Semien Mountains - Part 1

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The next part of our journey through Ethiopia took us to the Semien Mountains National Park. The scenery was so spectacular and we took so many photos. It was so hard to decide which ones to show on the blog so we decided to divide it into two parts.

The main animals that we saw were the Gelada Baboons which were absolutely everywhere! We also saw a few Walia Ibex which were pretty cool because of their huge antlers. There were also all sorts of interesting plant life which was very different for us to see at altitude when we're used to seeing nothing above the tree line back home.

It was pretty amazing for the both of us because we've never been at this high an altitude. The highest we've been is only 2700 meters above sea level. The base camp where we stayed was at 3620 meters. At this altitude we found ourselves out of breath even just walking back and forth to the bathroom. Despite the tiresome bathroom treks we decided to try trekking another 800 meters higher to the second highest peak in the Semiens at 4430 meters. Kathie turned back with a couple of the girls after about an hour, but Jordan continued all the way to the top. The group that started the day at 11 was down to 5 at the top. It was definately worth the pain of the altitude hangover (that's what it felt like) to get the amazing views at the top.

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