Wednesday, April 13, 2011
To be continued...
- I have hand-fed the second most dangerous predator in Africa (Harar, january 2011)
- Like Orpheus, I have been through hell, and came out alive. (lalibela, October 2010)
- I have sat on top of the world twice (east of Lalibela, October 2010, Tigray, April 2011)
- I have sang New York New York on top of the Empire State building (NYC, December 2005)
- I have survived Katrina, and got a lot more than a lousy tee-shirt out of it (Louisiana, August 2005)
- Like Orpheus, I have been through hell, and came out alive. (lalibela, October 2010)
- I have sat on top of the world twice (east of Lalibela, October 2010, Tigray, April 2011)
- I have sang New York New York on top of the Empire State building (NYC, December 2005)
- I have survived Katrina, and got a lot more than a lousy tee-shirt out of it (Louisiana, August 2005)
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.
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.
Monday, April 11, 2011
A mismatch made in heaven
As you may know, I am car sick. I have two ways to fight it, sleeping (great for short journey, boring highways and rainy days) or listening to music (works exclusively if there is lyrics). In Ethiopia of course, sleeping would really be a shame as most of the time, the car journey is a unique part of the experience. In addition, it is always sunny (remember the 13 months of sunshine?), they have no highways and no short ways either.
One of my favorite activities in a car is therefore to find the perfect music for the perfect landscape. I have noticed that Bob Dylan works perfectly well near Lalibela (with a special mention for Knocking on heavens door on top of the mountains), Muse is better for greener sites such as the North, and weirdly enough rap fits perfectly the dry land of Tigray.
However, my ipod having stopped working normally, I now can only listen to it in shuffle. And some of the song just does not fit at all, example being Michael Jackson on the way to Harar, Zazie on the way to Langano and the Wombat on the delicate road to Wenchi.
As I was driving back from the Gheralta mountain (see following post), David Getta came on (don’t ask why it is on my ipod) in the middle of the desert as we were crossing the tiny villages before the lodge. I was going to press forward when I realised how out of place the song felt in a place where they have nothing. “Get rich or die trying”, in front of houses made of cow excrements, around girls of 6 to 12 walking to the well to get water, amid young man sitting around in the same ancestral position… Here the slogan would be survive or die trying, get food of die trying, get water or die trying. I never thought David Getta would actually make me think about anything, but actually, his song made me reflect on my own materialistic approach to life. I am not going to change of course, my way of life is so different from Mulugeta from Worku in the middle of nowhere, but may be it is time for me to understand better what money really represents and what money can buy...
One of my favorite activities in a car is therefore to find the perfect music for the perfect landscape. I have noticed that Bob Dylan works perfectly well near Lalibela (with a special mention for Knocking on heavens door on top of the mountains), Muse is better for greener sites such as the North, and weirdly enough rap fits perfectly the dry land of Tigray.
However, my ipod having stopped working normally, I now can only listen to it in shuffle. And some of the song just does not fit at all, example being Michael Jackson on the way to Harar, Zazie on the way to Langano and the Wombat on the delicate road to Wenchi.
As I was driving back from the Gheralta mountain (see following post), David Getta came on (don’t ask why it is on my ipod) in the middle of the desert as we were crossing the tiny villages before the lodge. I was going to press forward when I realised how out of place the song felt in a place where they have nothing. “Get rich or die trying”, in front of houses made of cow excrements, around girls of 6 to 12 walking to the well to get water, amid young man sitting around in the same ancestral position… Here the slogan would be survive or die trying, get food of die trying, get water or die trying. I never thought David Getta would actually make me think about anything, but actually, his song made me reflect on my own materialistic approach to life. I am not going to change of course, my way of life is so different from Mulugeta from Worku in the middle of nowhere, but may be it is time for me to understand better what money really represents and what money can buy...
Friday, March 11, 2011
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Bahir Dar, the not Nice effect
During our Christmas frenzy, the Herrmann +1 went to Bahir Dar. Bahir Dar is the capital of the Amhara region (where guess what, they speak Amharic) and is located at the source of the Blue Nile, on the biggest lake in Ethiopia believed to cover 3000 km2. Because of the lake, Bahir Dar is very much a beach resort with big avenues surrounded by palm trees, a bit like Nice in France (as it certainly was 50 years ago).
We were coming from Lalibella, the city of an old visionary king who decided to reproduce Jerusalem, the Abyssinian style, with its fantastic churches, its amazing culture, its magnificent hotel, the Tukul village and its lack of touristic vision, so it was a bit of a cultural choc. Bahir Dar is pretty but nothing really unique. The lake is impressive and apparently (we unfortunately missed that) hosts hundreds of small islands, each shelter to a monastery. Unfortunately, you need three hours of boat to get to the interesting ones and we had a busy schedule.
After an extremely quick stop at the Bahir Dar market, (might be a good attraction on Saturdays but weekdays, it is not worth mentioning), we headed to the Blue Nile Source, situated 5 minutes from the town center. After a small ride in a tuktuk, we arrived on a bridge where, our driver swore, the Blue Nile starts… well well… Great birds and an enormous hippos made the trip worthwhile, but for the rest! You can't stop on the bridge (policemen actually chased us up and down to make sure we were not taking any pictures, that was without counting on my cunning father and his under-the-arm technique!), you can not take pictures on/of/around the bridge, the water isn’t that pretty anyway and I did not see one crocodile!
