ETHIOPIA
Well a short continuation of Kenya, Wolf managed to buy a spring in a “dorp” as big as Plaston, bring it back to “Henry’s Camp” where we were staying. A Swiss man married to an Ethiopian Lady, has been in Ethiopia for 30 years. He has a workshop, bakery (real with proper ovens) a camp site and one “rondavel” with 8 beds in, the inside is fitted out with colourful material, roof, walls, you feel like you are in a Bedouin Tent.
In his workshop they shortened the spring to fit our trailer, this is now the spare and the original broken one which was welded is still on the trailer and going strong. Well the next day we did the final 250km, slowly carefully and 5 hours later crossed into Ethiopia.
Welcome to Ethiopian Standards. Our first eye-opener, “Hotel” These are dingy rooms, and if you are lucky with what they term as a “Shower Room” This is a small room attached to the room which has a small basin, toilet and a shower. The shower is literally a pipe out of the wall and a drain in the floor and as Northern Kenya and Ethiopia are in a drought situation, you can forget using the shower, you get a bucket of water, which is for both to flush the toilet and to wash in.
The only difference between Northern Kenya and Ethiopia is the cost of the hotel. A single room (as it has only one double bed) costs maximum Birr 80, about R64.00 for the night. Our travel guide, (Bradt Book) actually mentions that Ethiopians do not do maintenance so if you are lucky to get a fairly newly built hotel, take it as the rooms will be relatively clean and decent. As the hotel gets older so do the rooms, no painting, no upkeep and really not much cleaning. Thank heaven for Heather and Baby Wipes, she brought us two big packets and these are used to clean the toilet seats, and wash where you wouldn’t use their water. We have managed to buy mineral water and this you use for everything except washing you feet.
The hotel I have described is in the “Moderate” bracket. In any of the smaller towns, you only get moderate and budget. Also Electricity is usually on only from 6pm until about 11pm and sometimes during the day for an hour. (and we worry about “Load Shedding”)
25th August to 1st September.
After spending the first night in the border town of Moyale, we headed west towards the South Omo Valley.
The Omo Valley is home to about two dozen different tribes with all their own culture, dress etc. Descending from green highlands into the low-lying plains, South Omo is as close as one can come to an Africa untouched by outside Influences. This is what our guide book said in 2006 but this is already changing so fast, due tourists and commercialization. (Note my later remarks)
We spent a night over in Karat Konso, home to the Konso people. There is very little camping and none in this village, another “moderate hotel” and local food which consists of “injera” which is a large, pancake-shaped substance made from a nutty tasting grain that is unique to Ethiopia. The dough (tef) is fermented for three days before it is cooked, the result is a foam-rubber texture and a slightly sour taste. (Looks like a very big grey pancake) This comes on a tray (plate) about 40cm and on top is meat, fish or vegetables. This also depends on the day of the week, whether you get meat or vegetables. I had the vegetable one, which you get small amounts of spinach, a sweetcorn of sorts, lentils, some sort of dark bean, a little bit of tomato and onion. It is served with a small bowl of either tomato sauce or a chilli of sorts. “The Chilli sorts the bland taste all out” (for me that is) Ethiopians think they are the only ones who can eat hot sauce.
The meat is usually goat or lamb. You are supposed to eat it with your hands, wrapping the injera around some veg or meat, making a small wrap of sorts and “eat” The closest you get to “Western Food” is spaghetti served with a separate bowl of a Tomato type sauce. Hence of course after two days in Ethiopia, Wolf has had enough Spaghetti.
The Konso People.
