Addis Ababa

Two days and a lot of walking was enough to cover the main highlights of the capital.

The must see museum is the National, which houses the bones of 'Lucy' the skeleton of a bipedal ape around 3mill years old. Although the original bones lie out of sight in the basement the reconstruction is around 3 feet high and has some real human characteristics.

National museum 

Lucy

The lion of jeddah seemed like a good thing to take a look at on the map, however having found it it was a bit of a disappointment. But, not too far around the corner was another, much more impressive lion, next to the national theatre. 

Lion at the national theatre

We also stopped in at the stamp museum, located by the main post office it appeared to be shut. Thinking they must have closed for an early lunch we were about to leave when a chap came out of the toilet and reopened for us. Needless to say we had the place to ourselves for our entire visit. The place was essentially a collection of overseas stamps in one half, including some French islands I'd never heard of, and original artwork of Ethiopian stamps in the other. 

The most interesting part was speaking with the curator to learn that only businesses had deliveries. Everyone else has a PO box and has to just check every so often to see if they have any post. 

The final place worth a mention on our educational tour of the city is the red terror museum. A privately fund d enterprise, referred to by one local as propaganda. It houses the story of genocide during the time of the Derg (military government '77 - '91) in which up to half a million people were killed. Estimates vary wildly from 30,000 - 500,000 but the museum are continuing to compile names. The story is brought to life by one of the two guides that work there. One of the leaders of the regime is still hiding out at the Italian embassy in addis & has now been there over 20years without being brought to justice.
Addis was also the spot for a bit of nightlife and decent restaurants. There's been little to write home about with regard to the food so far, suffice to say I won't be frequenting many Ethiopian restraints back in London to often. Our last group meal at an Italian restaurant was notable for the Italian godfather sat at the front desk speaking mainly Italian to his staff he certainly hadn't been short of a meal or 2 as the proprietor. 

I also added Ethiopian jazz to my musical experiences with an upmarket club providing the entertainment on Christmas 

Final drive days

The last leg of the trip to Addis incorporated an overnight in Debre Markos. A particularly unremarkable town with little for the tourist but a convenient break in the journey. 

Park, Debre Markos 

Church, Debre Markos

The completion of 2,820km in 3 weeks took us into the capital, Addis Ababa.

bridge on the road to Addis

Bahir Dar

Ure Kideth monastery

The town of Bahir Dar lies on shores of lake Tana, the largest lake in Ethiopia.  So it was across this we took a boat to visit Ure Kidith monastery.  It's connected by a peninsula to the mainland, but an hour in a boat is far quicker than driving around. The monastery involves a walk through an avenue lined with souvenir sellers, it's difficult to see how they make a living given we only saw about 4 other tourists in the 2+ hours we were there.  The interior murals were some of the most elaborate and fresh that we've seen on the whole trip.

Ure Kideth monastery

source of the blue nile

We then took a boat back via the source of the blue nile, as the photo shows there really is very little to see or to distinguish this particular place of interest.  One of two main tributaries to the nile it meets the white nile in Khartoum, Sudan - but that's for another trip.  Another fairly common sight are the papyrus canoes.

papyrus canoe

african sacred ibis

The local guide from the morning boat trip had said the fish market was a 15 minute walk, but following lunch it turned into something closer to a 50min walk. However, perseverance paid off and we found the spot where there were a variety of birds circling for scraps.  The pelicans in particular were there in large numbers.

pied kingfisher

pelicans

fish market

Our second day in Bahir Dar we drove out of town for an hour or two before taking a walk to the blue nile falls.  A combination of the local hydro electric plant and it not being rainy season means the falls are not at their most impressive, but it was a nice walk all the same.

blue nile gorge

blue nile falls

Carmine bee eater

At the end of the afternoon we took another drive up to a sunset point, via the war memorial dedicated to the rebels fighting the Derg

War memorial, Bahir Dar

leaving Lalibela

early morning huddle

A very civilised start time of 9am gave time for an early morning jaunt to the weekly market. I was expecting big crowds for the last Saturday before christmas (7 Jan) however it was still really just setting up.

