APRIL 24, 2012 SIMIEN MOUNTAINS to AXUM, ETHIOPIA

April 24, 2012 SIMIEN MOUNTAINS to AXUM - What a drive!

Sure enough the alarm went off a scheduled at 4:30 am but I’d already been awake for 2 1/2 hours on the computer - I need a good sleep one of these nights!  We were soon ready to go so Terry started to carry the bags down over the uneven stone path in the pitch black.  There was no one there when he dropped the first bag but everyone started to arrive by the time he took the 2nd bag down and we were all ready to go at 5 am under a very starry sky - brilliant twinkling in every direction. Along the way we saw a Cape Eagle Owl, and 4 large wattled IBIS, and passed the construction workers just starting to emerge from under their blankets or tarps, stretching and getting ready for another day working on the road, and getting their fire going presumably to boil water. 

 Adane drove carefully around all those hairpin turns and switch backs along the edge of the Simien mountains ridges and we were soon at the chained and padlocked gates to exit the park at 5:18am.  The gates are open from 6am to 6pm each day and persistent honking by Adane did not bring anyone to open the padlock!

After about 5 minutes  Malcolm and Channalow exited the bus and went searching for the keeper of the keys. Later on Malcolm told us they had quite a challenge persuading the gatekeeper to open up, he wanted to wait until 6 am!  The reason for us leaving so early was construction we would hit during the day, and if we left later we would not only have traffic coming towards us on those hairpin bends, we would also hit places where the construction was stopped for lunch and us unable to pass, or rocks across the road with waits up to 2 hours before we could get through. The gate was opened by a grumpy gatekeeper at 5:35 and we were on our way.

Today was Mary Magdelena Day and as we reached the small town of Debark, almost the entire village was wrapped in their white cotton shawls (head and body) heading up the hills in groups of 3 to 6 heading to pray at the church.  Channalow left us at this point (it was still dark) and we found a dozen balls of baked dough  (dabo kolo) like a local biscuit, rolling around the floor of the bus - they must have fallen out of his pockets.

Shortly we started the descent from the Simien mountains at 3300m down to the floor of the Tekaseh River Valley at 1000m - yup - this was a steep drop - imagine extreme skiing and that’s what it felt like!  Being afraid of heights there is no way that I can explain to you what it felt like as we took a huge sharp turn around the switchbacks or looked out the bus window and see straight down to the bottom of the valley 2300m below - it appeared as if we were hanging out over the edge - many times during the drive there would be an exhale or exclamation from me, and Adane would look back through his rear view mirror and smile at me and my horror!  The only thing more unbelievable was the spectacular views - absolutely stunning and indescribable.  Every direction had massive peaks, ridges, one after the other, each getting darker the further away that they were.  When the sunrise started to come up over the ridge the sun rays pierced through the morning haze - spectacular.  I tried moving from one side of the bus  to the other to get away from the drop offs, I even found myself leaning in the other direction to the drop off to help the bus not tip over the edge!  But at the next switchback I was on the drop off side again!  Still there were people walking along the road carrying water jugs and bundles of firewood, walking donkeys, you name it - to them this was just another day and they had places to go and people to see.  This road was built by the Italians to access the port in Eritrea - the scenery is astounding.  Don’t ever visit Ethiopia without visiting the Simien Mountains!  We passed small vervet monkeys in the giant fig trees - running and jumping and eating the figs for their breakfast.

At 730am we still had another 40k to drive to Adi Ar Kay where we would be stopping for breakfast - by now we had all been up for 3 hours and were more than ready for our coffee.  We started to hit massive road construction and there is no way that I can describe to you what the rest of the day was like.  The never ending views were amazing and the drop offs and switchbacks continued endlessly - but this alternated with landscapes like we were on the moon, through massive rock piles and never could I have imagined such a huge construction project like this.  It has been going on for about 2 years now and will be at least another two years and the entire 200km is all under construction , and in use by the traffic, at the same time!  I have never seen so much heavy duty massive construction equipment as what we saw  for the entire day.  Never in North America would they allow ordinary vehicles like cars and tourist buses drive on the rock strewn cuts in the cliffs that they have just made with their blasting equipment.  We kept thinking about our poor tires as we drove along, especially going around every hairpin turn - with no guardrails anywhere - and wondering if we were just driving on a pile of unpacked rock that would slide away under our weight.

