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Published: November 24th 2009
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To Gondar
Leaving the Mountains
You always tend to wake up early when you're camping.
Chef has somehow managed to make pancakes for everyone for breakfast this morning. We're out of the campsite by 8 a.m. and trekking for a couple of hours to the spot where we will meet up with the minibus.
Just like yesterday, at this altitude any bit of uphill walking knocks me out. We trek for a couple of hours, again seeing some spectacular views and panoramas and passing through some large groups of baboons. The baboons seem completely unconcerned by us and ignore us passing through their "territory".
After meeting the minibus we drive out of the park back to
Debark where we drop off our guides, cook and scouts (the three guys with guns). We hang around here for some time as our driver wants to check out his bus after driving on the tracks through the park - we are more than happy for him to do this!!
The road from here to
Gondar is about 100km but it's a rough unmade road and the journey still takes a few hours. Every village we drive through has at
least one table football machine at the side of the road. This seems to be a big pastime here, more than the pool tables that you see in a lot of countries. We also see quite a few table-tennis tables.
As we drive along we attract the attention of a lot of the local kids. I'm sure there must be regular tourist buses along this route but every small child we pass who has been left in charge of two or three cows abandons them to run down the hill to wave at us.
Falasha Village
Just before
Gondar we stop at the village of
Wolleka which used to be home to the
Falashas, the Ethiopian Jews. The Jewish population is said to have arrived in Ethiopia at the same time as
Menelik bought
The Ark of The Covenant back from Israel. Most of the population of this village left for Israel during the recent civil war in Ethiopia and, unfortunately, they seem to have been replaced by souvenir sellers.
Nearby is the
Ploughshare Women's Crafts Co-operative. A lot of our group chose to buy their souvenirs here and we are treated to another Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony
{We've witnessed this a few times now!!}. The Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony is definitely NOT the way to get a quick cup of coffee!!
Gondar
We get to
Gondar and our hotel, The
Goha, just in time for sundown. The hotels we've stayed in are mostly part of the same chain of hotels, the state-owned
Ghion Hotels. Although the staff who work here probably don't have any great incentive to provide good service, the state has managed to grab all the best locations! This one is perched on a hill with great views of
Gondar and
The Royal Enclosure and those who don't head straight for the shower enjoy sitting on the terrace with a cold beer or a gin and tonic watching the sunset.
This is probably the best of this chain of hotels - we have water, electricity, toilet paper, towels and a mirror - but we still have dodgy wiring!! The hotel even has a swimming pool - but there's no water in it.
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Nick Buchanan
non-member comment
Fusball-tastic!
The table footballs really were endemic! Everywhere we went there were several just there, out on the side of the street with kids playing them together. It was great ... in fact, when we visited the Ethnographic Museum in Addis, they even had one on display, citing it as an example of something found in every Ethiopian village. They were right! I'm sure, after a couple of St George's, Steve and Matt would have been tempted to give one a go but without the all-essential, if somewhat elusive Ethiopian football shirts, it was never to be ...