After our exploration of the palaces of Gondar, we left the next morning heading north toward the Simien Mountain. It was a Saturday morning and much of village life and trading was taking place on the streets of the towns we passed through. Much of business seemed to be carried on the curbside.
1. Sewing machines. This was only a small part of 10 – 15 machinists, all hard at work.
And of course, there was a lot of roadside trading in sheep, to be slaughtered for the Easter feasting.
2. Sheep being inspected. The way to judge a sheep is to feel the flesh on the hind leg, which, regardless of appearences, is what the man in the centre of this picture is doing.
The life of a sheep is governed by the many religious, and other, festivals in Ethiopia. Any sheep lucky enough to survive Easter still have the the feast of Eid to come, when the Muslims celebrate. The breaking of the fast for both cultures involves the eating of lots of meat, particularly sheep.
3: Bargaining the price of a sheep.
The country side we were passing through was still comparatively flat and heavily farmed. Almost everywhere you looked the land was being prepared for the rainy season planting. The soils are rich, volcanic soils that seem to be very fertile.
14. The rolling foothills of the Simiens. Almost the entire landscape is divided into fields, most of them already ploughed in preparation for the rainy season.
We stopped in the town of Debark to pay for and collect our permits to enter the park, and to pickup our “armed escort” who would protect us from wild animals and anything else that might trouble us.
Oops, I should have mentioned by now, but we had invited a friend of ours, Ian, along for the trip as he will soon be leaving Ethiopia. His wife and daughter had already left for the US.
15. Ian and Chris at the Simien Park headquarters in Debark
From here the landscape began to change quite dramatically as we entered the mountains. Most of the Simien is basalt, volcanic lava, which covered the area about 30 million years ago to a depth of more than 2000 metres. It is now heavily eroded into steep valleys leaving a fractured landscape of small plateaus and mountain peaks.
6. The Simiens stretching away to the north.
We made it to the Park and our vehicle dropped us off near the Simien Park Lodge. We were to walk the 11 or 12 kilometres to the overnight camp, while the vehicle went ahead with our belongings and to set up camp for us.
7. The group with our guard (on the left) and his trusty rifle. Ursula was taking the photo.. Our guide, Sahale is second on the left.
If you look closely, you will make out the details of our guard’s rifle. It is a 303, vintage World War II, and probably not very effective in the modern era. The guard told us that he occasionally fires in the air it at weddings and funerals.
8. Ursula standing nervously on the edge of a fairly precipitous drop off.
Of course, the area is high and where we started our hike, near the Simien Lodge (more on the lodge later), we were at an altitude of 3200 metres (10500 feet for the metrically challenged). The hike was along the edge of a steep escarpment. The path was fairly flat and was a good introduction to hiking at that altitude. Even small inclines left us short of breath.
9. A fairly typical, and breath-taking, view, the peaks and valleys stretching all the way to the horizon.
Gelada baboons are common in the Simien Park and we met up with a reasonably sized troop. Although they look fearsome, they are quite harmless. Strictly vegetarian they spend all day foraging for a particular high protein grass. Their diet consists of tiny green shoots buried amongst the taller, but low protein, grasses. In spite of the powerful looking males Geladas have a matriarchal society, and groups of related females form the troop. These females decide which male they admit to their “harem”, and decide when to replace him.
10. All busily looking for the high protein grass. A large group like this will consist of several groups which come together for security
11. Ursula getting up close. The geladas were entirely unperturbed by our presence amonst them.
A small, narcissus-like, flower was in bloom but the geladas virtually ignored the little bulbs, which I thought might have been nutritious. They did dig up an occasional bulb, but I could not see what made some bulbs attractive to the geladas, while the majority were not.
12. The narcissus-like flower
It was a lovely day, overcast and cool, which made the hiking much easier than it might have been. Had it been hot and sunny it would have been very uncomfortable, especially with the altitude.
13. Another view across the Simiens.
It took us about 6 hours to hike the 12 km to our camp, Sankabar Camp; stops for birds and scenic viewpoints, kept our pace slow.
14. Sankabar Camp. Ursula and me were in the white and blue tent, Ian in the blue. The round, green, building half hidden in the centre of the photo was our kitchen & “dining room”..
The camp was a bit basic, no bathroom, and, I am sorry to say, the toilets were abysmal, but, as this blog is for family reading, I won’t go into details. But we slept well in our tents.
Our guard slept outside under a blue tarpaulin. And it rained during the night. We felt very guilty when we discovered his situation. But our guide told us that this was his duty, and what he was expected to do, to guard us from whatever, and we could not persuade him that he would be more comfortable under cover, say in the kitchen where our cook slept.
