Blogs from Ethiopia, Africa - page 14

And the blog returns...... So we have now completed the 'northern circuit' which took us up to the border with Eritrea in the north and then returned us to Addis Ababa. The trip took about 20 days and around 80 hours of that was on the bus covering the 2300kms. It was a great trip, highlights included endless, stunning views across the mountains of the central ethiopian highlands (including perilous dirt roads with 500+ metre drops inches from the side of the bus). The chilled town on Bahir Dar on the edge of lake Tana. The castles of Gondor - castles in Africa is pretty unsual. The stelae of Axum (big tall pillar things built by the Axumites) see the pic for what they look like.The unbelievable rock hewn churches of Lalibela where they decided to ... read more

Hola, Photo success and our plans have gone well. We have moved north to Bahir Dar via two long days of rattling bus travel, were going to head further north via the lake Tana ferry but the uncomfortable passenger boat had been replaced by an even more uncomfortable cargo boat so I think memories of the long boat to Timbuktu and stinky lake Volta boat got the better of us so we vetoed in favour of the bus. We are in the swing of things now though and having a good time and meeting lots of lovely Ethiopians drinking lots of Bedele Special beers. Saw the Blue Nile falls - (5% of water here ends up where we were three weeks ago in Egypt - FACT). Gonder next for castles aplenty then hopefully some trekking in ... read more

Too many photos to fit on the last blog, so here are the rest!!... read more

6th Nov ’12 Axum Well I guess we were lucky as we slept through the night, unlike some of our group whose rooms faced town and heard the chanting competition! It turns out today is a special religious celebration day. After breakfast we wandered out onto the terrace and got fantastic views across the little town and we could look down right over the stelae field. Ok perhaps I should start by saying let me take you back……back into the days of the Old Testament, to the time of the Queen of Sheba, King Solomon, Menelik their son and the Ark of the Covenant, to the King of Ethiopia called Balthazar – think ‘we 3 kings of Orient are’, to piles of frankincense, half explored tombs, secret doorways, ruined palaces and fortresses, unearthed 4th century stone ... read more

4th Nov ’12 Gondar to Debark and the Simien Mountains We spent the morning driving to Debark, with a stop at a viewpoint across the Simien Mountains and it was a spectacular sight – all these different sized and shaped peaks stretching off to the horizon. Tomorrow we are going to be driving right through them and at this moment in time I just can’t figure out how! We carried on passing small villages of huts surrounding greens on which cattle were grazing, young children were carrying babies on their backs and women were walking along bent double under huge piles of firewood on their backs. We arrived in Debark, a town which is expanding as more hotels are being built to meet the Faranji demand for access to the Simien Mountains National Park. The road ... read more