We opted for a 7-day trek in the Simien Mountains, camping overnight at Sankaber, Gich, Chenek, Sona, Mekarbye and Mulit, and finishing at Adarkay. This allowed us to continue on to Axum without back tracking to Gondar or even Debark. The last couple of days provided another experience with more opportunities to experience village culture, as we had descended into the lowlands.
In addition to our guide, we were accompanied by a Simien Mountains National Park scout (compulsory), a chef (complete with the full chef’s uniform when cooking our tasty meals!), an assistant cook and two mule men and their mules to carry the gear.
The trekking was often challenging (and we had summited Mt Kilimanjaro just six weeks earlier) with some big daily ascents and descents. Possibly our hardest day was actually a descent of 1700 metres in just four hours between Merkarbye and Mulit, very tough on the knees!
Some of the overnight campsites (we were camping in the 1800m - 3600m range) were quite cold, so make sure your sleeping bag is appropriately rated.
However, the dramatic landscape that we experienced was totally worth it, like nothing I have ever seen in my life! We reached a maximum altitude of 4200 metres. At times we were looking down at an awesome mountain range from the top of a sheer escarpment, another 500-600 metres higher. Along the way, we often met up and interacted with local villagers (e.g. being invited into a local home for a humble coffee ceremony or sitting around a campfire singing with 20 kids from the local village). Another highlight was getting up close to the Gelada baboons, which are really quite relaxed around human company. We had hoped to spot some Walia Ibex, but had no luck there.
We incorporated the trek into a longer tour of northern Ethiopia (17 days including the Simiens), visiting the historical sites at Bahar Dar, Gondar, Axum, Hawzen, Mikele and Lalibela. Our guide for the whole tour was Gismu Syum:
www.ethiopiatrek.com
gismudebark@yahoo.com
Telephone: +251 (0) 935480330.
Gismu has good English (which was a requirement for us), shared his love for, and knowledge of the Simiens as we trekked, and importantly, was fun to be with. He also assembled a good team around us (big thumbs up to chef, Sisay!), and ensured that we were safe (hats off to the scouts of the Simiens!) and as comfortable as possible.
When we were out of the Simiens, Gismu ensured that we had comfortable cars with good drivers (essential, given some of the nasty accidents we witnessed en route!). At each of the historical sites, Gismu also ensured that we had excellent local guides to help us understand the historical context behind each site, which added significant value to our visits. At some sites you may be approached by random people offering to guide you, without knowing how good they may be at this task, or even whether they are registered as guides. Don't skimp on hiring good local guides!
Ethiopia has weathered a period of unrest and civil disorder over the past six months, culminating in its government declaring a 6-month State of Emergency in early October. The Australian Government issued a "Reconsider your need to travel" alert for Ethiopia. We were concerned by this and were in regular contact with Gismu during the weeks leading up to our visit. His reassurance that we could travel safely, based on his local intelligence, gave us the confidence to proceed. We did abandon one scheduled visit based on Gismu learning of an incident there on the previous day. This actually reassured us that he was on top of the situation. We were pulled up at a number of police/army roadblocks in the Amhara region, but were usually just waved through once they realised that there were tourists in the vehicle. At no stage did we ever feel unsafe while travelling in Ethiopia.
Based on our experience, we would be happy to visit both northern and southern (we also went there) Ethiopia again under the same circumstances in safety. It's a pity that the State of Emergency has caused an unnecessary drop off in tourism. The State of Emergency has almost eliminated the civil disorder, making tourism safer (although dissidents perceived as a threat to the government are being treated harshly).
The other thing worth noting is the need to use Western Union to transfer the deposit for your tour. I was unfamiliar with it and at first was not inclined to trust the process, but this was due to never having used it. It was really quite easy to do on line and Western Union offices are widespread throughout Ethiopia. Once we were in the country, we just used ATMs as usual, although the individual transaction limits were often frustrating
