ETHIOPIAN EPIC

Hinckley Ramblers Wendy and Trevor Martin travelled to Ethiopia a few years ago, to trek in the Simien Mountains.

Known as the "Roof of Africa," Ethiopia has a rich cultural heritage, as well as some of the finest mountain scenery in Africa. Addis Ababa, the capital, is one of the highest capital cities in the world at 2,200m., and arriving in November, they needed a day to acclimatise.

This was spent visiting the national museum to see "Lucy" the famous fossilised skeleton of an early hominid found in the Rift Valley; a mausoleum and various churches. Next morning as they flew north to Gondar, huge black kites wheeled overhead.

This former capital has a fascinating history recorded back as far as the Queen of Sheba's visit to King Solomon around 1,000 BC. Her son, Menelik 1st founded a dynasty whose last emperor was Haile Selassie, ruler from 1930-1974.

A bumpy 3 hour bus ride took the group of 12 to Debark, a small market town at 2,700m. where they registered before entering the National Park, a World Heritage Site. An escort of armed scouts is compulsory, so they met Kamilu and Mersha, with their rifles, and Getenet, a guide employed by the park. Debark was a feeding station during the terrible famines of the 1980s, and the friendly local people were keen to talk to the group about it. One young man spoke of his starving family's desperate trek from their home in the mountains to get food. He spoke warmly of Bob Geldof, who is well known in the area.

Leaving the vehicle to go on ahead, the group walked through the foothills, accompanied by Getenet and the scouts, to their first camp at Senkaber. Here they met Soloman and Adenafu, the cooks, and saw the first of the strange volcanic plugs rising from the valley floor. As few white people visit this area, each camp was quickly surrounded by curious locals, with the children watching every move, and trying out their English. Following a spectacular sunset        the temperature plummeted, and the group donned every available piece of clothing to eat an excellent meal in the mess tent.

Next morning the mules arrived, with a group of young, fierce looking muleteers. They seemed friendly however, and dismantled the camp very efficiently. Soon, the mules were loaded, and they were off, descending steeply to ford the chilly Michwahtis River, before plodding steeply uphill once more. The next camp at Geech Village, 3600m. was fascinating. They were visited by wide billed ravens and jackals, and at dusk, glimpsed the rare Simien fox; sometimes called the Abyssinian wolf. During the night, the eerie cries of hyenas echoed around the hillside.

Next day, they walked between troops of Gelada   baboons, unique to Ethiopia. The big males with their lion-like manes looked very fierce, but in fact were fairly placid and took little notice of the group.

Peering down into the Geech Abyss, where sheer cliffs plunge down over 1,000m. they watched young baboons whose favourite game seemed to be pushing each other off the narrow ledges of the cliff then scrambling back up the sheer faces. The landscape was strange, with volcanic plugs rising in columns and pinnacles from the valley floor. Lammergeiers soared above the abyss, dropping bones to break them before swooping down to extract the marrow.

The trek continued along the escarpment, continually rising above 4,000m, then dropping down to cross rivers. Wendy, a retired head teacher, was delighted to be able to visit a school, and meet the staff and children. Amharic is the official language, and most children learn some English. As with most African schools, this one was very poorly equipped, but the children were proud to show the group their exercise books, and enjoyed posing for photos, and seeing themselves on digital cameras.

The highlight of the trip was a climb to the summit of Ras Deshen, 4th highest of the African mountains at 4620m. A 3 a.m. start, plodding steadily uphill by the light of head torches, eagerly waiting for the first glimmer of daylight on the horizon. As they got higher, they entered the strange lunar landscape of giant lobelias and spiky groundsels, rising from the bare earth, which Wendy and Trevor had seen before on Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya. 8 hours of uphill plodding, a short steep scramble, and then the small summit platform. The views were spectacular, extending north into Eritrea and towards Sudan in the west.

Everywhere they looked the castles and pinnacles of volcanic rock made for a strange surreal landscape.

Returning wearily to the camp, the group were presented with bunches of wildflowers picked by the young muleteers. That evening, the nearby river was diverted by villagers, to irrigate their crops. Unfortunately, it also irrigated the camp site, resulting in a sea of mud, and making visits steeply uphill to the "long drop" toilets, extremely hazardous.

On the last night of the trek, the cooks prepared a traditional meal, and danced and sang local folk songs, while the group sat round the camp fire with a crate of beer.

A great end to an exciting and very different holiday.