Ethiopia: Gondar

We transferred to Gondar by road from Bahir Dar, which was a pleasant drive. We stayed at Mayleko Lodge which is very close to Gondar airport but a bit out of town.  That said, it is a beautiful lodge and the best pick of the accommodation available in this area.  We were lucky to be offered an upgrade here too – to a beautiful thatched cottage.  The staff are super friendly and the food from the restaurant is great.  We didn’t use the pool but there is one, should you wish.  The grounds are filled with beautiful birds, plants and flowers; we even saw a cow strolling past our cottage one evening!

Trying to stick to our plan to use local guides and contacts, we asked the lodge for an introduction to someone who could help us to organise our next few days. They recommended Grum, who was amazing – one of the highlights of our trip. Grum is professional, friendly, funny and made our stay a delight. He usually works at one of the churches as a guide but he can arrange for you to visit anywhere in the area and is extremely knowledgeable and well connected.  On our first day we visited the royal enclosure with all its fascinating castles. Now we know why they call it the Camelot of Africa.  The history of these castles and their emperors is fascinating and gives a real insight into Ethiopian culture and times gone by, aside from the beauty of the architecture itself.  We also visited the swimming pool complex of emperor Fasiladas, which is a feat of engineering like none we’d seen before and shouldn’t be missed.

The church of Debre Birhan Selassie was another highlight, where we saw more beautiful paintings and explored the walled grounds. This church is famous for its ceiling paintings which feature angels.

We ate lunch at the Four Sisters restaurant which we highly recommend; the food and service were great and the venue itself is quirky and a nice place to while away a couple of hours.

The following day Grum drove us 1 hour out of Gondar to visit the rural town of Gorgora, which sits on the other side of Lake Tana.  We had a walking tour with a local guide who took us around the working port/harbour and then to a very ancient monastery.  Along the way we were lucky to spot many beautiful birds.  After the walk we were invited to take a walk through the local village, where we were able to take a closer look at rural life.  One lady beckoned us over to watch her make injera. We discovered that any house with a bottle or can on a stick outside, is a local brewery.  We were invited into one of these breweries, where we met a lovely local lady who makes her own beer from her very humble home; this was a real experience.

Lessons Learned and Anecdotes….

At the church, we climbed a tower with a small room at the top, where we were told that we may be able to meet the priest. When we reached the top, we found a monk and a lady frantically washing some paper money notes, one at a time. The money had a bright orange colour … it turned out that someone had accidentally dropped the daily offerings into a pot of stew and they were desperately trying to rescue what they could. Oops!

Kezia is half Italian which made for an awkward moment at the castle complex when our guide pointed out that the reason one of the castles looked so different was that during the Italian occupation, the Italians decided to try to “restore” some of Ethiopia’s ancient monuments to make them into luxury dwellings. They did this by pouring concrete all over them and then trying to install modern windows and doors. What they did to these national treasures is horrendous and caused a huge amount of damage.  We were then directed to a crumbling pillar where the grand entrance to the royal enclosure used to be… until the British bombed it trying to get the Italians out. In the process of trying to liberate the city they damaged some parts of the historical site; (opinions that this was an improvement on the Italians work may be unfounded) not our proudest moment.

We were told that the best time to visit the swimming pool complex is at Timkat, the Ethiopian Orthodox celebration of Epiphany. It is celebrated on January 19, corresponding to the 10th day of Terr following the Ethiopian calendar. Timkat celebrates the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River. On this day each year, the pool is filled with water which is blessed by a priest before worshipers jump (in their hundreds) into the pool as part of the celebrations. We saw a video of this and it looks truly incredible. It also features on a postcard we bought from a priest….