We were glad when we arrived back in Gondar and looked forward to do the historical route via the Simien Mountains, Aksum, Tigray, Lalibela and back to Addis. As you can remember, we had a quite nightmarish experience driving through the Simien Mountains in pouring rain through mudslides in the most terrible road conditions imaginable. The night came early and we thought we will never reach Axum alive. Ethiopia is one of those countries that you love to hate but hate not to love! It is a tiring, beautiful, mindboggling country. We thought we would never think of going back, but Ethiopia is back on our tick list for our next trip through Africa in a year or five.
The Royal Enclosure with it’s castles in Gondar was awesome
While waiting in the bakkie for Arno who was at the bank, I took photo’s of the friendly Ethiopians in Gondar
The woman underneath the blankets at the green door, stays there
Terrible road conditions combined with terrible weather made this trip through the Simien Mountains treacherous and highly dangerous. It took us 12 hours to do the about 280km drive.
The immensely high and beautiful Simien Mountains
Orthodox Christians on their way to church
Aksum and the atmosphere there made a huge impression
The obelisks of Aksum
The Church of My Lady Mary where the Ark of the Bible is supposed to be kept
Overlooking Eritrea
Queen Sheba’s Bath
Bahran our wise, cute and clever guide.
The terraces build on the mountains planted with tef
Rock hewn churches of Tigray
The hardworking farmers of Ethiopia
Beautiful little girls….so happy to say hallo
Stone houses with tef growing on the roof (Tigray)
View towards Somalia
Hardworking donkeys of Hawsen
Breaking down houses stone by stone!
Churches and mountain tops
The never ending mountain passes through super high mountains
Our crazy GPS!!
Patchwork landscape
Cooking in Hotel rooms (Maychew)
Huge horns of the Ethiopian cattle
Market in Addis
Ethiopian New Year in Addis
Getting ready to move again….to Kenya (Wim’s Holland House, Addis)
Ethiopian New Years party with the Hollanders (Addis)
The huge anthills between Ager Maryam and Moyale
Some looking like statues
Arnize Go 2 Africa 