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Published: September 18th 2010
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It's 4:30 am when we arrive at the Extreme Hotel in Addis Ababa. It' s completely dark. Everything is well arranged: the bank at the airport, the visa, the taxi to the airport and when we enter our hotelroom there are even two condoms on our bed. Welcome in Africa!
Addis Ababa
I do not know what to think of Addis Ababa. Is it a town with slums in between or is it a slum with now and then some high buildings. Anyway it is dirty and crowded.
It is cold and it rains, when we go to the National Museum to see most famous Lucy. She is called after a song of the Beatles: 'Lucy in the sky with diamonds'. The song was on the radio when researchers found her. For me she is one of the most attractive woman of Africa, though she is 3,5 million years old. Actually she is not even an Homo sapiens, only an hominid with the not so attractive name Australopithecus afarensis. In Ethiopia they call her Dinknesh, which means 'Wonderful'. And wonderful she is. When I was young Brigitte Bardot was my idol, but now it is Lucy. They put her in
a shabby cupboard next to other celebrities under the hominids like Homo habilis (the handy man under the prehistoric humans), Ardipithecus rumidus, Ardopitthecus kadabba (the boy called Selam, who was 1 year ago world news, because he is even older than Lucy) and Homo sapiens Idaltu, the youngest twig of the tree. These fossils are all found in Ethiopia and span the entire timeline of human evolution. It is breathtaking to see them all together at once.
We have to wait 3 days before we can book a flight to Lalibela in the North of Ethiopia. Prices has gone up here. We use the Lonely Planet of Africa of 2007, but it seems to be completely outdated. The flights are twice as expensive as we thought. According to Lonely Planet there are no ATM's in Ethiopia. There are ATM's, even in Gondar. There should be no bank in Lalibela. Wrong again. There is a bank, where you can change your traveller cheques. Ethiopians are polite and friendly people. Very friendly. They are so friendly that sometimes you ask yourself why they are so friendly...
Lalibela
'Ethiopia is the cradle of mankind', our guide points out. 'But this evolution
theory which says that man originates from the apes, is completely nonsense of course. And you know why? Because it is not in the Bible.' Ethiopians are very religious, specially here in Lalibela, where 100 % of the people are Christians. Here you find the incredible monolithic churches hewn out of the rocks about 900 years ago. Eleven churches are spread out over the area. Actually there are 10 churches, because one of them is a twin church. Ten churches stand for the 10 commandments. In each church a priest sits in front of a curtain. It is absolutely forbidden to look behind the curtain, because inside is a copy of the Arc of Convenant in Aksum. That is the original, the one who was copied by Mozes once. According to legend Salomon brought it there. But nobody may see it. Even not the copies. And also the copies of the copies are absolutely forbidden to glance at, however slight. Every church in Ethiopia has a copy, otherwise it is not allowed to pray, our guide points out. I ask him who makes all these copies and how they know how the original looks like. 'It is just a box',
he says. I do not have the courage to ask him how he knows that it looks like a box.
Lalibela was a king in the 12th century. He spent 13 years of his life in Palestina, where he was told to make the churches in the rocks. 60.000 people worked during 21 years on it. The churches are still a mystery. Some people think the Templars were involved. 'Nonsense', our guide says, 'not in the Bible, you know'. In fact the whole area represents a second Palestina, a new Jerusalem, with the River Jordan in between. You can find the grave of Adam and Eva. A copy. Even mount Ararat is there. With a drainage system.
The Simian mountains
According to the Ethiopian calendar it is new year today. On the road from Gondar to Debarc we see everywhere kids with yellow flowers in their hands. It is the Muskel flower, the national flower who flowers around new year. The kids offer them to adults to wish them luck.
In Debarc a 4w drive car brings us into the Simian mountains. We set off for a 3 days hike in the mountains. It is quite an
expedition with a guide, a guard with a gun, a cook, tents, mules and muledrivers. Linda, I and a French woman are the members of the expedition.
We do not see so much of the landscape while we walk across the forest, because there is a thick mist. Still it has something mysterious with beardmooses hanging from the trees. Suddenly we are surrounded by baboons. They are not interested in us, but as soon we come nearer they become angry.
The guide walks in front of us together with the French woman (Caroline). Suddenly he is disappeared with her in the mist. The baboon. When we find him again we ask him if there is any danger. 'No danger', he says. 'No wild animals?', we insist. 'Only baboons', is the answer. 'But why is the guard wearing a gun?' The answer is simple but clear: 'Just in case'.
After an hour walking it begins to rain and it starts to rain harder and harder, even hail is coming down on us. We are in the middle of a hefty thunderstorm. 'No danger?', we ask. 'No danger at all', and the guide lifts his umbrella a bit higher. Finally we reach
the campsite at an altitude of 3140 meters, completely wet and cold. We try to warm ourselves near the campfire, but the best place is occupied. By the guide.
Next morning the sky is completely clear. Our clothes dry on our bodies and whe see an amazing landscape full of flowers and birds. We see muskelflowers, salvia, giant lobelia, thyme, tree heather, knipholia, most of the plants we do not know. Birds of prey are everywhere: buzzards and also the enormous lammergere is there. We see the thickbeakraven and we hear the sounds of all kinds of singers. This afro-alpine ecosystem is overwhelming.
At end of the days we arrive at campsite 2 at an altitude of 3760 meter. When we arrive we are exhausted. It is hard specially because of the lack of oxygen. The guide does not have any problem. He wait for us while he is playing with his mobile.
The last day is an easy day: first uphill, then downhill and finally uphill to the road where the car will wait for us to bring us back to Gondar. But when we arrive the guide tells us that there is no car and we
have to walk all the way back to campsite 1, which will take about 6 hours. Linda and Caroline explode and attack him like two furies. He tries to call the driver, but his batteries have run out of energy. So we decide to walk and hitchake. After 40 minutes walking we hit a 4W who brings us down to our own car. It takes about 6 hours to come back to Gonder, where we can finally take a shower and a big big beer.
The plane brings us back to Addis Ababa. The day after we leave with excellent Ethiopian Airlines for the next spot of our worldtrip: Entebbe in Uganda.
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marijke
non-member comment
birthday
Van harte gefeliciteerd met je verjaardag, Andre! Groet, Marijke