Danakil, Dallol and Irta'ale volano

by Daniel

There is a lot to write to about this trip into one of the most hostile environments on the planet. It is the hottest place on earth, the deepest point in Africa and boasts the only permanent lava lake on planet Earth.

You can find a lot of info on the web so I let the pictures speak for themselves.

Just one thing: I booked the tours through ETT (Ethiopia Tours and Travel - bargain with them or pay the 600$ they state on their website. I promised not to disclose my price). They are very experienced and reliable tour Company with trips going every day.

 

Bahir Dar

by Frieda

We went rom Gondar to Bahir Dar by minibus. It took about 4 hours and cost us 100 Birr (65 Birr local price without luggage.

The road is apparently dangerous at night but we travelled during the day and reachd Bahir Dar before nightfall. We tried the first Hotel we saw when we got off the minibus trying to avoid being "guided" by someone. The hotel had a reasonable price (200 Birr) and the rooms were perfectly fine for us. Clean and with a hot and working shower. It even had a tv.

After we checked in we strolled a little bit around town and found a local place where we could get shekelau tibs. This dish is medium sized pices of cow or goat meat served in a sizzling pot with glowing coals underneath. So the meat stays hot while you eat.

The next day we wanted to go to lake Tana. We took a boat tour to see some of the monasteries located on islands in the lake and its shores. As everywhere a ”guide“ found us in our hotel offering exactely what we where looking for. He offered a reasanoble price so we decided to take his offer (200 Birr per person). We went with him to the lake but arriving there he told us that unfortunatly the boat was not full becaue he could not find other foreigners to take the tour with us. Just one person and therefore it should be 200 Birr more for the two of us. We were not willing to pay but preferred to wait for more tourists. But we had not enough money on us so we agreed on paying the difference in the evening. In the end the boat was rather full with Ethiopians but only one other farangi was on board.

The boat took us over the lake to a close peninsula for about 1 hour. The water of the lake had a muddy brown coulour which is typical for lakes and rivers in Ethiopia durig the rainy season. On the peninsula were three monasteries. The way up to the first one was cluttered with stalls of souvenirs for tourists. They had scarves, religious pictures, lunchboxes made of goat fur and some necklaces. Instead of having a look at the first monastery we decided to head for the second one further inside the peninsula. But even though we followed the marked path we couldn't find it. But it was a nice walk in a jungle-like landscape. On our way we saw several different kinds of monkeys and beautiful birds. When we came back to our boat everyone was allready waiting there for us. Apparently they had just visitetd the first monastery and went directly back to the boat afterwards.

We left the peninsula and the boat rode to a small island close by. Here women where not allowed to the monestary so I waited by the boat. Our boat driver gave us some fruit he picked from a tree i had never seen before. It was small like a walnut, had a lilac skin, white flesh a big stone in the middle and tasted  very sour.

From the island we crossed the lake to its right side where the blue nile flows out of the lake. This took us about half an hour. In this spot there are hippos and really we could see the head of a hippo emerging from the water serveral times relatively close to our boat. The head was huge and i was surprised how long the hippo could stay under water without breathing. After that we headed for our starting Point on the city's lakeshore.

In the evening our guide came and we were willing to pay him as we had agreed on before but after shortly hesitating he gave us 100 Birr back because the boat was full in the end anyways. Even though we propably payed too much we had a nice day on the lake. My personal highlight was the hippo's head :)

 

Simien Mountains

by Frieda

After two days in Gondar we made our way to the Simien Mountains for trekking. We took a minibus to Debark which is a town at the entrance to the Simiens. It took about three hours and because we negotiated badly we paid around 100 Birr per Person (4€). Having arrived in Debark we headed for the Ticket office to arrange our Trek. We decided to do it the cheapest way possible, which is to pay only entrance fee (90 Birr per day and Person) and the scout who is compulsory (150 Birr per day). We neither took a guide nor transport to the entrance of the park which would have been very expensive.

Outside the office we met our guide who would be trekking with us for the next days. He had such a angry look on his face that he looked very scary. But he turned out to be a very nice guy and an excellent scout.

We arranged to start trekking the next day early in the morning and to stay for 4 nights in the mountains.

In Debark was not much to do so we strolled around after we found a basic but clean place to stay (Everlasting Flower 200 Birr Student discount). We just walked a little and bought a little bit of food to take to the mountains. But this was not as easy because there are no supermarkets. The only option we had was to buy from small stalls around the bus station.

At 7 o’ clock in the morning our scout was awaiting us in our Hotel and after a quick breakfast we headed for the mountains. We took a tuktuk to close to the entrance of the National Park for which we payed around 150 Birr. We wanted to walk anyway and normally people with Jeeps have the monopoly on bringing tourists to the entrance for around 1000 Birr, so we gladly took the opportunity.

Already in the tukuk we felt that the landscapes of the Simien mountains would turn out to be spectacular. Somewhere close to the entrance we started trekking. At first we walked a rather wide but very muddy dirt road from the rain in the night. On our way we passed a lot of people from the countryside coming from or going to the market in Debark. The market is twice a week and the main option to buy and sell stuff for poeple living outside of the city. A lot of people have to take very long walks to get there which can take more than a whole day. Most of them walk with donkeys (to carry the things they want to sell or did buy) or other cattle like goats, sheep or cows.