After coffee and breakfast the next morning, we set off to walk to Jimbar waterfall a few kilometres away.
15. Jimbar waterfall at the end of the dry season.
This waterfall was relatively weak when we were there, it was the end of the dry season, but nevertheless it was still spectacular. The drop is over 500 metres (1600 feet) from the plateau to the valley below. It must be a magnificent site at the end of the rainy season when it would be in full flow.
From the waterfall we were picked up by our vehicle and taken to the next stage of our hike. We were dropped at the side of the road and set off. I checked my GPS, we started at 3700 metres (12000ft) and set off uphill. The whole way we were above the tree line and on short, moorland, grass. Still a lot of the narcissus-type plant hidden in the grass. It was a cool overcast, thank goodness, and sometimes we were enveloped in mist as well.
16. Staggering across the moorland. Horses (background) are the only domestic animal we saw on the moorland.
A species of giant lobelia is endemic to the mountains of Ethiopia, found only in Alpine conditions. As we climbed we reached the altitude where they grow; they are the only plant taller than ankle height. These lobelias flower only once in their lives, but we were not there in the flowering season, unfortunately.
17. Giant lobelia
18. Ursula give a sense of scale, but the lobelias can grow a lot taller.
On the way we were lucky to get good, but 100 metres distant, views of the Simien Wolf. I had decided not to carry heavy cameras for this part of the hike, so no pictures I am afraid. Looking like a cross between a European fox and a jackal, but with a long thin snout which it uses to dig out the mole-rat that form the bulk of its’ diet. We only saw the burrows of the mole-rat, and you need to be careful where you put your foot in places. We felt privileged to see the wolf as they are becoming increasingly rare, suffering from diseases brought in by domestic dogs, amongst other pressures.
Eventually we reached the top, 4070 metres (13,300 ft) where we took a break for lunch. A lot of the time we were enveloped in mist.
19. Lunch break and a stop for a bit of R & R, wach finding a comfortable rock to rest on.
The walk down from the summit was more difficult than up, as we stumbled down a steep, rocky, slope to the Camp 2, Chennek Camp. We stopped to look over a vertiginous cliff, and there, far below us were the famous Wallia or Mountain Goat. We had good views of the small group, using binoculars, but too far to photograph. But I was far more impressed by the number of choughs, a crow-like bird of the Alps in Europe, and which I think are the most acrobatic of birds. To see them wheeling, diving and spiralling over the cliffs was, for me at any rate, breath-taking.
20. Emerging from the mist negotiating the path to the valley below.
Although the overall day’s distance was not great, about 6 km, the altitude and stops meant that it had taken nearly 5 hours to reach our overnight camp. Like the first camp site, this one was also a little “primitive”, with a similar lack of facilities, but a welcome stop nonetheless. That night it rained, and rained, and in the morning, this was our tent, the white one, Ian in the blue tent was a little drier.
21. A river runs through it.
Actually, the stream ran underneath me, so we remained mostly dry, at least. But the continuing rain meant that we had to cancel the hike to the tallest peak. Which was just as well as we could see snow on the path up!! So, we decided to go straight to the Simien Lodge, where we were to spend our last night.
22. Simien Lodge. Unprepossessing from the outside, it was lovely inside.
23. Simien Lodge entrance foyer.
The management were quite happy to have us a few hours early and we soon made ourselves at home, warming up in front of the gorgeous fireplace. Internet, a fire and wine and beer. What more could we need to keep the weather at bay.
24. Recuperating at the magnificent fireplace.
A shower, a working toilet, a warm, large bed with a good mattress, we made the most of all the facilities and slept well and deeply that night. Of course, the next morning was bright and sunny with barely a cloud anywhere, the best day of our trip. But we had to leave for Gondar and our flight back to Addis, and in retrospect, the cool weather had made the hiking so much easier and enjoyable.
25. Horses carrying grass, whether for thatching or animal feed I am not sure, but probably the latter.
On the way we stopped at the house of our guide, Sahale, to meet his mother and have lunch and coffee.
26. A shared lunch, Ethiopian style, of njeera and goat tibs..
We were also introduced to his niece, who seemed particularly taken by Ursula. She was the the daughter of our guide’s brother.
27. Ursula with the very young neice and our guide’s mother.
And so back to Addis. It was a thoroughly worthwhile trip. COVID was good for us, if not for lodges and guides. It meant that we had the mountains almost to ourselves. We met only two others on our hike, Israeli men who were doing a similar hike to ours. Before COVID, we were told, there could have easily been 50 -70 people doing the same paths, and we would probably have had to queue at the various scenic points.