The village close to Karet Konso is enclosed by a 2m high stone wall. Within this wall, there are lower stick and stone walls enclosing each individual family compound. In the village outside Konso there are leafy Morninga trees which they use the leaves to make a stew with and then add dumplings made from sorghum flour. The families make up a sub community and they build a large “mora” or community house. This is used as a meeting place for the men and boys over 12 years to sleep in. (No women allowed) This custom meant that the men were easily mobilized during the night, to fight off enemies and it also helped with family planning, as even married men spent a large time in the community house, rather than with their wives!! Konso people also follow the “Kata” generation set where every 18 years a new generation is initiated. The older generation step down and make beer for the party, while the younger generation (8-25years old) elect a “generation pole” in the village square and take over the leadership of the village. You can calculate the age of a village by counting the number of generation poles and multiplying by 18. Victory poles are also erected in this square. Tall ones for a victory and short ones for a defeat. They also carve wooden grave markers called waga erected for heroes in the community. These have for a large extent been damaged or stolen by 'foreign collectors' so now they can only be viewed in the regional tourist office.
The roads don’t get better, they are busy making new roads, but no where do you get to drive on them, you just go from one side over a piece of new road to the other side and a km later back to the other side. The roads are very stony and as you will read later, a killer on both car and trailer. One of the strange things you see is that most of the villagers store their food in the trees under thatch. This is to keep it safe from animals and children. The crops grown here are sorghum, (used to make beer), maize, beans and coffee. They make the most of the hard, rocky slopes that characterise their relatively dry and infertile homeland through a combination of extensive rock terracing, using the dung from the animals as a fertiliser.
After picking up a Guide, Gabino, we went further west to a town called Turmi.
Here to our delight found a hotel that has a camping ground and quite clean toilets and showers. Only water and electricity for very short times. Again a bucket of water supplied for the toilet. Our Solar shower worked like a bomb and with this hung up in the shower we both managed to have a really hot shower, and hair washing a pleasure.
From here we visited three other tribes. At this point I must mention the worst of Ethiopia, even worse than the accommodation. The children on the Street, The worst in Africa. They stand in the roads and scream, faranji, faranji, (means foreigner) give me money. They really try your patience, jumping up and down not moving until you are almost on top of them, We have met people who even driving at the slowest of speeds hit one. When I tell you they don’t stop and you do not travel far between villages without coming across dozens of kids.
Visiting the village is another nightmare. You pay per person and for the car (even if you leave it outside the village) and then for every photo. The people come in droves all want to be photographed as you pay per photo per person. (Eg if you take a picture of mother child and baby on back that is 3 people) Everybody shouts, me photo, me photo. The cost are really minimal for photos usually one or two Birr. 12-13 Birr is one US dollar which is about R8.00 so if you take ten pictures this could cost about SA 80 cents a picture. The problem is having enough change to pay each one, the best is to try and negotiate with the head of the village on one price, but even with the guide, it becomes a nightmare to decide on how many pictures as well explaining to the people that the money is with the Village Head. Without our guide, a visit to these villages would be impossible. Of course the other problem we had is Wolf refused to pay for the car. He would leave it about quite a way out of the village and then fight about not paying for the car. Actually it is not fun. You don’t really get to talk to the people or even see how the village is constructed, as everyone is yelling, me photo, me photo. In one village the one young girl was determined I should give her my tee-shirt, because in this particular village the women have nothing on top I don’t think she could get the gist that I really could not take off my shirt and go topless as easy as she did.
Without the guide, it would be even worse but not even then could we spend time in the village. We actually needed him not only for translation but to explain the ways and living of the tribes.
Unfortunately the tourists, the commercialisation in the bigger villages, are eventually going to be the end of their cultures so for us I can only say again, like the gorillas in the near future this will all be gone and impossible to see.
Hammer Tribe.
The women are particularly striking, with thick plaits of ochre-coloured hair hanging down in a heavy fringe, leather skirts decorated with cowries, (not sure where they come from, nowhere near a sea) a dozen or more copper bracelets tightly fixed on their arms, thick welts on their body created by cutting themselves and treating the wound with ash and charcoal. Colourful beaded bands hang from their waists. Married women wear one or more thick copper necklaces, often with a circular wedge about 10cm long projecting out of the front. The actual copper necklace stays on even when they sleep. The men, also given to body scarring, are more plain, except they do paint themselves with white chalk paste before a dance or ceremony. The clay hair buns fashioned on some men’s heads indicate that they have killed a person or a dangerous animal within the last year.
