9-10/1 The Journey
The flight took off only about 30 minutes late. Watched some travelogues and a Harry Potter film. Maybe a couple of hours sleep, waking to see sun shining through the windows.
For some reason I was fast-tracked through passport control, got some money from an ATM machine and was ready to leave the airport. Eventually I worked out that we were supposed to descend to the crowded car park to find the Exodus leader. It took about another hour before the ten Brits were all in the bus, which meant we had just over an hour’s rest before the briefing at 12.
10/1 First Impressions of Addis Ababa
From shanty town to skyscraper to building site in a few blocks. The last part of the way to the hotel was down a narrow road where we barely escaped collisions. English is widely used in shop names and adverts, and Burger King and Kentucky Fried Chicken have offspring here.
The hotel seemed efficient at check-in, but when I tried to change money they had run out of cash and had to go and get some. What they handed over, with no accompanying paperwork, was a worse rate than the ATM at the airport and the notes were much dirtier.
After the briefing, we went to a restaurant opposite the hotel, but the menu was European and more expensive than I wanted, so I went back to my room to lunch on snacks. The others didn’t stay either, I later discovered, but found an Ethiopian cafe over the road, and I ate there with them in the evening.
Town sightseeing
The National Museum
Probably best known for the paleographic display around the finding of the fossilized skeleton of an Australopithecus woman known as Lucy who lived 3.2 million years ago. A missing link.
The archaeological section moved briskly from small flakes of flint, the first tools, to some remarkable solid sculptures. On the next level up was a collection of tools used for many hundreds of years, and still today in rural areas, and woven dishes and other containers very like the ones made by a woman who wrote to me about Action Aid’s support enabling her to set up her own small business. Finally, the top floor was an art gallery whose pictures had many stories to tell.
Holy Trinity Cathedral
Addis Ababa is a young city, and the cathedral is not very old, but rates as the second most important church in the country after St Mary of Zion in Axum, which we shall visit next week. The emperor Haile Selassie and his wife were reburied in huge sarcophagi in a chapel.
Ashu, our group leader, demonstrated playing a ceremonial drum. Approaching the high altar, he prostrated himself and then asked a blessing of a priest. He is very knowledgeable about the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and its mixture of traditions from the Bible, other ancient writings, and history.
As well as some patriarchs of the church, Sylvia Pankhurst and her son Richard are buried in the churchyard in recognition of their services to Ethiopia.
The Mausoleum
Our final visit of the day, and we were feeling rather tired by this time. Up a steep hill to the church in whose crypt Emperor Memelik II and other family members are buried. We saw a giant tortoise in the grounds.
Babar Dar 11-12/1
After an early morning flight to Babar Dar, we had lunch at a fish restaurant and checked in to our hotel, beautifully situated on the lakeside.
All of us chose the optional excursion to the Blue Nile Falls, which involved a walk over rocky paths. The Falls are now sadly depleted in the dry season because most of the water is diverted to power the hydroelectric plant, but there was more to see today than we expected.
We then crossed over the river by boat, and drove back to return our local guides to their lively village.
On Saturday we were woken to the sound of chanting, broadcast over loudspeakers so that those who were too late to get to church could still be part of the service. Those who missed the beginning (or, I suspect, did not want to stay for the whole three hours) crowded round the entrance and the walls around the churchyard.
After driving around in search of bananas to supplement our packed lunches, we embarked on a day’s boat trip on Lake Tana, the largest lake in Ethiopia, visiting two highly decorated churches. Both were round buildings with enormous doors and wall to ceiling paintings on canvas glued to the walls surrounding the Holy of Holies, where a replica of the Ark of the Covenant is kept.
The first, built in 1732, was on a small island where according to legend the Holy Family rested on their flight into Egypt. Its name Narga Silassie comes from words meaning “rest” and “Trinity”. An unexpected find among the paintings was this depiction of the condemnation of Arius.
The second church was a fourteenth century building. We began the visit looking at the treasures in the museum.
Some of the paintings in the church date from the XVIth century, when blue dye had to be imported. The one below, a XXth century restoration, shows Jesus in Mary’s arms blessing St Ephraim, author of the Daily Prayer of Mary.
The path to and from the church was crowded with people selling a range of souvenirs. From a stall of small paintings, one caught my eye. It was painted on goatskin, and I was told it represented the “Servant of the Holy Ghost”. I bought it for 200 birr (about £7) and carried it back in my document pouch.
On the way back to Babar Dar, we were lucky enough to see three hippopotamuses surfacing from time to time. Some of the group got really good photos. I didn’t even try.
Babar Dar to Gondar
Woken by the chanting of priests from 3 am – some people even heard them at 1 – continuous for hours as the service was broadcast. On our way out of town, we passed huge crowds dressed in white on their way to or from church.
A fascinating drive through some of the richest farmland in Ethiopia, across a plain with large numbers of cattle, and even rice fields, though in the dry season they grow vegetables.
The road is shared, apparently without problems, by lorries, coaches, cars, bajaj (tuk-tuk), donkey carts, pedestrians, and wandering livestock. I tried to take a photo of one of the walking haystacks (men or donkeys with large bundles of hay on their heads), but didn’t manage it.
After the plain, we were in hill country, and stopped to photograph this rock pillar.
Outside Gondar, we passed a garage with a queue of about 100 bajaj queuing for petrol – a sign that the city garages may have run out.
After checking in at the hotel, we went for lunch to the Four Sisters Restaurant – an excellent buffet with a wide choice of meat dishes (spicy or non-spicy) and vegetables.
In the afternoon, our sightseeing began with a collection of castles, and almost immediately we saw a wedding party taking photographs.
Then to the church of Debre Birhan Selassie (Mountain of the Enlightened Trinity), the only one of the 44 in town to survive Sudanese invasion. As we finished looking round the church, we heard the noise of chanting, and another wedding (or possibly engagement) party appeared, with much singing, drumming and dancing, and some religious ceremony.
The last site to visit was King Fasil’s bath, a large swimming pool dry at the moment, which will be filled this week in preparation for Gondar’s Timkat festival, where young people dive into the pool to retrieve cross-shaped candles.
Back at the hotel, preparations were in full spare for yet another wedding party. This time, having had a big lunch, I decided to eat snacks in my room, and saw nothing of the celebrations, but heard plenty of music.
Gondar to Simien Park 14/1
Checked in at Simien Park Hotel in Debark, and had lunch there. Surprisingly tasty vegetables with injera, but although we had ordered it on arrival an hour before lunchtime we had to wait 40 minutes.
Visiting the National Park is complicated. For 16 people we needed 4 guards with rifles as well as a local guide. I bought a stick, as my walking pole is unreliable. From the road, we walked down to the edge of the cliff where there was a steep drop to the valley and a wonderful view.
The main objective was to see the Gelada monkeys – at first in the distance, running down a hill and looking like nothing so much as a trail of ants following the sugar, and then close up in large numbers.
There was a power cut at 6:30, just as I was about to go to the cafe for WiFi, and it lasted overnight. The hotel has a generator, which was switched on for our buffet dinner.
Simien Park to Axum 15/1
A dramatic drive over the Simien Mountains on the Lima Lima road, built by Italians and winding up and down the steep hillsides. There were two photo stops, one near the top from which a mule track went down to the valley,
and one for a final view of the mountains
emeritablog: life after work 