It seems strange now but we are kind of heading for home. Our most northern
point on the trip has been passed and the road leads us south, eventually!
We had a pleasant surprise at dinner on our last night in Lalibela. Paul and
Lizzie strolled in to the restaurant that we were eating at, small world.
They had seen Mufasa at our hotel but weren't staying there as they had
found an alternative, so they left a message for us at reception just in
case we didn't bump into each other. We had a nice evening together and
breakfast the following morning before Sue and I set off north and they
stayed to see the churches. We made a plan to meet up in the next town on
the route, Mekele.
On our way to Mekele we stopped off to see another church, one that we had
been told about by our guide in Lalibela. It was quite a detour from our
route on a slow bumpy rocky road but the church was quite impressive, built
in a huge cave, and supported on wooden beams covered in straw that held it
above the water in the cave's bottom. After returning to the main road we
continued on what we had been led to believe would be an easy 6 hour drive
from Lalibela to Mekele. Not quite right. The road ambles through
spectacular scenery and mountains. It climbs up then drops down before
climbing back up again etc. It was slow going at times even though it was a
pretty good gravel track. Mufasa doesn't do hills at speed so 1st and 2nd
gears were given a good test. Eventually we made it to the main north south
road from Addis to Aksum which is very good tarmac and we thought we would
be able to speed on thru the final 150km or so. Little did we know that
there were still several high passes to climb over which even on a good
tarmac road still takes plenty of time and more use of 1st and 2nd gears.
Mufasa especially hates the combination of steep hills, high altitude
(always over 2000m and up to 3500m), and crap diesel! Thankfully the road
was pretty quiet and the rain held off but it was still pretty gloomy in the
dark and misty mountains. We arrived in Mekele just before 21h00 and managed
to find a nice hotel, the Hill Top, to stay at and thankfully the restaurant
didn't close until 22h00 so we managed to fill our bellies after the long
drive before collapsing into bed for a much needed rest. N13 30.116 E39
29.185
The next morning we headed into town to find an internet cafe to email Paul
and Lizzie the name of our hotel so that we could meet up later that day
once they had made the long haul from Lalibela. One problem, the local phone
lines were down, so no internet anywhere in town, bugger. We would have to
try early the next morning to see if we could catch them. We spent the
afternoon back in our hotel room watching TV, as it was a bit soggy outside
with several heavy downpours. First thing the next day we did a tour of the
local hotels to try and locate Paul and Lizzie, no luck. The phone lines
were back so we tried the internet and there was an email from them saying
they were heading off to Adigrat as they hadn't heard from us. It had only
just been sent so we emailed them to see if they were still online. Luckily
they were and we drove across town to meet up.
After a meagre breakfast of coffee and cake we all set off for Adigrat. Our
route took us through the area of the Tigray churches. We planned to see a
few of them, which we managed, but it was quite an adventure. Not long after
leaving the main road we were mobbed by locals, one of which agreed to guide
us around a few churches for a small fee and also to find the priests with
the keys for each of the churches we would visit. The 3 churches we managed
to see were pretty amazing. We had the guide and priests hanging off our
trucks at one point to transport them around with us. Roof racks and running
boards come in pretty handy at times like this. Unfortunately the heavens
opened at the third church and we all got pretty wet getting back to the
trucks, but not as wet as the guys who were hanging on to the side of the
trucks on the way back to drop them off! The priest from the final church
was hanging off my side of Mufasa and he looked a touch damp and muddy by
the time we got him back to his house, poor chap.
Now we have been fortunate not to have had any real problems with Mufasa so
far, apart from the two punctures. So when our first issue arose it was a
bit annoying. Northern Ethiopia is pretty (extremely!) wet at this time of
year especially up in the highlands so the last thing you want to fail is
your windscreen wipers! We were heading to Adigrat in the rain and suddenly
the windscreen washer came on uninvited and soon ran out of water. The rain
had been pouring down but thankfully it stopped and we were able to
disconnect the washer motor to stop it burning out, but the wipers would not
stop when the ignition was switched on so the fuse had to be removed. If the
wipers were needed the fuse had to be reinserted again and then removed when
it was dry, which we did a few times before we eventually made Adigrat. Now
the strange thing is that the fuse for the wipers also seems to be the fuse
for the speedo and the odometer! Yep you read correct. With the fuse out the
speedo and odometer do not function. By design I don't know but if you want
to keep your Land Cruiser mileage down and you don't need windscreen wipers
then you know what to try! Me, I am too honest for that sort of game! We
checked into the Hohoma Hotel in Adigrat as Sue had been wanting to stay
there after reading the great review of the hotel in our guidebook, and it
didn't disappoint. The only problem we had was the pesky kids trying to wash
our trucks despite us telling them several times to leave them alone. I know
they are just trying to earn a few pennies but they clean them, with a mucky
sponge and gritty water, and then demand money from you even though you
never invited them to clean them in the first place. One of the waitresses
from the hotel gave them a mouth full at one point and they finally left.