The most important event in Hammer society is the Bull jumping Ceremony, the culmination of a three-day long initiation rite. The afternoon of the third day, (the one we attended), they line up to 30 bulls and the stark naked young male or males, sporting a unkempt Afro hairstyle has to jump up onto the first bull and then jumping from one bull to another he reaches the end of the row, he then must turn around and repeat the performance in the opposite direction, again a third and forth time. If he does not fall he has proved his manhood. This then starts a spree of violence from the men beating the young unmarried women with whips. The women actually almost beg the men to hit them. This means they are strong and will make strong and good wives. They actually leave these women with open bleeding backs. For me it was quite bizarre. (Each to his own!!!!!!!!!)
KARRO TRIBE (painted) at Murele. This tribe is best known for their body painting which they mainly do before important ceremonies. They dab their torsos with white chalk paint, supposedly an imitation of the plumage of a guinea fowl. Colourful facemasks prepared with a combination of pastes made by mixing water with chalk, charcoal, powdered yellow rock and iron ore. The men also have their hair plastered into a tight bun, after killing a human enemy or a dangerous animal. The women’s hair is rather striking, tightly cropped at the side and tied into knots and dyed ochre on top. It makes them look like they have rushed out of the bathroom without removing their shower cap.
After spending 4 days, 3 nights visiting the villages, I was happy to cut short the last one. All I wanted to do was go to one of the lakes up North and crash for two days. Well this was not to be. On our way back to Konso, we had two punctures, one on the car and one on the trailer. Needless to say a journey of 200km took 6 hours. While getting the punctures repaired, Wolf noticed the gap between the car and canopy had widened. We booked into a “moderate hotel” and although Wolf checked with both Johan by telephone in White River and checked under the car, we could not see the problem. Obviously the mud was so thick the damage did not surface until we had done about 120 km. The frame on the car cracked and the distance to the next town (60km) was done at a speed of about 10km an hour. The complete journey of 200km is done again from one side of the road to the other. The roads here are graded for the entire piece with no tar being put on until the complete section is ready. Therefore at no time do you get to drive on the decent graded piece just the side roads which have been partly graded while they make the new road.
I really believe only prayer and Wolf’s slow, slow driving got us to “Soda”.
We got to “Soda” and there managed to get the frame welded to get us to Addis Ababa. We decided to skip our original planed route so as to rather use the only good road from the South joining the main road at Shashemene, this now being the main road from the border to Addis. We actually only had two days to then ensure we had a plan for Tom and Caroline who are joining us in Ethiopia for 10 days. Due to the damage on the car, we decided to hire a car and driver, (which is quite reasonable here) This was a worry off our minds, with only 10days with them we could ill afford to be stuck somewhere without a back up vehicle.They both arrived on Monday 7th September, Caroline in the morning and Tom in the evening. During the day we visited the Entoto Hills. This was the site of Menelik’s capital before Addis Ababa was founded in 1887. Here we visited three Churches, 1st, Maryam Church, an octagonal building with a traditionally painted interior, where Menelik was crowned in 1882. Unfortunately you can only visit the interior if you are there about the time the service ends which ends in the morning about 9am. But to get our first taste of “Ethiopian Orthodox Churches” many people visit the churches during the day, praying outside of the doors. The churches are mainly round or like this one octagonal with many doors, one for men, one for women, one for the clergy, and one for visitors. There are quite a few paintings or pictures on the outside of the windows and doors where you find many people praying all day. The second, Kidus Raguel with an interior full of beautiful paintings and pictures of saints, and others depicting many different holy people from the bible. They have a centre section which only the priests are allowed to enter, each church having a copy of the Arc of the Covenant. The floors all have the woven woollen type carpets on. (All shoes left outside) The third was a disused Rock Hewn church which was carved out with a similarity to the churches in Lalibela. (We go their later in our trip)
We spent a night in Addis on Monday and left early the next morning with our tour guide to go south, our first stop going to be Bale Mountains. It was a very long road, the first being the good road going south towards the Kenya border again. At Sashameine we turned off east and for the next 30km not too bad. Then the “normal” Ethiopian roads began. Bale lies in the green highlands southeast of the rift valley. We travelled through some really lovely hills, all very green in fact at some times you would have thought you were on a beautiful trimmed golf course. The mountains in the background were really magnificent, one of which was the second highest in Ethiopia, Mount Tullo Deemtu at 4377mt. The dominant trees in the forest between Ababa and Dodola are the African Juniper and the Hagenia Abyssinia. This is very similar to the area in Dinsho which is the gateway to the Bale National Park.
