Simien Mountains II

Yesterday we had the best hike of our four days here. Between 25 and 30 km long, taking about 7 hours, the hike took us to spots overlooking some of the most spectacular views I have ever seen. Some of these spots were plateaus capping 500 meter high cliffs. From these small plateaus we could stare off into the distance at the strangely shaped Simien Mountains, some of them looking like gigantic stellae.

Our hike started at our second night campsite, Geech. From Geech we trekked to Imit Gogo, a plateau at an altitude of over 3900 mts. Imit Gogo offers some of the best views in the park, and we even took a short video (which I hope to upload to the blog once we return to Egypt - sorry, can't do it because it takes way too long even in Egypt).


From Imit Gogo we hiked for about 5 to 6 hours – including a lunch break – until we reached our new campsite, Chenek. The hike started with a steep descent followed by a massive climb to a plateau located at an altitude 4070 mts. There, with a fantastic view of the park, and on the edge of a vertigo-inducing cliff, we had lunch. How many times can I say the views were incredible? Well, they were, over and over again.

After lunch, the last leg of our hike, a descent that at some points frustrated Kimmie (she kept slipping) brought us to our campsite. Along the way, we saw a large pack of baboons and even a furtive African billed wild cat.

Arrival at camp, as always, was great, with our tents set up and a snack, and later dinner, ready. To cap off a wonderful day, our guide spotted a large, male walia ibex (endemic to this park, it looks like a mix between a deer and a large goat) while we were having dinner. We ran over and were able to get some up close pictures.

This morning we slept in until 7 a.m. Over breakfast, our guide once again spotted a walia ibex. We ran over again, and this time found that a huge pack of baboons was also nearby. We spent about half an hour taking pictures and looking at the ibex and baboons. We were literally sitting right in the middle of the baboon pack, so close in fact, that one even grabbed Kimmie’s notebook and started playing with it (he soon grew tired of it, though).

After finishing breakfast we went on a short hike. The highlight of the hike was an Ethiopian wolf. This species is almost extinct, and rarely seen around these areas. Only about 600 are left on Earth, few of them in the Simien Mountains.