Simien Mountains

Simien Mountains

First drive day from Gondar, we stopped for lunch in Debark en route to the Simien mountains national park. Debark was also the point to pick up our two guides, Bikey and Biney alongside three armed guards. It's not entirely clear who or what was being guarded by these guys, rather it seems to be a job creation scheme.

In the park it wasn't long before we came across a troop of around 50 Gelada baboons. Gelada baboons graze in herds of up to 400 and have a very distinctive red chest. They eat grass and as such spend most of their time on their haunches which is the theory as to why they don't have red bottoms like other baboons. 

Gelada Baboon

For day 1 we took a gentle 2 hour stroll into our first campsite, Sankaber around 3,300m. While it was warm with the sun out, once it had set around 6pm the temperature really dropped. This presented a problem to the cook crew who struggled for over 2 hours to boil potatoes as the rest of us kept warm around the camp fire. Eventually a tasty stew was produced & not long after people scuttled off to the warmth of their sleeping bags. 

Day 2 the short hikers (route choice rather than discrimination on the basis of height) set off for a waterfall while 6 of us got a lift a few km away at 3,600m for the start of our trail. We climbed up to 4,070m for lunch, taking in the views along the way. A cheeky think billed raven managed to snaffle a box of crackers from someone's bag before flying off with his prize. Post lunch a larger group of baboons delayed us for further photo taking as we made our way to the next campsite, we covered 9.25km in a total time of 5hrs. The highest campsite in the park at 3,620m the overnight temperature at Chennek dropped to -3C. 

Simien Mountains

Walia Ibex 

Day 3 started with the sight of Walia Ibex; unique to the Simiens having been hunted close to extinction it's numbers have quadrupled to 600 in the last 50 years.

Thick billed raven

Today's trek was anther 5hr, 9km effort although this one was a bit more straight up and back down. The high point at 4,430m also had a couple of enterprising locals selling the usual tourist tat. It's something you find in nearly every country, they all have the same range of items almost across the entire country; in Ethiopia this is various metal crosses as necklaces, woven mats and small pottery chickens.

Lammergeyer

Back at the campsite the Lammergeyer also put in an appearance. The largest bird in Ethiopia they can have a wingspan of up to three metres.