Blogs from Gondar, Amhara Region, Ethiopia, Africa - page 4

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 ... read more

In fact, it does take nearly 11 hours to reach Gondar via Bahir Dar the next morning, and this is considered a short ride as I have taken a hired minibus instead of a normal public transport bus estimated for 2 days. The guesthouse I have stopped at in Gondar is the second one I have tried after the first one being full. This one has no single rooms and no dorms (not unlike the rest of Africa) but actually only has rooms with two twin beds for the price of 120 Birr. This is only like 12 USD but thats probably 50% more than I really need to be paying here. I try to negotiate with the guy at reception but to no avail, however the rooms are really clean and they each have their ... read more

We're beginning to wonder if we've ended up in some sort of strange Lord of the Rings allegory. Our first stop in Ethiopia is the ancient capital of Gondar. Later on we were scheduled to drive through a village called Shire. It's a shame that the Semien Mountains aren't called the Misty Mountains... Okay, I think the relation seems to stop there but it gave the geeks in us (...okay me) a bit of entertainment for a while. We immediately took a liking to this country. The food is excellent! They have teriffic pizza (Italian influence), tasty coffee (especially when instant Nescafe has been typical for the last 3 months), and cheap beer (about $0.75 per bottle). The local food is also very good - especially the food served on fasting day (ie: no meat allowed). ... read more

The morning plan was to visit the Royal Enclosure which included a 6 castles, of which Fasilidas’s dating from 1640 was the best example, together with other disused and half ruined buildings. These included a judiciary hall, a chancery, a music hall and impressive stabling. This complex had been used by the Italians during their occupation from 1936 - 41 and had suffered bombing by the British forces which, sadly, had broken up various parts. Fortunately for Gondar, the accuracy of the bombing left a little to be desired! But no grudge is felt - so they told us. We had the most charming guide to show us around who told us so much about the Ethiopian way of life, its history and culture, and we all really enjoyed his company. The afternoon was spent catching ... read more

An adventure north of a different kind: this time by public transport. We left the motorbike behind at Jungle Junction in Nairobi. 'Broken down' doesn't feature in the BMW motorbike handbook so we prefer to use the term 'waiting for parts'. Actually, this was the case. The bike had been running terribly for a month and getting progressively worse. I didn't really have my broken toe up resting on the couch as much as I was proscribed, finding it far more interesting to figure out why the bike wasn't running as it should be. Luckily I was able to swap parts with another similar model bike that was in the garage and work out which part was broken on our bike. The much needed part could have been expensively couriered from Germany or South Africa, but ... read more