We arrived at our night stop at 7pm, Robe, in the pouring rain, to find the town in the dark, the only hotel worth staying at, pitch dark with a few candles. Well, slush and mud the order of the night, we got into our rooms, then found our way to the dining room, just ordered our “St George Beers” and wow on came the lights. We actually gave the staff a round of applause. After quite a good dinner and a good nights sleep, we left the next morning for a trip into the Sanetti Plateau at the top of the National Park. Within minutes of ascending the start of the hills, we were treated to our first sight of the endemic Ethiopian Wolf. The local people refer to it as the Red Fox. We also were fortunate to see some endemic or unusual birds, Ruddy Shelduck; Rouget Rail; Abyssinian Flycatcher, a White Collared Pigeon and a Thick Billed Raven.
We identified another 9 other types. We went on to have another 3 sightings of the Wolf. The mountains were absolutely freezing. We managed to find a super picnic spot in between the mountains for a light lunch. We went back to Robe via Gobe and did a walkabout in the town which has a mud street and plenty of donkey carts.
The next morning we went into the bottom of the mountains to the entrance of the park. The only way you see any part of the park is on foot or donkey. As we were very limited to time we organized an hour walk and were rewarded with seeing good sightings of the Mountain Nyala, Bohor Reedbuck, common Jackal, Menelik Bushbuck, and Warthogs (they have much longer hair on their backs) and again lots of birdlife.This brought us to the 10th September, Ethiopian New Year is on the 11th September, and so we had arranged to be in Wonder Genet where we thought we would experience a bit of their New Year festivities. Wonder Genet is home to some warm springs, (they have two hot pools, it even resembles our warm water pools at home, e.g. Badplaas) We expected a late night, but to our amazement there was none of that and we were in bed by 9.30pm with little noise later. “New Years Day” we had an early warm swim, and then after breakfast a good 2 hour walk up the Mountain behind the hotel. Good sightings of the White and Black Colubus Monkey, Unusual or Endemic Birds, White Cheeked Turaco, yellow fronted Parrot, Black winged Lovebird, Grey headed Woodpecker, Olive Mountain Thrush, Banded Barbet and Ethiopian Oriel and another 10 other species. Although we had seen the Silver Cheek Hornbill before it was a first for Tom and Caroline and we had really nice sights of it. It resembles a toucan with a huge double white bill.
After our walk we travelled a little more south to the town of Awasha. This is on a caldera lake with no outlet. The Lake spans about 9000 hectares. This lake is the smallest in the Rift Valley. We had rooms in a super position right on the lake edge. We spent a super afternoon sitting on the lake with beers in hand, took a sunset cruise out to “Fish Market”, a spot where the fish market is held in the day and late afternoon you have a different Market, it is visited only by hundreds of Marabou Storks and other water birds. Magnificent sight at the sun goes down. Again we had some really great birds, the unusual he Van Decker Hornbill, the Hemprichs Hornbill, the Northern Red Hornbill, the Eurasian Hoopoe and a Striped Kingfisher plus another 20 or more normal species.