N14 16.771 E39 27.662
The next destination on the historic tour was Aksum via the monastery of
Debre Damo. It is a men only destination up on the side of a rocky hill in
northern Ethiopia. You walk up to the base of a 15m sheer rock face and get
hoisted up to the monastery by the priests on a very iffy looking rope
around your waist. Well that is the theory at least. In the end Paul and I
didn't make it that far. Despite our guide books saying the fee for the
monastery including the hoist was Birr50 they wouldn't budge on demanding
Birr130 each. It may not seem like much money, about £7, but they were
trying to rip us off so we told them to forget it. As I keep telling some of
the locals in this country 'we may have a white face but we aint stupid!' It
was a shame not to do the hoist and see the monastery but it's a matter of
principles. They rip us off and then charge even more for the next person,
sod em! Instead we motored off to Aksum and the amazing Stelae fields. We
arrived late afternoon after more hills and windscreen wiper stops, so we
only had time for a few jobs before the evening and the torrential downpour.
The Kaleb hotel was letting us camp in their grounds but after 30 minutes of
very heavy wind and rain Paul and Lizzie's tent was drenched, but luckily we
hadn't put ours up, so we took rooms instead. N14 07.349 E38 43.387
The next morning and it was time to see the sights of Aksum. What can I say?
Amazing, breathtaking, awe-inspiring? None of the above! Despite all the
hype in the guidebooks we were all very disappointed with what we saw. The
biggest Stelae, that the Italians nicked and are now reinstating, is covered
in scaffolding and the rest is either poorly looked after or except one of
the tombs locked. The cheek is that you pay to go into the area of the
Stelae but in fact you could actually just stand outside and see most of it
for free. The Stelae in case you don't know are large obelisks that were
hewn out of rock and erected at some point during the time of the Aksum
civilisation that arose around 400BC to over thousand years later. Obviously
this is impressive in itself, but as a UNESCO site it is severely lacking.
So a little disappointed we hit the road to Debark, the gateway to the
Simien NP. We arrived late, in the dark, and the rain. Why? More very
scenic, wet and muddy roads. Good fun to drive but very tiring and slow
going, oh and more windscreen wiper stops. Thankfully the Simien Park hotel
in town, when we eventually found it, was pretty new and the rooms were nice
and clean. Sue and I had originally planned to head into the Simien NP but
we needed to take a guard with us, no room, and the weather was crap, so we
decided that in the morning we would continue on to Gonder with Paul and
Lizzie. N13 09.160 E37 53.910
Thankfully Debark to Gonder was a short drive by comparison to some of the
long hauls we had recently done. Now Gonder is the real deal. The Belegez
Pension was a delightful place to rest for the night and enable us to check
out the town and its historic sights. We were fortunate to bump into a Dutch
couple, Tim and Kim, at the Belegez. They live in Ethiopia down at Gorgora
on the north shore of Lake Tana, about 70km from Gonder. I would have to say
that they are a very courageous couple, in that they are setting up a new
campsite on the lake as a charitable trust for the locals in the village.
Their aim is to have everything complete within 5 years and then leave it
for the locals to run when they head back to Holland. Now whether it will be
run or ruined after they have departed who knows. Anyway we took GPS
coordinates from them and made a plan to visit after Gonder. Our host at the
Belegez, Felamon, agreed to be our tour guide for Gonder. The main
attraction in town is the Royal Enclosure and Fasilidas' Palace, a
collection of castles/palaces built in the 17th centaury by the various
rulers of both Ethiopia and the local districts. In a way it was just like a
visit to a very English castle but set in the depths of the Ethiopian
Highlands, but very impressive and pleasant none the less. Felamon was very
knowledgeable and blew our brains with all the information he had to offer.
We also managed a visit to Fasilidas' Baths and also the mightily impressive
Debre Berhan Selessie Church before we set off late afternoon to find Tim
and Kim's project at Gorgora.
N12 36.631 E37 28.323
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