Historic journey to the Afro-Alps (and my blog becomes a travel blog)

The Simien mountains are a relatively unknown mountain range; I for one didn't even know Ethiopia had great mountains when I put forth my Watson proposal (then again, I didn't know a lot of things.).

Conveniently, visiting the Simien mountains usually means you transit through some of Ethiopia's greatest historical treasures along the way, at least if you go by land. And why wouldn't you go by land, what with the new Chinese-built road that runs out of Addis. I felt confident going onto these roads, knowing that a path had been blazed by my Chinese compatriots. On the other hand, my flatmate in Addis warned me about the roads, saying that they broke the axle of the 4x4 Land Cruiser she rented, and she had just been there a few months earlier.
"Take a plane," she said. I did consider booking a plane, only to find out they were ridiculously expensive -- over $100 USD for a 40 minute flight in a propeller plane. So I went by bus. At any rate, it would be a great way to see the roads that the Chinese were building all across Ethiopia.

The bus ride from Addis Ababa to Bahir Dar took about 13 hours to cover some 350 miles; granted, about 5 of those hours were spent on the side of the road continuously changing the left rear tire.

The journey was fantastic. Along the way, the road ran right through the middle of little villages, and we'd often have to brake for some cattle or goats to cross the road. Burned out Russian tanks littered the side of the road, relics from Ethiopia's flirtation with communism during the 1970s. I also began to realize that nearly every village had an "Obama restaurant" or an "Obama hotel," in homage to the current U.S. president. We even ate an Obama restaurant in Bahir Dar, which was actually quite good. When we'd stop in villages to fix the bus, people would run up and ask, "China or Japan?" I hated this question, because I was neither, and the fact that people couldn't believe that I was actually born and raised in America. Kids would also pose the question, "Manchester or Arsenal?" "Liverpool," I said.

On the road near Bahir Dar, we even saw some Chinese lanterns lit up on the side of the road. The road must have been nearly complete. Unfortunately, it was late and dark and there would be no potty breaks by the Chinese construction compound.


At any rate, I began travelling with two students from Germany, Klaus and Franziska; Klaus had worked with GTZ in Addis, a German aid organization. I met Klaus in Addis and it turned out we wanted to go to similar places at the same time. Klaus was very resourceful when we got to the Simien mountains, and since both of us were trying to save money, we organized the trek ourselves ("Let's self-organize," Klaus agreed. I imagine the German translation would sound hilarious). and forewent the recommended guide and cook. We went along the normal historical circuit, which included the lakeside town of Bahir Dar, and the ancient Abyssinian capital of Gonder.

Bahir Dar was pleasant enough; the city is the jumping off point for the island monasteries on Lake Tana, which stretch back to the 13th century (I think). Ethiopia has its own form of Orthodox Christianity, one of the many things that sets Ethiopia apart from the rest of Africa. Perhaps more importantly, Ethiopia is the only country in Africa to have never been colonized by Europeans (although it was briefly occupied by Mussolini), a fact that is the source of enormous pride among Ethiopians.

On that note, Ethiopia also has its own way of telling time and years. 6 am (sunrise) is 12:00 and 6 pm (sunset) is also 12:00. Apparently we're in year 2002 or 2003; I can't remember. At any rate, the Ethiopian millenium was in our year 2007. Yeah, it's confusing.

Bahir Dar's monasteries were enormously disappointing. Apparently restoration means rebuilding the monasteries with concrete slabs and tin roofs. And the best preserved monastery is off limits to women.
"Don't tempt me." The only cool island monastery is off-limits to women.

When visiting the British Museum in London, I learned that showing both eyes in Ethiopian art was a sign of good, whereas only showing one eye was a sign of evil. In the depiction of a battle between Ethiopians and Italians (in which the Ethiopians triumphed), guess who had two eyes. Oh yeah, these are the twelve apostles.

Lake Tana. I took this photo at about 11 pm, when the sun had long set, but the moon was nearly full.

This photo is so stereotypically "African," so I don't really like it, but I'm posting it anyway. Naked African boy paddles down up the mouth of the Blue Nile on Lake Tana. This is why I am posting this photo, so people don't think Africa is all backwards and full of people without clothes.


Ethiopian food: This is beyainatu, a little bit of everything. This was one of my favorite dishes -- an assortment of various vegetarian stuff and ground chick peas. My other favorite, kitfo -- raw meat, I only had it good once. They sometimes do it as either ground goat meat (kind of like a French tartare), and sometimes with raw beef cubes.

This is a close-up of injera, the spongy, pancake-like thing that is the staple of Ethiopian food. It's made from tef, a highly-nutritious cereal that is endemic in the Ethiopian highlands, and apparently only grows there.

Gonder palace. Cool stuff.

Now we begin the trek in the Simien mountains.



Gelada baboon. Apparently they can get violent and throw you off cliffs.

We tried to the trip as cheaply as possibly, foregoing the recommended guide but taking the mandatory armed scout. I felt a bit bad for him, since he didn't speak a word of English and was stuck with us until nighttime when we got to camp, and he got to talk with the other scouts and guides.

Another somewhat inappropriate photo. I was slightly disappointed that our scout only had a rifle, and not one of the submachine guns or automatic assault rifles that I saw some of the other guides had. On the other hand, this rifle was probably more useful in the Simien mountain terrain, as he could pick off any incoming enemies (provided the gun actually worked and was loaded).

Me, Franziska, and Klaus at the first camp.

And now that I realize this blog post is becoming a travel blog post, I present you with some overprocessed images. Unfortunately, for reasons too complicated and boring to explain here, the colors are actually off from how I saved them (for nerds, I save them in aRGB and not sRGB).



The landscapes we saw were enormously varied -- some dense treelines, some dusty desert areas, and some landscapes like these. These trees were endemic in maybe only about 5 sq kilometers, pretty cool.


Sunset at the second camp.

Guides, scouts, and porters play soccer at the second camp. It was very exposed, above the tree line, with high winds, and at about 3,500m. What a terrible place for a camp, but we weren't allowed to camp anywhere else.

Klaus, the ever resourceful German, made a stove out of a quick-cooking oats tin. We didn't want to pay for a cook and didn't want to buy a gas stove. It's called the hobo stove, and you just feed little pieces of firewood in the top. Klaus was pretty great -- and was always after making things more "efficient." He said things like "She's sleeping very efficiently" (i.e., sleeping soundly in the backseat of a bumpy bus on a dirt path), "You are reading inefficiently" (holding the book in such a way as to only allow one person to read at a time), and "We must make this fire burn more efficiently!" No, he wasn't a caricature of a German, and we got along well.
Goodbye, Simien mountains! Goodbye Ethiopia!