Dare you?

I have already written in these pages about Tigray. The golden colour of the landscape, the dark skin of the people, the hair style of the women, the hidden churches and of course the poverty of this deserted place. So I will focus this blog on one church, the incredible Abuna Yemata Guh.

Abuna Yematah Guh is another church, hidden in the Gheralta Mountain. Another church? Not quite. Only the bravest, the fiercest, the strongest can discover it… Ok, that is a bit dramatic, but only the people who don’t have any symptom of vertigo can ascend the path that lead to this church.

Carved into the side of a 600 meters spire of rock, the 45 minutes walk to the top is already a challenge. Especially if your guide is Haile, with his flip flop, especially if it is hot, and therefore he wants to make it to the church as quickly as possible. After 40 minutes straight up (no detour to get to Yematah shall be found, straight from bottom to top you shall go), we arrived at a wall, a proper wall. No rope, no harness, nothing. My local guide gave me very complete explanations about how to pass this small obstacles. My problem, he only speaks Amharic. I understood right, and left, and right again, and then something about a chiken (I am not so sure about this part). So, I guessed he said here is where your left foot go, and that is for the right, then, your right hand move here and there is for your left hand, or may be he was just saying, you silly silly girl, you think with your Dana nah you can speak Amharic? Here is what you get for playing smart.

Any way, here I am climbing for 2 or 3 meters, already thinking this is not that difficult, I can do it, but how on earth I am going to get down???

Once I am on top, the view is absolutely fabulous, kilometers of blue sky, kilometers of cultivated land, everything is gold in this region, it is frankly breathtaking. From now on, I have to get my shoes off. So here I am climbing in socks the last few obstacles before the mysterious church. That is how I discovered that you have more grip in socks than in walking shoes! Finally on top, I can see what every body has warned me again. An 40 centimeters wide, 4 meters long edge with its shire drop of 50 to 100 meters.

I never had vertigo, and we are only talking about a few strides. But I am finding myself hesitating. It is very intimidating. Enough, I can’t chicken out now, and more than anything, I don’t want to think yet about the descent, so I start walking again, holding the wall as strongly as I can. I risk a look: I am suspended in the emptiness, I am walking along heaven, I am as high as a bird, and I can see the entire world at my feet… I am shit scared, I have to face the wall! Any way, I am already getting at the entrance of the church.

It is a beautifully painted 13th century church with 24 pillars, small and intimate, if I could I would get married there (I have a smile just to think about my 100 guests in high heels walking up the mountain). All I can think of is Why, why here? How, how did they carve at this height? How did they paint in this darkness? Who is THAT crazy? Faith can be a very powerful tool and used appropriately, it can accomplish miracle. The priest who need 20 minutes to get there arrives fresh as the morning dew, and show us the various paintings. I miss Ben terribly as I can’t share the intense emotion that the climb has provoked.

Unfortunately, we can’t stay there all day and we are already crossing back to the human world. The way down is not that terrible, except for the famous wall, I really need to learn to differentiate my right from my left. I am down in 30 minutes, hoping that this experience will have change me forever.

If you come to Ethiopia, you have to climb that mountain, the beauty of this place can not be express with world, and I apologize for the weak attempt you can see above.