Northern Historical Route

The Simien Mountains are called the roof of Africa, with good reason. At many points you are high up on plateaus looking down on mountain ranges thousands of feet below you. Over the Christmas break from school we had the opportunity to travel through much of northern Ethiopia- including a return trip to Bahir Dar and north to Gondar and Axum. Many of the peaks in the Simien mountains are over 4,000 metres high.
A few teachers from school joined us including Jim and Andrea Rawson, Sarah's Grade 1 teacher (Miss Jennie Ruim) and a good friend from Canada, Karen Zabawa. Karen previously accompanied us on our two trips to China for our adoptions of Sarah and Rachel. She found Africa a little more challenging than China and is just now getting over her flea bites. She is also involved in other charities one of them being starthrowerfoundation.org
We had left for Bahir Dar a few days earlier than the rest of the group to meet with several leaders concerning the urban ministries program that we hope to launch next year. Since there is an exorbitant amount of red tape to go through for getting a program approved by the government, we may initially start out by teaching some English and or computers part time at a local school in Bahir Dar until we get our feet on the ground and have the time and resources to put together an official government approved urban ministries program.
After a few days the rest of the travel group joined us and we visited some of the island monasteries, blue nile falls and several other local attractions around Bahir Dar. Many people from the outlying areas still come by papyrus boat to market the same way they have for a thousand years.
New Years Eve we spent in a police station. Some say I can't go anywhere without ending up at a police station. While we were visiting a local village, where they make papyrus boats, all of our jackets were being stolen from the van. Our guide insisted we try and get them back (we were also heading for the Simien mountains where it can go below freezing). Our guide along with the local police and village elders pursued the thieves until all the jackets were returned (around midnight).
Soon we were on our way by Land Cruiser up to Gonder and from there to the Simien Mountains and Axum. Gonder was the capital of Ethiopia for 250 years with a succession of kings making their home there. There are many interesting castles and old palaces to be explored. I remember visiting Gonder years ago and seeing live lions running through the ruins. It kind of added to the adventure. Fortunately there weren't any lions this time.
From Gonder we went into the Simien mountains and then wound our way up and down spectacular mountain gorges on our way to Axum. The trip was uneventful apart from flea bites and hundreds of cock roaches appearing as soon as the lights went out. We decided to leave the light on in the bathroom to avoid "the crunch in the night".
On the route to Axum we saw lots of burned out military vehicles, remnants from the various wars Ethiopia has been involved in over the last 20 years.
Axum is the home of the Queen of Sheba, the famous Queen who visited king Solomon. The Amhara tribe claims to be descendants of the King of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. The Ark of the Covenant also is said to be in Axum guarded by the Orthodox Church.
At one time the Axumite kingdom was the most powerful in the ancient world with its kingdom extending all along the Mediteranean. Axum was also a cultural centre of a quite advanced civiliztion. We visited the Queen of Sheba's palace, her pool and varius underground tombs etc. Only about 2 or 3% of Axum has been excavated so there is still a lot of history to dig up.
We were running short of money by the time we hit Axum and we had to pool all our resources as a group to cover our hotel bills and travels in Axum. There is no using of credit cards, ATM's or any way to get money. Everything is cash only.
We are back into routines teaching at school and Sue with her Amharic studies. The girls are enjoying school and will be participating in Field Day over the next couple of days. Field Day is a long tradition at Bingham that goes back to the days when I was a student here. It is essentially a major track and field event where everyone in the school has to participate in at least two events.