Ethiopia part 1; Addis and Gondar

Hello Readers,

Thanks for joining me again and I hope your July is going according to plan.

I recently had the pleasure of visiting Ethiopia which has been on my bucket list for a while! We did a quick 8-day northern loop so to say but I have decided to split the blog into two pieces since I feel like I have quite a lot to say.

We started our journey by landing in Addis and spending a night there. Our hotel was rather close to the airport so that we could easily proceed with our journey towards Gondar. I have recently started using inspirock (https://www.inspirock.com/) as a planning tool. Not really to make travel arrangements but to mostly see how much time you must reserve for each destination/ attraction. Our aim for Gondar was to see the ancient palaces and historic monuments in town and then spend a day hiking the Simien Mountains which are 100 km outside Gondar.

Gondar is a northern, quite remote and a poor city in Ethiopia. It used to be the capital in the 1600s and has the ruins of:

Fasil Ghebbi (old emperor’s fortress) / Royal Enclosure / Palace (200 birr entrance/ 7 e)

This is all in one location near the city centre. You can take your time strolling around the ruins and visiting the buildings. Locals are offering guiding services but I didn’t feel like they were necessary to enjoy the experience fully.

Debre Birhan Selassie (church) (100 birr entrance/ 3.5 e)

The church itself is rather small but has some famous religious paintings. Some of them have been restored and it isn’t possible to freely enjoy the space as the priests are following you closely. I would still recommend seeing it; value for money.

Fasilides’ Bath House (same entrance tickets as for the palace)

This was our favourite place and luckily we managed to visit it right on the lunch hour so we had the entire place to ourselves. The bath is actually still in use for a three-day celebration every January when it’s packed with locals and tourists receiving blessings for the year.

Kusquam (church) (100 birr entrance/ 3.5 e)

This is a difficult tuk-tuk ride away on a hill that is occupied by beggars. The church itself gave us the creeps and as we were followed by a random person asking us for money, we decided to leave. I would not recommend this one; gloomy and uncomfortable. I don’t even have a photo of the place as we didn’t want to take our phones out and left so quickly.

We booked a tuk-tuk driver to drive us around for the day for 500 birr which equals to 17 e. They apparently have fixed rates; to stop at four attractions is 500 birr and three would have been 400 birrs. I wish we would have skipped the Kusquam church as a waste of time. Our driver was lovely and also drove us to Goha Hotel which has a view over the whole city from their terrace.

The next day our trip to the Simien Mountains occurred. Our hotel recommended us a trip for 90 USD per person including all costs; two-hour ride to the national park, entrance fee, guide and a ranger as well as a lunch package.  Considering that it was the rainy season, I would say that the trip was overpriced as the weather was a major factor in the hike. What was meant to be a three-hour hike turned out to be an hour, we also hiked to see the 70-meter waterfall which was completely covered in a cloud. Luckily, we managed to catch the view from the right points and saw plenty of the Gelada Baboons and a Simien fox.

We also visited the outside market and ate at the Four Sisters Restaurant after a recommendation and enjoyed them.

All in all, I was very happy with our trip to Gondar and managed to tick off all those things I wanted to experience from the list. Gondar isn’t a luxurious destination but is rich with people, culture and history and one should approach it with the appropriate mindset. The locals still use a lot of horses as transportation and donkeys as carriers, the city revolves around agriculture. It also gets rather cold during the rainy season and the buildings are cold too. I think the locals handle it very well as the hotel didn’t have any spare blankets to give even though the rooms were very breezy.

 I love travelling outside the main seasons as you will have more peace and quiet to enjoy the places but if I were given another chance, I would reserve more time for the Simien National Park just to ensure that you get the whole experience. It is actually completely possible to drive across the national park without any hiking and there are many local villages there so it doesn’t exactly correspond with what I think of when I think of a national park. The waterfall by walking is a two-day walk away from the entry and the famous Simien Walia Ibex can only be found in one part of the park which is miles away from the roads.

Best wishes,

Mira

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