... Felt like I needed to get a paper bag to wrap my bottle in it... :-) Decided we couldn't sit on the balcony all day boozing so we went off to explore the town. First thing we did was find the tourist information. We were thinking about doing a day trip to Lake Tana to see the monasteries but it was going to take to long to get there and back in a day. We settled on a day trip up to Kosoye which is
Fasilidas's Pool
The pool had it's roots in old times.. a viewpoint to the Simien Mountains. Apparently Queen Elizabeth II liked the spot so much she ordered her driver to stop for tea in 1965. What's good for the Queen is good for the gander! Having sorted the day trip we went to get some lunch at the Quara Hotel. It had a nice roof terrace where we sat and ate. We liked the place so much we took a look at the rooms and booked to stay there for the next two nights (was only 20 birr more than we were paying and the rooms were much better).
Kosoye
The next morning we met our guide and driver for the day. The Ethiopians get good milage out of their cars. Our car for the day looked like a little 1970's Datsun Cherry with shagpile carpet on the dash, it was absolutely brilliant :-) We headed out onto the gravel road with little suspension to shield us from the bumps but this just added to the experience. Our translator / guide pointed out things of interest along the way such as the Jewish village 5km outside of town. Upon arriving at Kosoye were met by the local people who act
St George Beer
Staple diet of Ethiopia as "security" and guides. Security isn't actually needed but this is a way of getting the local people involved and benefiting from tourism. The plan is to eventually turn this area into a national park but this requires the co-operation of the local population. We mosied down the narrow dirt path that took us to the look out point. After about 20 minutes walk we arrived at the point and the views were definitely worth the effort of getting out there! Hard to put into words so will let the pictures do the talking.
Fasil Gheddi (Royal Enclosure)
The Royal Enclosure is the primary reason why most tourists come to Gonder. The complex contains six well preserved castles of which the most famous is Fasilidas's Castle. We hired a guide for the morning to take us around and explain the history of the site. The morning was a little overcast so we decided it would be best to just enjoy the tour and come back in the afternoon to take photos. After lunch we hired a tuktuk to take us to
Fasilidas's Pool which is 2km out of town. This site is awesome! The complex consists of a walled compound
Royal Enclosure - Gondar
Queen surveying her kingdom..or queendom? (with turrets) which contains a large pool (empty when we were there) with a castle / residence smack dab in the middle. Along the walls of the pool ancient trees have grown with their roots flowing down the wall to the water (very cool). We walked back to town and then on another 1.5km to
Debre Birham Selassie church. This is the only church in Gonder that survived the 1888 attack by the Dervish. The church is pretty plain from the outside but the inside is stunning! The paintings a vivid and beautiful. A must see if you're in Gonder!
Axum
The next day we had another Fokker of a flight (geddit...Fokker 50 turboprop...okay..moving along..) to Axum, via Lalibela. The internal flights here tend to run to just one or two a day, stopping at all of the big destinations en route. For example, if you wanted to fly from Addis to Axum, you would most probably go via Gonder and Lalibela to get there. We decided not to book ahead this time, giving us the benefit of checking out a few hotels close to each other and seeing what offered the most for our birr. The first
Royal Enclosure again
Castles..castles..and more castles.. hotel was decidedly unclean and rejected straight away. Cath then went on a trek to find something a little more habitable and stumbled upon one of the plush hotels (one of about two in the town) which offered older style rooms for 250 birr a night, incl TV and fridge (cold water is a must for hot days!). We then, as we usually do when arriving in a new town, set out on an exploration mission. We had already read that there was not as much to Axum as other destinations, so decided to spend just one day here. And we were right too. Axum is definitely the poorer cousin of the historical circuit and lacked the charm and friendliness we found in Gonder. We also encountered many more children whose only English was "gimme pen" and "gimme money". We quickly decided to ignore these children, and to speak to and involve the rest. We met many lovely children, some of which wanted to just hold our hand and walk with us. The next day we purchased our 25birr tickets which gave us entry to the various sites around town. The most famous of these being the large Stelae (also
Love Seat
Where the King & Queen of Gondar hung out. known as obelisk) field near the main centre of town, which stands at 26m tall. During Italian occupation of the town (from the late 1930's to early 1940's) this was taken from Axum and transported to the Piazza in Rome. The stelae was finally returned in April 2005. There is another much larger stelae which lays broken in bits on the ground, but would have been very big if it was still upright. We also hiked up the hill to visit the tooms of Kaleb and Gebre Meskel. While everything in the tooms has long since been removed, it was a nice respite from the heat to go into them and check out the stone structures underground. On our descent of the hill we passed a small shack which holds a trillingual tablet which was discovered by a local farmer in the 1980s. It warns that anyone who dares move the tablet will meet an untimely death. We decided on that note, not to lean on it... After the tablet we passed the Queen of Sheba's Swimming pool, also known as Mai Shum. It was created 3000 years ago as a bathing place for Queen Sheba, but is now a
concreted over reservoir which the locals use as a source of drinking water/bathing.
