Tuesday, 22 April 2003
The sunrise marked our last day in Simien Mountains. Even though the temperature was 9 degrees Celsius, the night had been rather cold cause by windy weather. The sunrise was very nice and our cook served coffee and tea and surprised us with pancakes and jam. What a world!
We were promised to walk the whole morning but felt suspicious as Jørgen and Jesper walk yesterday was a repetition.
Our driver came up with countless number of excuses to drive back immediately. Firstly he didn’t have fuel to driver us a bit further out, then he doubt that the minibus was able to overcome the slopes. Our ranger didn’t shrink from complaining over his back. We could see for ourselves that the fuel tank was not even half empty and we already had climbed steeper slopes than those we were facing. All in all it was about leaving the national park before the third 24 hours was to pay. We were in the park for precisely 47 hours and did actually pay for 72!
We packed the tents and loaded our baggage in the minibus, asked to be driven five kilometers further away and then walk the distance back to the minibus. The driver agreed by did only take us two kilometers out and insisted on waiting for us, probably to encourage us to a short walk. We persuade the ranger to walk further away for some hours. First we visited a great view, which Jørgen and Jesper saw on their walk yesterday. They would share the canyon view with me. The walk remained me about my bad shape caused by the altitude, my stomach and – well, bad shape! Once again I chose to stay at the car while the swiftly guys went off with the ranger for two hours.
Meanwhile I had a nice time waiting at the car and reading my book. Suddenly I saw a young boy looking at himself in the side-view mirror. He was a herdsman who passed by. When I looked in the mirror as well and we made eye contact with each other, he nearly split his sides laughing. He got a cracker and I got out of the minibus to read the guidebook, sitting on a stone.
While reading, I saw in corner of the eye more herdsmen arriving and sitting in the grass in safe distance. The young lad from before had the courage to sit right next to me and later more followed. He pointed at my boots and then at his bare feet. It wasn’t an option for me giving him by boots and when he pointed at his worn t-shirt I didn’t feel better. He could of course have a t-shirt without question, but know some 30 young lads were present.
Instead I chose to show them pictures from the guidebook and then the enthusiasm rise. Quickly all 30 lads, who all wanted to see pictures from Ethiopia, surrounded me and before long they started to point at the pictures and say “Monkey”, “Goat”, “Sheep”, “Cow” and “Donkey” in English. This was a delightful moment and I asked our driver about their English language skills and he explained that they attend to school here in the mountains, but had holiday today. Then they had to watch the herd instead. I doubt that such a thing like holiday exists in the mountains, where some 10,000 people lives in small mud huts.
Meanwhile Jørgen and Jesper walked further up in the mountains and reached a small settlement of five mud huts where they were invited to a traditional coffee ceremony, they thought. They got a big lump of honey in their palm and were offered a very homemade bottle of “Tej”, which is a kind of sweet honey liquor. This version was so clotted and filled with exciting stuff that Jesper had to use a straw to prick a hole to get the liquor out for a drink. As the honey wasn’t served with clean hands and my friend’s hands weren’t clean either, they were a bit concerned if their stomachs could cope with this. It turned out later that they got off with no problems.
The drive back to Debark was exciting, but very long. Four hours on stony gravel road is tiring. We passed by Dabat where Sophie previously worked for “Save the Children Norway” and understood the demand for help.
When we arrived to Debark our cook “Mengistu” invited us to lunch in his house. That was very delightful. He has a small rectangular house made of mud that was painted in vivid colors. Indoors where a living room, kitchen and bedroom. We were seated in the living room, in the colorful three-piece suite and looked at the decoration and welcomed the many friends who stepped by.
Our lunch was the sandwiches that the cook made for our walk. The other guests got the local dish “Injera”, which is composed by a large sour pancake with dipping. We tasted it as well. Later “Mengistu’s” young wife came in to start the coffee ceremony, this time in a short version, as the beans were already roasted and grinded. She boiled the coffee well and lit some incense after which we had the most delicious espressos made in the world. The coffee from Ethiopian do well compared to the Italian and Brazilian coffee.
After lunch and coffee we said thanks and goodbye and drove to the “Circle Hotel” in Gonder, where we were to stay for a night. The hotel was constructed as a big barrel and one got almost dizzy walking the stairs to the room. It was of fair standard and we looked forward to sleep in a real bed again after two nights on our very thin sleeping mat.
The weather was nice so we walked around in the small city of Gonder among others to have a look at the exciting “Art Deco” buildings that the Italians built during the occupation in the 1940’s.
We found a small café and got ourselves a taste of the local “Daschen” beer made in Gonder. That tasted well and our presence draw some attention, partly from some sweet kids that made fun of us when we were drinking from the bottle, partly from a young lad who arranged that we only paid “client price” for the beers. That was the local price and was only 3 Birr each.
Suddenly Jørgen left in a hurry and went to a young guy who looked very Scandinavian. The guy was “Harvaard” from Norway who works for “Save the Children – Norway” and is a friend of Jørgen.
We had a nice chat with him and learned among others that pizzas were unavailable in town. That made us select our dinner restaurant carefully as the lack of pizzas might indicate something about food standard. Even the primitive places serve pizza, but not here. We had our dinner at the hotel before we went through the city in the dark and out of the range of streetlights to visit “Harvaard’s” place.
We found his house and got into a nice courtyard while three teenage girls passed saying: “Hello Mister, We love you” with a lot of giggling.
That was really cheerful. Indoor at “Harvaard’s” we said hello to “Anne” from Norway and two young male students from Britain who were on a three-month exchange program arrange with their amity school in Ethiopia. They all played cards and we got a nice chat with them before we walked back home, ending yet another eventful day.