We also saw a lot of sheperds along the way who watch some animals all day long. In Ethiopia it is very common to let children take care of the animals. So it is very likely to see a child no older than five or six in charge of some full grown cows, goats and sheep. The animals we saw had mostly neither fences around them nor ropes to fix them to a spot. That makes you feel that they have a rather good life but on the other hand their owners treat them often cruelly and hit them constantly.

After approximatly five hours we arrived at the first stop of our trek, the Simien Mountain Lodge. This is the fanciest place for travelers to stay in the mountains so it was of course not our choice. But we had lunch there. We had a soup which was amazing because it was seasoned with a lot of herbs from the mountains. For example, there grows a lot of wild thyme. Our guide had a shiro, which is the most common dish in Ethiopia. It is a souplike lentil broth that is served on injera – a spongy pancake like bread served with almost everything in Ethiopia.

After lunch we heded for our next stop Sankaber. The trek there was propably one of the most beautiful ones I have ever hiked. It is on a very high altitude (around 3000m) but unlike in Europe it is full of vegetation. There are green and yellow fields and grass grounds everywhere and a lot of blooming wild flowers and herbs. Every now and then you have most spectacular views into deep valleys and onto rows of beautiful mountens. Sometimes the landscape changed into forestlike vegetation alongside very steep cliffs.

Sometimes we could see huge grass grounds where hundreds of cows, horses, donkeys, sheep and goats where grazing peacefully. A few times friends of our scout (mostly children) joined our way for a bit to ask some questions, practice their English and hope for some money.

Another highlight of the Simiens are their wildlife. That day we saw a huge group of gelada baboon monkeys. They live all over the Simiens and eat nothing but grass and herbs. So you can see them sitting around on grassgrounds in large groups eating grass, playing around and socializing. The presence of people leaves them rather unimpressed so we could go very close sitting in between their bustle and enjoing to watch them in their natural habitat. This was an amazing experience and it makes me still very happy that Ihad the Chance to enjoy it.

After that we continued on our way for about two more hours up and down through this amazing nature until we reached Sankaber in the late afternoon. A nice family rents  beds in a lodge for 120 Birr per night. The beds were very simple and apparently full of bedbugs but we slept on our mosquito net so we had not problem with that.

The children of the family were very nice and showed us around on the compound and to a close spring where they helped us to filter the water to fill up our bottles. Because in Sankaber there is no way to buy food we ate the stuff we bought the day before and went to sleep.

Unfortunately I became sick during the night. I don’t know because of what. Either the height, the sun, the exhaustion or i ate something I couldn't digest. In the morning I felt very weak. And after i tried to walk a bit i realised there was no way i could continue with the trip. So we went back to the lodge so that i could get some more rest.

Daniel and the scout (who was absolutely nice and caring as he realized I was sick) decided to go to a nearby waterfall and come back to me later. We started to worry a bit on how we would get back to Debark because we could not stay longer in the lodge because we had no more food with us. There is the possibility to rent a jeep but it costs 100$. So we thought this would be the only option as i thought it would be impossible for me to hike down.

But as usual Daniel was very lucky J on his way to the waterfall. He met a group of german tourists who had booked a fully arranged package and thus were with a bus in the mountains. Daniel was not shy to ask them and so they were very helpful and agreed to take us with them back to Debark the same day.

Even though the trip to the Simiens turned out way shorter than planed it was absolutely amazing and i am very grateful for the amazig nature und animals I could see and hope to come back here one day with more strength.

 

 

 

First Impression of Ethiopia

First Impession of Africa
by Frieda

I arrrived in Gondar in the north of Ethiopia on the 13th of October. I had a conection fligt via Addis from Frankfurt which worked out perfectly fine so that I arrrived in the morning at the tiny airport in Gondar. I have never been to such a small airport which is basically just a small hall and an asphalted ground the size of approximately 4 Football fields sourrounded by agricultural fields in every shades of green. You just walk from the plane to the hall and wait there for your luggage. There are no security or immigration checks you just walk outside the open door as soon as you have your luggage.

In front of the Airport I waited a few minutes for Daniel who came to pick me up. While waiting some tuktuk drivers asked me if they could take me anywhere but it was easy to decline their offers.

The first thing we did was to get coffe, which Ethiopia is famous for, directly in front of the airport. It was very delicious but also very strong. I felt that the people were extremely friendly and very interested in how the newly arived farangi (foreigner) would like the national drink.

On the way to Gondar I learned how important it is to negotiate in Ethiopia. Luckily Daniel is already rather good at it. He reduced the price to one third of the the first offer which was propably still double of the real price.
During the ride I got the first impression of Gondar's beautyful sourroundings. Green and fertile agricultural fields in a hilly landscape. In the first village a lot of tuktuks, minibusses and horsecarts of poorer people from the countryside filled the street.

My first impression of the people in Ethiopia is that they are very friendly and i didn't feel scared or threatened at any moment. On the other hand a lot of people try to make some money out of you. By either suggesting absolutely overpriced rides, giving you “advice”or guiding you arround. To trick you into such scams they have several clever or less clever techniques. All of them are based on a trustful relationship which often makes you feel very bad when you thought a person likes you and afterwards he just wanted to make some money out of you. That makes me feel that you have to keep constantly a little bit emotonally distanced in case you are getting scammed by a person who appears to be your friend. This is a little bit of a challange for me because everyone seems so nice at the beginning and also not everyone is trying to scam you. I think this the most challenging part of travelling in Ethiopia but i im positive that I will find my way of coping with it.