The crowds were back at St George's though, for some reason Friday seemed to be a day off for the pilgrims visiting church. 

setting up

Lalibela market

The run of bad luck with the truck continued after just 10 minutes with a fuel leak spotted. Luckily we were next to a garage so we were back on the road with just a 90 minute delay. 

road from Lalibela

We retraced our path from 3 days previous out through dirt paths & after setting a course for Bahir Dar just a few minutes later met another drago truck coming the other way. I'm pretty sure Christie is the same truck I was on in 2007, my only other trip with Drago in Africa. They are doing our trip in reverse so we exchanged a few tips before setting up for lunch. Our extra week of training shone through as we'd all finished lunch as they were about to start. 

trucks passing on the road

Ashetan Mariam monastery

trekking up to the monastery

After a day of churches, Sunday morning a couple of us started early with sunrise over St George's church before trekking up to Ashetan Mariam monastery.  The monastery is situated at 3,300m so the walk up provided plenty of scenic views over Lalibella and beyond.
There were a number of pilgrims making the walk in either jelly shoes or bare foot, and a number carrying heavy looking loads on their backs.  However we did feel superior to the Explore group going up on mules.

Ashetan Mariam monastery

The path took us via some farmland to church where a friendly priest presented a variety of objects from behind his curtain & posed for photos.  I think something is a little lost in translation as the church was also devoid of monks.

Priest with crosses

Lalibela

The churches of Lalibela were built in the late 12th century.  There are 10 churches in total, representing the Ten Commandments, although sometimes thought of as 11 with a double church. Chiseled out of the rock by hand it's a fairly astonishing piece of engineering. The churches are built from the top down, the top set of windows being larger as they would go in through these and hollow them out. There are two main clusters of churches and within the clusters they are connected by passageways and tunnels. 

Lalibela

rock church, Lalibela

Lalibela

St George's Church, Lalibela

We spent a full day with our guide Prince exploring the churches. Most of them are covered by large protective roofs, with the exception of St George's, which is the poster boy for Lalibela tourism.  

In the lead up to Ethiopian Christmas many pilgrims are making there way, mainly on foot to worship and there are a number of campsites which could easily be mistaken for refugee camps. Amusingly there was a tent selling mobile phones directly opposite the gate to one of the camps, maybe the connection to god is better with 4G.

pilgrim camp

mobile phone shop

Pilgrim, Lalibela

Pilgrim, Laibela

Sunset in Lalibela

New Years Eve

For our New Years Eve party we went to the top end of town to a grand design created by a Scottish lady. The views were amazing from the multi level building - possibly inspired by the jetsons

Ben Abeba

Sun setting on 2014 

After some mulled wine on arrival the entertainment started with local musicians and dancers. The masenqo is a single string lute which, having had a go, is more difficult to play than it looks. Accompanied by a kerebo drum the traditional shoulder dance involves a lot of upper body movement. 

After a buffet dinner it was back to the firepit for more dancing & toasting marshmallows. The new year was greated with a glass of sparkling wine imported from South Africa.  

masenqo player

Happy New Year!

The road to Lalibela

From Axum to Lalibela is around 700km, or 3 days driving time.

Road from Axum

A few bends in the road

Leaving Axum we took the same road as yeaterday's monastery trip, with the same stunning rocky scenery.  Lunch was the usual affair with 50 or 60 school kids looking on. Unfortunately as we left one of them decided to throw a rock & it smashed a window. Some running repairs with a foam mat, 3 broom handles and plenty of sticky tape allowed us to continue.  

By mid afternoon we arrived near Wukro to visit Abraha Atseba, a rock hewn church. 

Abraha Atseba church

The church comprises 3 rooms, the entrance is into the Chanting room and beyond this, the Holy room. Both these rooms are in the front part of the church, accessible to the public. However the Holy of holy rooms is carved out of the hill. Apparently it contains drums, crosses & bibles, but as the room is restricted to the priests I cannot verify this. 

Built in the 1st century the paintings were all burnt in 9th century, the paintings now date from the 17 century.

Abraha Atseba church

Overnight we stayed in Mekele, the second largest town in Ethiopia, it's still only around 300k of the country's 88 million. Also a big university town it was noticeably different from other towns we'd stopped at so far. There was a large range of shops including a lot of construction related supplies not far from the equivalent of Saville row with some snazzy suits on offer.

Departure was delayed in order to fix the window. Unfortunately the first attempt ended in failure, having fitted the window they cracked it creating a further 3 hour delay as they went off in search of a second replacement pane. We finally set off to Woldiya after lunch and arrived in the dark for an unnotable stay. 

road to Lalibela

road to Lalibela

Leaving Woldiya, after an hour or so there was a significant change in the scenery.  The style of houses also changed, to the round wooden or stone base with a thatched roof. Once we were back onto the dirt roads we could open up the roof seats and sit out with an unobstructed view. After an unscheduled stop to switch tyres after a puncture we rolled into Lalibela mid afternoon of the final day of 2014. 

an audience for the tyre change