That also make me think about revealing a secret to you. Hippos? Overrated. Yes they are very very very big animals, and birds do like to seat on their back, but they don’t do nothing! They don’t move, they don’t swim, they don’t eat, ours didn’t even bother making a noise! They are amazing at imitating rocks, but that is pretty much it. Oh, sorry, and they move their ears… great!
We then went on to see the Blue Nile Falls. They used to compete with the Victoria falls, apparently once the pride of Ethiopia, but an hydro-electric station has now been built and takes most of the water away from the falls. Once a month, they open the tap, and the falls regain their reputation as the Tis Abay (smoking water), or during rainy season it might be a bit more impressive. The walk to the falls is beautiful, a bit of real Ethiopian countryside life, and another Portuguese bridge made of ostrich eggs. However, it is clearly THE attraction and it is full of tourists and tourist spotters (birr, food, tee-shirt, shoes, football, children will ask you for anything they can think of!). But it was a nice afternoon, with a small boat trip to cross a branch of Lake Tana, which was most appreciated after the walk. The falls are pretty, not that impressive for big travellers, but still smoking!
We then went back to the hotel, the (in)famous Ghion hotel, apparently one of the older hotel in Ethiopia. Well, I say apparently, but surely the oldest hotel and they clearly haven’t done any thing to renovate it. We had the terrible rooms at the back, disgusting, horrible and stinking. Marion made us laugh by sleeping in her “meat bag”, protecting her from any contact with the room and Ben bravely thought for 2 seconds about taking a shower but gave up when he saw the grey/wet towels!
So here is my recommendation for you future abyssinian travelers, don’t loose too much time in Bahir Dar and definitely don’t go to the Ghion! You might want to stop by to see the monasteries on the lake, but a day is enough.
We were coming from Lalibella, the city of an old visionary king who decided to reproduce Jerusalem, the Abyssinian style, with its fantastic churches, its amazing culture, its magnificent hotel, the Tukul village and its lack of touristic vision, so it was a bit of a cultural choc. Bahir Dar is pretty but nothing really unique. The lake is impressive and apparently (we unfortunately missed that) hosts hundreds of small islands, each shelter to a monastery. Unfortunately, you need three hours of boat to get to the interesting ones and we had a busy schedule.
After an extremely quick stop at the Bahir Dar market, (might be a good attraction on Saturdays but weekdays, it is not worth mentioning), we headed to the Blue Nile Source, situated 5 minutes from the town center. After a small ride in a tuktuk, we arrived on a bridge where, our driver swore, the Blue Nile starts… well well… Great birds and an enormous hippos made the trip worthwhile, but for the rest! You can't stop on the bridge (policemen actually chased us up and down to make sure we were not taking any pictures, that was without counting on my cunning father and his under-the-arm technique!), you can not take pictures on/of/around the bridge, the water isn’t that pretty anyway and I did not see one crocodile!
That also make me think about revealing a secret to you. Hippos? Overrated. Yes they are very very very big animals, and birds do like to seat on their back, but they don’t do nothing! They don’t move, they don’t swim, they don’t eat, ours didn’t even bother making a noise! They are amazing at imitating rocks, but that is pretty much it. Oh, sorry, and they move their ears… great!
We then went on to see the Blue Nile Falls. They used to compete with the Victoria falls, apparently once the pride of Ethiopia, but an hydro-electric station has now been built and takes most of the water away from the falls. Once a month, they open the tap, and the falls regain their reputation as the Tis Abay (smoking water), or during rainy season it might be a bit more impressive. The walk to the falls is beautiful, a bit of real Ethiopian countryside life, and another Portuguese bridge made of ostrich eggs. However, it is clearly THE attraction and it is full of tourists and tourist spotters (birr, food, tee-shirt, shoes, football, children will ask you for anything they can think of!). But it was a nice afternoon, with a small boat trip to cross a branch of Lake Tana, which was most appreciated after the walk. The falls are pretty, not that impressive for big travellers, but still smoking!
We then went back to the hotel, the (in)famous Ghion hotel, apparently one of the older hotel in Ethiopia. Well, I say apparently, but surely the oldest hotel and they clearly haven’t done any thing to renovate it. We had the terrible rooms at the back, disgusting, horrible and stinking. Marion made us laugh by sleeping in her “meat bag”, protecting her from any contact with the room and Ben bravely thought for 2 seconds about taking a shower but gave up when he saw the grey/wet towels!
So here is my recommendation for you future abyssinian travelers, don’t loose too much time in Bahir Dar and definitely don’t go to the Ghion! You might want to stop by to see the monasteries on the lake, but a day is enough.
Lesson learnt the hard way...
You know how sometimes, you take things for granted, especially in the 21st century and regarding technology. Example, broadband. A fast internet may appear to be a basic human right but, in some countries such as Ethiopia, dial up is still the main source for internet, giving you a slow, very slow, way to slow access to the web.
Well, I had a similar experience with a lift. Lifts, to be operating, need electricity. So when you live in a country which suffers frequently of power cut, and you work in building without a generator, use your legs and walk the stairs or be stranded in the elevator for an indefinite amount of time!
Well, I had a similar experience with a lift. Lifts, to be operating, need electricity. So when you live in a country which suffers frequently of power cut, and you work in building without a generator, use your legs and walk the stairs or be stranded in the elevator for an indefinite amount of time!
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