Next day we headed north, first stopping at Shashemene where there is a Rastafarian commune, informally known as ‘Jamaica’ formed during Haile Selassie’s reign by a group of Jamaican devotees. We visited the Black Lion Museum which celebrates the community’s Rastafarian roots and where you can also purchase local art work. We all chose some pictures which are made from dried Banana leaves. Then we headed further north up to Lakes Shale, Lake Abiata and Lake Langano. Taking in an 887 square km National Park. Unfortunately this park is still shared with the local community and therefore there is no park to speak of. However on the Lake Abiata, the declining water level has increased the number of algae-eating birds, with flocks of Flamingos and Pelicans. We also saw a wide range of water birds, the unusual being the Mongolian plover and Pacific Golden Plover and the red necked Phalarope. We then headed over to Lake Shale from where you can do a couple of walks, unfortunately this was spoilt by a load of loud and rather pushy locals trying to annoy you, wanting the usual, “money” (And these were not the usual small children) Lake Shala has an incredible depth of 266m and has been calculated to hold a greater volume of water than any other Ethiopian lake, including Lake Tana which covers an area almost ten times larger. We stayed on the third lake, Lake Langano with a surface area of 305sq km and only a depth of up to 45m. This lake is developed mainly for tourism and as we arrived on a weekend, it was a very busy, tourist attraction, adding the fact that it is the only lake which you can swim in. They have water sports, swimming etc making it a real tourist attraction even for the locals. The lakes and the National park were a bit disappointing but we did have quite a few really nice bird sightings and Caroline and I enjoyed a short swim in the Lake. Our next destination was north to Lake Ziway. This is the northern most of Ethiopia’s natural Rift Valley lakes and the largest of the four we visited with a surface area of abut 430sq km. It lies at an altitude of 1636m and ringed by steep volcanic hills. It is a shallow lake and is fed by two rivers, the Maki and Katar and is drained at the south-western tip by the Bulbula River which then flows into Lake Abiata. It has an abundant population of Tilapia fish, a really nice eating fish which can weigh up to about 1.5kg. There are five islands on this lake and one known as Tulo Guddo (Large Mountain) in Oromo lingual and to the Amara people as Debre Sion (Mount Zion) On the highest peak, is the church of Maryam Tsion and is known to be the oldest active monastery in Southern Ethiopia. The church has stood on this peak since at least the 12th Century. According to the legend this was the sanctuary for the Original Ark of the Covenant for about 70 years before it was considered safe to return it to Axum. This is where it is said to be today. There are many theories about this and before leaving Ethiopia I would like to get a couple of books on this subject. The older churches here really do not resemble a church as we know them. (described before) Each morning, before any eating, people come to church for some sort of Ceremony (I was never lucky enough to attend one) No one is allowed to enter if they have eaten. At all times of the rest of the day, people visit the church, kneel and pray at the closed doors of the church. We will post a picture on the blog to try and explain what I mean. After visiting the church on the island (taken by small motor boat) we headed back to the mainland where we negotiated a trip to Bird Island. This is a very small island with hundreds of birds. Mainly of course, Water birds, Flamingos, Pelicans, African and Eurasian Jacanas, Dartar, Black and Grey Heron, super Spoonbills with babies in a nest and the normal egrets and plovers with a few special plovers. We were so impressed with this little island we arranged any early one for the next morning to see the sunrise and the island. We weren’t disappointed, this time we actually were allowed onto the island and spent about an hour walking about. The sunrise and the birds tremendous.
At the hotel, we had super sightings of the White Bellied Go Away Bird.
After breakfast we headed slightly west to Butajira and then north to Addis Ababa visiting the Tiya Stelae, this is a belt of mysterious engraved stelae that stretches across southern Ethiopia. Little is known about the origin of these stelae or of the meanings of the symbols that are carved upon them. Recent excavations revealed that the stones mark the mass graves of males an females who died when they were between 18 and 30 years of age and who were laid to rest in a foetal position about 700 years ago. The presence of several engraved swords on the steal suggests that the people buried were soldiers, but evidence of this is far from conclusive. Today this is listed as a world Heritage site, this site comprises of about 45 stones some of up to 2m in height, The largest which has been broken seems to have originally been about 5m high but only the base remains, the top part has been removed to the university in Addis Ababa. Apart from the stylised swords, the number which appears on the Stelae is thought to represent the number of people killed by the warrior, two other symbols predominate, plain circles and what looks like a pair of podgy leaves rising on a stem from a rectangular base. The plain circles appear on about one in ten stones and deem to denote that a female is buried underneath. The leaves look like enset (false bananas) that is sill widely grown in Southern Ethiopia, recent thinking they are a sort of visual RIP note. What also looks like a Greek ‘E’ symbol which no interpretation has been thought up? Tiya, would appear to mark the medieval boundary between pagan and Christian Ethiopia.
