celebrating 2 (fast! joyous!) years highland Amhara style

After two days in Lalibela town, Toni and I hiked up to the flat top of that mountain you see there. Toni hefted my bag too, but the mule man above hefted most of it. Seriously tough dude. We should have paid him more...!

Views on the way up were spectacular - this is the sister mountain. There's a monastery on top of it, but only 15-18 year old boys (monks-in-training) live there. Hard to imagine it being super serenely monastic with those kinds of residents, no? :)

We used the main foot highway passing through loads of hamlets and farms used by all villagers up to 50 km this direction from Lalibela - notice the women laden down with goods + donkeys loaded up. What we call 'hiking' or 'exercise' is what they call 'everyday life.' Honestly. If you could see how they all live! Our lives are so cushy I can't even say.

Letting some cows go past. It's a very busy road!

And this is what you see when you get to the top of the mountain - the first traditional homes (called 'tukul') of this little lodge called Hudad, where we stayed for 3 nights!

There's our tukul, with our only water source in the foreground. The place blends in to the local surrounds, so no power, no running water... the way the vast majority of Ethiopians live.

Hello! Toni taking in the morning air, viewed from the luxe inside of our tukul. Because it's 3,300 m high and on an open plateau, the nights were frigid and windy. So they supplied us with sweaters and hats made by local monks. Super warm and cozy! I lived in mine.

View from our tukul. Gah!

This is right at the entrance to the plateau, looking into the mountain - it was Saturday and the main market day in Lalibela town. All these people are going home from the market carting their goods - they can walk 2-3 days each way to get there, as Lalibela is the closest town and market option available. And there are hardly any roads through this rugged terrain. We wonder why 90% of women in Ethiopia give birth at home, unattended? Think of how spread out everyone is, clamouring for whatever land they can get to grow their crops and secure some sort of living. 85% of the economy is agriculture, and land is scarce with 80+ million people. So every inch of these mountains is claimed and tilled, even up to 3500m.

View from the top.

The lodge we stayed at has just 4 tukuls, and a little cooking area where local women cook DELISH food over an open fire. Here we're making injera, the typical bread (see the domed, roundish pan shape?)

There was a copy of John Steinbeck's complete short novels at the lodge - some previous traveller left it. Score! I read through three of them. 'The Pearl' felt particularly apropos. I kept thinking of you, Leslie - knowing you love Steinbeck!

Squinty but happy. Yay for being married! Can't believe how the time has flown. This is our 3rd country and 3rd continent to call home since getting hitched. Mad, no? So happy I found someone who will do this all with me. It's heaps better together.

lalibela!

We got a last-minute 5am ride to Lalibela from Bahir Dar in this guy's truck. The landscape between was stunning, loads of craggy mountains and farms, farms, and more farms. The road was quite decent except for the last 70 km on dirt/gravel, and you're having to slow down all the time because of wayward cows, donkeys, sheep, etc. It is farmland, after all!

Our car needed a tire change - lots of gravel roads! Meet our fellow traveller: this super nice American dude (from Ventura!) who has been backpacking straight for 7 years. !!!

Lalibela! We made it in the evening, then were at the churches 7:30 am the next morning. This is how you enter the first complex (there are 3 main complexes, all connected by underground tunnels and passageways). The church pictured is by far the largest of all 12 in Lalibela, and the largest monolithic church anywhere in the world. Look at it! All carved direct down into the stone sometime between the 11th-13th centuries by King Lalibela (thus the town's name). You can see that honking lip of stone to the right, between the two main courtyards. Locals say it took 25 years to carve them all with the help of angels. Archeologists say 125 years, with up to 40,000 people. Ai ai ai.

The stone is a very pretty pinkish red, contrasted best by all of the priests and locals walking around draped in the typical Ethiopian white gabi.

One of the many carved passageways - madness!

There we are looking so cute in front of another of the churches, Bet Maryam (dedicated to Mary): the most popular with worshipers. These massive metal pillars are used to support new roofs built by UNESCO to protect the churches from erosion. Ethiopia gets 3 straight months of heavy rains, and the ceilings are starting to show it!

The inside of Medhane Alem church (again - all carved into the mountain! c'mon!). Priests in the middle chanting - gorgeously surreal. The whole thing is more transportive than most anything I've ever done.

Mary's church again - priests are ALSO chanting outside as well. To become an Orthodox priest, you have to memorise loads of holy books of the Bible, and the way they do it is through sing-chanting en masse.

Me in one of the caverns between 2 churches. Gorge - in both senses of the word.

Bet Giorgis is the only church that hasn't been covered by UNESCO roofs because it's drainage system is quite good - you can see the gutters on the roof! So it makes for perhaps the most impressive of all the clusters. It's incredibly precise, and seriously too beautiful to creep up on as you walk through the town.

There we are again on the lip of Giorgis - the guide we had was super rad, and also a stellar photographer! :)

Man reading the Bible in the door to some of the monk's homes.

The yellow gabi is for a monk or hermit in training. He's also carrying what looks like a thermos of tej, the local honey beer.

This church they think was originally carved as King Lalibela's palace. Check out how deep it is!

I loved this one - only partially monolithic as the mountain was still attached to the roof, but it was carved all around, and of course inside. But it was so pink! Like a Sadie or Stella church :)

This last picture is from a cliff 3 hours' hike from Lalibela where we visited the very first carved church, Ashete Maryam (I instagrammed it!). These priests live in these homes carved direct into the rock behind them to the left - you can see steps entering in. Mind you it's about 3000m+ too! It's just such an amazing place. None of these pictures can capture it fully!

there's much more than instagram can say!

Toni and I have been traveling across the historic northern route in Ethiopia the last weeks - as evident from instagram feed - and it has been incredibly interesting, eye-opening, and all around gorgeous. I can't limit sharing to instagram! There's too much - and I want it documented for posterity.

First I'll blog about our first stop, Bahir Dar and Lake Tana. This is the lake with loads of medieval monasteries clustered about the shorelines and islands.

We were actually there for work - we are still doing research for our phds and all that! Here's the proof: Toni on his laptop, in this cool house we stayed in before we were booted out to live behind a (loud) restaurant without running water. Such is life! No biggie.

When we were on the lake, this utter flotilla of the local papyrus boats came towards us - you can see them dotted along into the horizon. They were all filled with wood - destination Bahir Dar or the monasteries or both. Super surreal!

Toni looking pensive in our boat - passing island monasteries and more papyrus boats.

 

You walk from the shore through wild coffee groves (the short trees) and Acacias (the big trees). Gorg.

Exterior of the monastery - looks quite "plain" from the outside. Toni taking off his shoes to go in.

The first layer of the monastery once you enter, representing the Holy Spirit - the next level in is Jesus Christ, and last the Holy of Holies is Heavenly Father. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church believes the Trinity are 3 separate beings. Neat, eh?

 

This is what you see when you walk in - amazing! The paintings circle all round the Holy of Holies, which only priests and monks are allowed into. They keep a replica of the Ark of the Covenant in each one - the real one of course is in Axum, Northern Ethiopia :)

The doors were almost the coolest part - huge and from one solid piece of wood. Original from the 15th century. !!!

One of the monks at another monastery we visited showing the various 800+ year old books and crosses (and menorah!) of visiting Kings. Rad.

...next stop Lalibela...!