Blogs from Simien Mountains, Amhara Region, Ethiopia, Africa

4th Nov ’12 Gondar to Debark and the Simien Mountains We spent the morning driving to Debark, with a stop at a viewpoint across the Simien Mountains and it was a spectacular sight – all these different sized and shaped peaks stretching off to the horizon. Tomorrow we are going to be driving right through them and at this moment in time I just can’t figure out how! We carried on passing small villages of huts surrounding greens on which cattle were grazing, young children were carrying babies on their backs and women were walking along bent double under huge piles of firewood on their backs. We arrived in Debark, a town which is expanding as more hotels are being built to meet the Faranji demand for access to the Simien Mountains National Park. The road ... read more

Not feeling very recovered, we’re up early to reverse our trip back to Chirro Leba in the vain hope the notes of this trip might be correct that there might be an option to catch lift on a 4x4 back to Chennek and thus avoid ascending the long ridge we descended the day before yesterday. It’s a slow start out of camp for the weary legs and RL is struggling on the descents (though still, somehow, remains cheery enough). Both knees are suffering now and that lost strap might’ve been useful at this point. I recall some of my worst descents with bad tendons and am impressed by how little her obviously painful knees are denting her spirits. Once on the ascent to Chirro Leba, the going is a bit easier (if much hotter and made ... read more

One of our American friends has woken with serious digestive issues so a hasty search around the camp for the right anti-biotics is under way by the time we rise. Various drugs are located (some might even help) but their trip is over – they will be heading back today. We march on back up to the next lump of escarpment and hike over its craggy ridge to reveal more fantastic views and the first sight of our route up Ras Dashen. It’s a thousand-metre drop in altitude down the river in the valley between us and the Ras Dashen range and then it’s another thousand-metre ascent to reach the summit. A long, grinding descent leads to the corrugated-iron clad village of Chirro Leba. A tourist-priced cold drink is in order at the wee “hotel” DJ ... read more

Rise to a welcome breakfast and hand on the second portion of omelette to some American friends (they work with RL and are here purely by coincidence) whose cook, after some misunderstanding, was left behind in Debark. DJ eventually manages to work out that their cook is on the way. We set off for a day’s hike – 6 hours or so at a steady pace. We rise onto the escarpment of the park and follow it to sit above the Geech Abyss with its impressive waterfall cascading a good five hundred feet or more into the bottomless abyss (there is a bottom of course, it just can’t be seen from our craggy vantage point). We scramble up an eroded hillside to meet the dirt road that is now used by all the local villagers and ... read more

The hike was only a dozen steps old and already, William the Scot and I realised that we don’t have any water left for the rest of the first day. We were hiking the Simeon Mountains for 3 days so we packed enough water but our reserve stocks were with the mules taking another route. How could it be that we would be out of water after only 12 steps? Simeon is 5 hours along a dusty bumpy bus north of Gondor. You can book a tour or just rock up and hope to join some others. We managed to join up with 6 - 4 Russians and a Belgium couple. By skipping the tour and doing it ourselves it worked out very cheap for African hiking in a National Park. Getting a bargain would be ... read more