Our second visit was to Adadi Maryam Church. This is a rock-hewn church, the most southern rock-hewn church in Ethiopia. It dates back to sometime between the 12th and 14th century while local tradition associates it wit King Lalibela’s visit to the nearby Mount Zikwala in AD106. It is very close to the style in Lalibela than any other rock-hewn church. It measures about 19m long and 16m wide and has 24 windows and ten doors. The tunnel that leads from the back of the church to a nearby watercourse was carved later to prevent flooding. It is known that Almed Gragn attacked the church in about 1527 NS Although the excavation survived this more or less intact the large cross above the entrance was severely damaged and the priests were either killed or forced to flee. The church fell into disuse ad it remained so for several centuries when discovered by local hunters was reopened during the reign of Menelik II and remains in active use today. The Swiss embassy funded the extensive restoration work in 1996-1998.
Our last stop before going onto Addis Ababa was Melka Kunture. This is a museum known for the numerous Stone-Age artefacts hat they have unearthed along the river including a variety of cleavers, hand axes and other tools made from basalt and other hard rocks.
On reaching Addis and only having one more day with Tom and Caroline we checked into a super hotel, (For Ethiopian Standards) and were very fortunate for our night there and our dinner later to be the guests of Tom and Caroline. Once again to you both ‘THANK YOU”
For our night out we visited a Traditional Ethiopian restaurant. Sitting on low chairs with little round basket type tables, lots of tapestry type mats and wall hangings, traditional music and dancing, we were served some very traditional meals and after had a coffee ceremony where you sit around on small stools and watch the whole roasting and preparation of the coffee being made. This is really quite special and very Ethiopian.
The next day we did a city tour, seeing about 4 different churches, a museum, the Djibouti/Addis Abba railway station built in1928-29. The churches all being built between 1911 and 1933. Caroline and I really enjoyed it. Tom and Wolf gave up after lunch which left Caroline and I to be able to enjoy another two. There is so much history here, it would take as much as I have written about the whole of Ethiopia to fill you all in. Wolf always says I write too much, so I will leave it all for an evening with friends who would be interested when we eventually get back to SA.
We had a second tradtional Ethiopian Restaurant meal with our Guide (Brooke) who had done our whole trip. The restaurant was a lot smaller and quite a bit more traditional in décor. A super evening to say farewell. Tom and Caroline left the next day. We spent a few days trying to sort our car out and to make a decision to fix it in Ethiopia or Europe. Lots of fellow travellers all giving their suggestions, we decided Wolf decided Europe would be best and that we would get there. (This episode will only follow when we get to Europe.)
20th September to 1st October.