The restaurant we stopped at for breakfast was pretty grubby, they were out of what we would call “ breakfast” and so all 4 of us turned down the offer of enjira and lamb tibs and said we’d stick with the coffee!  Malcolm disappeared and returned 5 minutes later with a package of cookies and a bar of chocolate for each of us - he is very thoughtful, and the vanilla wafer cookies were excellent!  Neither Malcolm or Adane enjoyed their enjira and lamb tibs either!!

Back on the road we saw lots of birds including white cheeked turaco, Abyssinian ground hornbills.  Malcolm marked the time by telling us how many km we had done, and how many left to go.  There was so much altitude gains and losses, and between this and the construction it was slow going. After about 6 hours we had completed 140km, an average of 23km per hour! 

In the Tekezze (altitude 1700m) area we passed a massive camp full of refugees from Eritrea due to the political situation there.  The  first refugees came in 1994 and are still arriving between 20 and 40 every month, walking to the border between Eritrea and Ethiopia.  These camps are supported by RESCUE, a help organisation .  

We came through one village and there were 4 large cups sitting outside a shack - this means that there is local brew (della) available to buy!  A large plate outside the front of the house means there is enjera available.  The enjera is a fermented type of bread (looks like a large grey pancake) and so is not cooked every day, but enough is made for a couple of days when it is cooked.

By 11:15 we were at the start of the Tekezze Gorge formed by the Tekezze River which is a large body of fast flowing water.  It looked so much like the Fraser Canyon at home in BC it was uncanny!  The grounds were dry and arid, the wind when we stopped for a photo felt even hotter than the temperature which must have been around 40 degrees celcius.  It was almost as hot in the bus as with all the climbing Adane had to turn off the air conditioning most of the time to keep the enginie from overheating from all the climbing.  There were woolly neck stork and maribu stork on a gravel bank in the Tekezze river looking for fish.  This was the most water we had seen since we arrived in Ethiopia apart from Lake Tana!  By 12:25 pm we had 100k left to do, and when we stopped for lunch in Shire Indasillasse (pop 60,000) we had only 60k left to do and we were finally passed all the construction.  There is a plane twice weekly that goes to Shire Indasillasse which has a gravel runway (“running way” according to Malcolm). We ate lunch at the Africa Hotel, sitting in the front garden under huge sun umbrellas - Terry enjoyed roast lamb, while I ate vegetable rice.  The stop was very welcome and seeing the end of the gravel and rocks was a relief.  At times the construction was mountains of rock being moved - half of the mountain being taken down and a mile further on it was being built up.  At one point we where stopped by a very surprised flagperson with a 6”x6” red or green piece of cardboard.  Just then the large rocks started to roll down the steep side of the hill in front of us!  We could just see the blade of the big bulldozer pushing the rocks over the edge.  We were left with barely enough road to get around the pile and it was a steep dropoff on the other side.  I have never seen anything like it - the Coquihalla was childs’ play compared to what we saw, and drove through, today.  But even though the construction at times seemed liked masses of destruction, the surrounding scenery was glorious for the entire long 8 hours of very difficult traveling - as Phil said when we stopped “I felt like I’d been in a washing machine all day!”

We were now into the Tigray area which is known for its’ camels and is also where the Queen of Sheba came from - remember King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba ?  It was so special to realise that we were really here!  King Menelik I is believed to be the result of the liasion between Queen of Sheba and King Solomon. The people from this area used to travel with a huge caravan of camels and still continue to keep and utilise camels.  We were lucky enough to see a couple of camel herds being driven along the side of the road - all tied together one behind the other, with a rope between them.  We had a short rain shower while passing one caravan of camels but even though the skies were very dark, it didn’t amount to very much.

AXUM - THE EARLIEST CAPITAL CITY OF ETHIOPIA

We soon arrived at Gobedura, only 3km to AXUM - the town where we would be staying for the night at the YEHA hotel which was overlooking the huge granite stellae (obolisks) pillars erected for the various Kings and their family.  The granite is thought to have come from Gobedura, and is where the Queen of Sheba’s palace was built.  3 years ago German archeologists  did a dig of her 9th Century BC Palace ruins, and during the excavation found Queen of Sheba’s jewellery and ceramics.  This entire area (and other parts of the country) is famous for the amethysts which can be found here.  The boys in the area go searching for the rough amethysts in the rocks and then try to sell them to the tourists.  No locals buy these amethysts since there are so many to be found in the area - too bad, our time here was to be only 1 night, no time to go hunting for amethysts!