Also in Axum is apparently where the Ark of the Covenant is kept in the Cathedral of Tsion Maryam. Although for a fairly steep entrance fee and no chance of actually seeing it we decided to take a photo the church and give this one a wide berth. If the Ark is actually there...who knows...but it's a good draw for tourists.
Having done pretty much all the sites in town we returned to the hotel and got ready for the morning flight to Lalibela.
Lalibela
Lalibela and it's famous rock-churches were one of the main reasons why we decided to go to Ethiopia, since Brent saw a photo of them that David and Tracey had taken on their visit there - and they sure didn't disappoint! On arriving at the airport, all the tourists were shuffled into minivans at the fixed price of 40 birr each...quite steep! But it was quite a long drive from the airport to Lalibela, which sits perched at an altitude of 2,630m. We had decided on checking out a hotel, the Alef Paradise, based on our trusty book and were
not disappointed, despite most people getting off at the more popular and more expensive (although not much better) Seven Oilves Hotel. For 200 birr a night we did not have a TV or fridge, but a nice clean room which newish bathroom and some solid beds and a balcony. We then decided to check out the town, which is roughly divided into three areas, the bottom section down the hill where we were staying, then a walk on a short incline up a cobbled road to a smaller section of housing half way up the hill and then a much steeper (cue huffing and puffing) walk to a larger section of town. The entrances to the two clusters of churches was in between all this so we were not in a bad position, and the walk home down hill was quite enjoyable! We decided to hike right up the hill to the posh Mountain view hotel (huffing and puffing again - I swear it's the altitude!) to get a lovely view of the surrounding countryside (which was amazing) and a few photos, before returning to our hotel for dinner.
Monastery of Yemrehanna Kristos
On our little adventure
Axum Look Out
Resting our weary bones. we met a nice American guy called Zac who was over visiting with his Uncle Rich, who has sponsored a few Ethiopians, helping them through schooling and getting a job here or in the US. Rich likes to come over and visit every year or so and catch up with everything. After a nice chat, we discovered they were heading to the Monastery of Yemrehanna Kristos the next day, the very place we had just been trying to arrange a tour for. We asked if they had room for two more and Zac said he would check and get back to us. So the next morning over breakfast we got a phone call and we were on our way by 9am. On our way to the Monastery ( a 42km drive over quite rough "internal organ relocating" roads) we passed the small town of Bilbilla. The Monastery itself is on an altitude of 2,700m and built in a large cavern. The building itself was not to be missed with its various paintings inside and the priest was on hand to give us a tour of the building. There was also a section at the back of the cave covered with
tooms of Kaleb and Gebre Meskel
I'll just stay here for a bit thanks skeletons of about 10,740 Christian pilgrims who traveled from as far as Jerusalem and Syria to die there.
After we got back we headed back to a small artisan shop/bar across from our hotel for a beer or two (Brent was particularly pleased to find beer on draught for the first time in Ethiopia!) and had a really good conversation with a local man who said he was 17.
Rock-hewn Chruches
There are seven churches in the northwest cluster and five in the south, with the biggest of all, Bet Giyorgis (or St George) standing on its own. It's the only church which has it's own drainage system and unlike the others has no cover over it so its easier to photograph. Unesco erected large covers over the rest of the churches to protect them. The largest church - Bet Medhane - is 11.5m high and covers an area of 800 square metres. Considering many these churches were carved from the tops down, that's quite a feat. Others were excavated from a vertical rock face using existing caves or cracks in the rock. With our guide in tow were taken to each church in turn over the course
Axum stelae
Big stone things. of the day, with a two hour lunch break when everything is shut, where we were taken around and then inside each church and shown around..most followed the same pattern..an area for chanting, a curtained off "holy of holies" at the front which we could not see and a priest with a fancy golden key. Awesome as they were the insides became all a bit the same by the end of it. The churches were mostly connected by an intricate series of tunnels and stairways..some a bit hairy for those who don't appreciate heights. St George was the definite highlight with an awesome view down onto the top of the church from the surrounding land and a source of many a photo!
The next day we were due to catch our flight back to Addis, which in keeping with Ethiopian flight times, left one hour early. Now it's a rest stop in Addis for a day to catch up on washing and e-mails before we fly out to Nairobi tomorrow morning to begin our 39-day tour.
Selamat.
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David Couch
non-member comment
Lovin' It
Hi you two. Really great to read your latest blog and to know all is going so well. I am reliving some of my adventures through you and enjoying every word of it. I hope the overland tour rocks!!