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Published: October 19th 2008
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Male Gelada Baboons
They are very intelligent animals and have the most complex system of communication of any nonhuman animal and chat away all the time When we arrived in Gondar we planned to stay a few days to rest and relax and to decide if we want to go trekking in the
Simien Mountains National Park. That decision was cut short when met the Belgium couple we did the Lake Tana tour with. They were planning to do a four day trek and leave for the Simien Mountains the next day. They were looking for people to share cost with. All of it seemed like a good idea. We did a quick tour of Gondar and left the next morning for the Simien Mountains.
The Simien Mountains are stunning! There is just no other way to describe them. There are large plateaus bounded by sheer cliff faces with some of the cliffs being up to 300 meters high and straight down. Some compare it to the Grand Canyon in America.
This all is coupled with lush green and colorful scenery. We were lucky as we arrived just after the rainy season and there was lots of green grass, flowers, bush and trees complete with fairy hair moss hanging of them.
We started somewhere around 2600 meters and from then on it was uphill to the highest point at
Meskal flower and scenery
Meskal flowers are at this time of the year everywhere and bathe the countryside in yellow
4090m. Not having done much exercise in the last months really didn’t help and we were struggling a bit but the beautiful scenery kept us from complaining too much.
The park is inhabited by the Ibex, Gelada Baboons and the Ethiopian wolf. The Gelada Baboons were my favorites. We saw them everywhere. They look interesting with a blood red spot on the chest and the males sporting a lion like mane. They are certainly not shy and usually do not care too much about humans which is great for observing them and taking way too many pictures.
The Ibex (think mountain goat) is a bit harder to spot as it is shy and usually somewhere in the distance on a mountain slope. Nevertheless we spotted quite a few on our trek and as usual on the last day there were heaps just a few meters from our camp.
The most elusive and most endangered species with only 45-70 in the national park is the Ethiopian Wolf. We were very fortunate to see one and we only had to walk 5 minutes from our camp! The wolf is not dangerous and lives mostly of smaller animals like mice, rats and
Our group
with guide (left) and scout (right) the like. It looks more like a dog than the big bad animal out of little red riding hood. Even our experienced guide was surprised to see the wolf especially so close to the camp and in company of some Ibex and Baboons.
The temperatures during this time of the year are quite cool as we found out. It was perfect during the day but at night the temperature really dropped. One day we had hail in the afternoon and two nights were below zero degrees. Not a problem if you have a good sleeping bag… We didn’t. We slept with virtually all our clothes on and were still cold.
We were cold in our tent with our sleeping bags and I have no idea how our entourage survived. We had a cook, a cook’s helper, a guide, a scout (the guy with the gun) and two mule drivers with mules with us. They mostly slept in open huts on the ground only covered with a blanket. Call me soft but that must be f**ing cold.
PS: If you’re in Gondar and you’re approached by Johannes from Poppy tours then don’t believe anything he says.
Lunch, Dinner and scenery
as many as 4000 people live within the national park We got in the end what we wanted but there were too many lies involved to recommend him.
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