Since it was raining lightly, our first stop in Axum was to the Saint Mary of Zion compound which is the centre of religion in Axum and contains the churches old and new.   This is where the Jewish pagan lady Yodit Gudit destructed the 6th Century  AD  Church and treasures. First stop was the museum where while waiting to enter  (and lock our cameras in a metal locker, not allowed to take them into the museum) we saw the Monk with a yellow cloth over his head who was responsible for keeping and protecting the original Arc of the Covenant which is believed to be stored in the small church here.  Inside the museum we looked at original crowns, crosses, sceptres, and ceremonial robes of the various Kings, along with old parchment books - all with wooden covers and goat skin pages, and all kept under lock and key in glass cases.   

Afterwards Terry and Phil went with Malcolm to see inside the Saint Mary’s of Zion 17th century church built by King Fasilidas - NO WOMEN ALLOWED! Inside, Terry saw a copy of the paintings depicting the 19th century war with Johannes IV with Islamists from Sudan (Mahadist).  Terry also says he had the opportunity to give both the Deacon and the guard a gratuity so that they could show him the 1000 year old copy of the original 1200 year old Parchment (Ge’es lettering and added paintings) that we first saw in the museum under a locked glass case - got that?  Later we did see the most recent 30 year old copy of The Parchment  (used for services) in the new large St Mary of Zion Church, built in 1961 by Emperor Haile Selassie.  This was opened for us by two deacons - one of whom who knows the Ge’es language that the Bible was written in, so he read the page to us and prayed for us in Ge’es.  All of the Parchment copies have wooden covers and the pages are goat skin, written with feathers or bamboo into the ink, all written by Monks or Priests.  It is mandatory that the copies must use the same materials as the original.  One thing we start to understand is that the history of Ethiopia, and their religion and religious beliefs, are extremely important to all of the population.

While THE MEN are in St Mary of Zion’s 17th Century Church, Liz and I sat on a bench and were looked after by a small 9 year old boy - excellent English and very precocious, who kept coming back to the main point of his conversation - he needed a new uniform and could we buy him one!  We also watched lots of tiny blue tits (birds) eating seeds on the ground.  We did have one misunderstanding with this little boy when he told us he ate them for breakfast but it turned out eventually that he was talking about the seeds NOT the blue tits!  We did have a disagreement about the sun in the sky - this little boy insisted it was the moon, and even after some locals told him it was the sun he refused to believe it!  He would look at us all, then look up and say emphatically “but I know that’s the moon!”

We were all weary as we headed off we to see the stelae park, yet another UNESCO world heritage site - the large granite columns, or obelisks erected for the various Kings, each of them carved from a single piece of granite. There are 3 stella parks in Axum, the first 2 have no name but the third is named after Yodit Gudit (who destroyed the 6th Century Church and ancient treasures of the Christians).  There was a wedding ceremony taking place in the stelae park with the wedding party and most of the guests wearing traditional clothing.  The Bride and Groom in embroidered gold and black capes and dress, and the guests in the white cotton with embroidered trim. There were even three men all in white with white turbans playing the traditional very long flutes (maybe 5 to 6 feet long).  Everyone was singing and clapping, and they invited us to join in the celebration and clap along with them - which we did for awhile before visiting the  tomb of Menelik I (son of King Solomon and Queen of Sheba).

In the park the largest of the stelae has collapsed and broken into several huge sections - examination of this stelae suggests it was a result of the base not being large enough.  The others still stand erect overseeing AXUM - proof of what man can accomplish with lots of labour and very basic tools!

We checked into the YEHA hotel around 6pm - a two story hotel set in gardens on the hill directly overlooking the stelae park, which is where we enjoyed our sundowners sitting on the terrace before a dinner of fish and chips, followed by sweet and juicy fresh papaya with lime juice.  The rooms are very basic and unfortunately only cold water - again!  But we were soon in bed sleeping with thoughts of the ancient times swimming around our heads!