On all these “Mechanics and specialists of Roads” it was decided we would get up Gonder via Debra Liebanos, Debre Markos, Bahir Dar (Blue Nile Falls) then to Lake Tana, slightly south of Gondor. We had met Kim and Tim, the “owners/managers” of a newly built campsite/bungalows on the shores of Lake Tana at Gongora at our campsite in Addis, a place called Wims. Both Wims and Kim & Tim are Holland nationals, living and working in Ethiopia. Wim is together with a lovely Ethopian lady, Rahel, and runs a very good restaurant and has lived in Ethiopia for 18 years. Tim and Kim are volunteers from Holland setting up the resort, a community based project, funded from Holland. I can only say, we went for two days and stayed seven. I think this say’s it all. Wolf helped Tim a bit with fitting of the windows in the new bungalows. After having not much guests for the past two weeks, the day we arrived they ended up with 15 of us travellers. Kim managed to feed us all from her kitchen, (about 3mts by 2mts) a two plate gas stove and supplies from the village. Kim was a wiz, but again one of those people I know from home, must do all herself (Chandy!!!!!!!) cook, the best cleanest toilet I have been to in Ethiopia, breakfast, lunch, supper and endless cups of coffee, cold beer without a fridge. Even the campers, ate all meals prepared by Kim opposed to cooking for themselves. I was honoured to be taken on two walks by Tim, who is desperately trying to finish the “resort”. When completed they will have 6 stone bungalows, about 10 camp sites, with tents and mattresses and bedding supplied (these with a thatch roof over a cement slab) and then the site for all over Landers and campers like ourselves with our own tents. All the sites face the lake with spectacular views. On our walks we saw any endemic birds and the most beautiful scenery. It is in the middle of hills and the walks unbelievably beautiful. It was quite an emotional time for me to say goodbye, Had we had more time, both Wolf and I felt, we could have quite happily stayed a few months and helped these very brave people finish their dream (What’s more its all for no pay) They are on a real time frame now, it was estimated it would take 18months to complete and the funding from Holland on the last month now and it is estimated it will still take another 6 months. Just the electricity connection will be about 3 months and about $6000 US cost.
We left them to travel east to Lalibela, home of a strange, isolated town, and set high in the mountains of Lasta. It is famous for its rock-hewn churches and is very often said to be the 8th Wonder of the World. Lalibela was the capital of the Zagw dynasty which ruled over Ethiopia from the 10th century to the mid 13th century and its name derives from that of the most famous of the Zagwe rulers, the 12th century King Lalibela. There are two versions of why the churches were built but the one given to us by our guide, I think bears more chance of being true. Lalibela went into exile in Jerusalem and decided that with all the pilgrims coming to visit Jerusalem in those days, millions of miles on donkeys and camels, he would build a new “Jerusalem of Rock” for all the Ethiopians. As soon as he was crowned Lalibela gathered the world’s greatest craftsmen and artisans to carve out the churches from rock. In fact the excavation of the churches is something of a mystery, some sources estimate that about 40,000 people would have been required to carve them.
Even before visiting the churches, Lalibela is a strikingly singular town. It is perched at an altitude of 2630m among wild craggy mountains and rocky escarpments. There is a stark cathedral like grandeur that is very similar to the Drakensberg Mountains at home. The house of Lalibela are of a design unlike anywhere else in Ethiopia, two-storey circular stone constructs that huddles over the steep slopes on which the town is built. We had seen two other Rock-hewn churches previously but nothing like what these are. The churches here are huge, some in excess of 10m high and because they have been carved below the grounded level they are ringed by trenches and courtyards, the sides of which are cut into with stone graves and hermit cells and connected to each other by a maze of tunnels and passages. Each individual church is unique in shape and size and precisely carved and minutely decorated. What struck us both was the rock is carved completely straight, the walls, windows, different type’s carvings and ornaments carved out of the rock completely symmetrical. If you look at the buildings in Ethiopia, (Tom and Caroline!!!!!) nothing is remotely straight, not a wall not a building anywhere. You just wonder with the type of tools they had in those days, and what “artisans” they must have been. These churches are not primarily tourist attractions, nor are they the crumbling monuments of a dead civilisation. What they are and what they have been for least 800 years is an active Christian shrine, the spiritual centre of a town’s religious life. If you wander between the churches in the thin light of the morning, you will see white-robed hermits and monks emerge bible in hand from their cells and the air is warmed by Eucharistic drumbeats and gentle swaying chants. Any of the churches are being damaged by seepage and for the last few years they have bee protected by roofs and scaffolding. Although this does not feel right or look right they are preserving the churches for future generations.
