Blogs from Amhara Region, Ethiopia, Africa - page 4

"Hello, Money!": The children of Ethiopia are both a source of joy and of consternation in this place. We both enjoy their smiles and their constant waving, but also find their pestering wearing. Children come up to you, say "hello" and then reach their hands out, or ask first "give me pen?", to which you reply, "No, I don't have one". They don't miss a beat "give me money." In Lalibela where kids are least likely to hassle you owing to policies of the town, kids simply waved and said "hello, money." One young girl, who was maybe four cam running up to us with the most intense look on her face and yelled "give me money!" We had discovered Ethiopia's answer to Will Ferrell's Pearl (I tried putting a link in, but it screwed up ... read more

ETHIOPIA: Timket in Lalibela...Seeking Enlightenment. What is a mozaic of colour...a rugby scrum of thousands...a plethora of satin umbrellas...the most ornate crowns adorning heads one could possibly see...a pulsating rhythm of sandled feet...hours and hours of Geez...days of frantic passion...of faith...of faces...smiling or heavenward...and robes of white & red...of black & gold...of purples...of blues...of every colour imaginable...in a magic, exotic locale? Welcome to Timket in Lalibela...it is all of those things...and more. A three day festival to honour the Epiphany...the baptism of Christ... Ethiopian style. In Mali our adventures were all leading to the Festival in the Desert...from Bamako to Timbuktu...to "the most remote music festival in the World"...dancing all the way...rewarded by "Our Tuareg Wedding" in the Sahara...recommitting for ... 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