<< Simen Mountains - Day One - Part Two

11/25/19 - Simien Mountains - Day One - Part One

Limalimo Lodge was wonderfully comfortable. It had the best food of any of the places we stayed. We started every day with avocado toast and for lunch and dinner enjoyed the lamb shoulder, fool, meatballs in tomato sauce, chicken stew with peanuts and a version of sweet and sour fried cauliflower that reminded us of General Tso's chicken. The power was intermittent, but they ran the generator around mealtimes. We made a point of taking a shower early since they had solar heated water.

We set off for the national park. We stopped by the office in Debark to pay our admission fee. Our guide knew everyone there, and they knew him. We drove to the park entrance where we picked up our guard, armed with an AK-47. We climbed higher into the park and had teasing views of one of the escarpments, a canyon wall, surprisingly green.

We took a good long walk. Our plan of working our way up from Addis Ababa at around 8000 feet to the Simien Mountains at 10000 to 12000 feet meant we were comfortable enough with the thin air for hiking. As we walked, we were surrounded by a familiar scent. We looked down. We were walking on wild thyme, a common ground cover.

We wandered a fair ways, across fields, into wooded valleys. We had spectacular views of the escarpment and the valley below. Then, there were geladas. There was an entire field of them. They didn't seem to be bothered by us, so we watched as they whole troupe ate and groomed and did the usual primate things. There were horribly cute babies and rambunctious teenagers. We felt right at home in the Simien Mountains.


Sunrise

The morning scene

Across the fields

Wild thyme

One of the birds

A bit of a view

Wild trees

A melon like fruit

A thick billed raven

More green fields

Erosion

In the distance, geladas

They were totally unperturbed.

A baby leaping off of mom's back

Some of the gang

One of the old males

They're sometimes called lion monkeys.

Another view of the group

Mainly eating

Keywords: ethiopia