The churches are divided into two clusters, separated by the “Jordan River” (given its name by King Lalibela). The northwest cluster comprises of seven churches and the southeast cluster consists of five churches. They were constructed by using one of two different methods. One excavated from below the ground and these are surrounded by courtyards and trenches. Some of these are monoliths or semi monoliths, this meaning free from the surrounding rock on three or four sides, a style of excavation that is unique to Ethiopia. The other excavated from a vertical roc face by exploiting existing caves or cracks in the rock. Again to describe each church, one not so easy and again a lot of writing, (Wolf’s words) I will tell you though I visited all 13 churches and to my amazement Wolf managed 8 of them. They are all still in use but I was lucky that only one, were we not able to see the interior. One of the churches, women are prohibited, but Wolf went in and took pictures. I don’t think it is at all possible to take photos which will depict the actual buildings, we can only tell you it is total amazement. The largest of the churches, Bet Mdhane Alem, (the largest in the world) measures 11.5m high and covers an area of almost 800 square mts. It is supported by 36 pillars on the inside and 36 on the outside. The oldest, Bet Maryam, (means Virgin Mary) is the most popular with the people mainly because of it association with the Virgin Mary. It is also smaller and less imposing and has more intimate ad elaborately carved interior with carvings of the original Lalibela Cross and Star of David and dense painting on parts of the roof. It is 13 mts high and its upper floor has seven rooms. One of the smallest is Bet Meskel (means Holy Cross) is barely 40square mts in area. In the courtyards of this church is a pool that s believed to cure infertile woman, they are dipped into the water three times on Ethiopian Christmas (7th January) the water is green and slimly and they say enough to suggest a favourable effect on procreativity. The water level I about 2m below the courtyard so the women have to be lowered down on a harnessed rope!!!!!!!!
One of the courtyards in the northwest cluster contains the twin churches of Bet Debre and Bet Golgotha. These churches share an entrance together and they form a semi-monolith. These are the most atmospheric with an air of sanctity. Bet Golgotha is the one that women prohibited from entering. This one has seven life-size reliefs of saints carved around its walls. It is also believed that King Laibela is buried beneath a slab on the floor of this church.
I think I have given you the gist of what you see, and we will try to put photos on the website, but for me Lalibela has been the highlight of our trip to Ethiopia.
That evening we found a new (one month old) small ethnic restaurant, Roha Café where we were entertained by a local singer, strumming on a locally made instrument, a real squeak of a noise and singing all about us. He established we were from SA and Bafana Bafana, my hair, Mandela and all sorts of other made up stuff were the songs of the night. Of coarse all in Ethiopian, but we had a translator who told us what he was saying. We were then pulled up to dance, (not dancing as we know it) almost a jumping shaking movement. But I must say, they can move their shoulders like nothing I have seen before. They look almost triple jointed. All in all a super evening.
The next day, we left early (6am) to go south via Dessie, Kombolcha, Debre Sina and to Debre Birhan where we hoped to overnight. The roads again are all being carved up and on entering the town we were diverted about three times, couldn’t find the hotel we had decided to stay in. Wolf now not in the mood for trying to retrace steps pushed on. No more places to stop, we eventually got into Addis at 7.30pm. Its only 695km but again, nothing is easy in Ethiopia. When dark came we were horrified to find that outside of Addis, no one uses their lights until about an hour and a half after dark. We were told later they believe it uses more fuel. There we were driving between people who walk all over the road (no one wears light clothing) no lights, and any animals that are still around. I cannot describe the last two hours. Needless to say, by the time we got back to Wims I was ready to kill!!!!!!!!!
Our plan was then to spend two days doing a quick clean up, repack the trailer to take the weight off the car and head for Djibouti where our car and trailer are packed into the container and sent to Europe. We got back to find that Wims had been nominated to host the October Fest on Saturday so within hours of getting here we were persuaded (did not take much) to stay for the Fest.
We will leave on Sunday, with one stop over west of Addis Ababa at Awash National Park and then onto Djibouti. The balance of Ethiopia will follow with the travel to Europe. Hopefully we can get is on the web before we leave We will also post the pictures from Europe. 
