3rd of June
We are getting up at 05.00h this morning since there will be quite some traveling today. Wake-up call tea is served together with the hot water for the shower at 05.30h. We pack up, have breakfast and leave the bwindi lodge as planned at 06.30h. Moses drives really well and we are at the airstrip at 07.30h when the sun is coming up. Getting some relief in the small building next to the runway, loading up the cessna and we are airborne in no time. Mike does a wonderful take-off since the airstrip is a bit hairy; turning quietly left while trees are on the right.
We fly over the fertile land and many houses as settlements remind us that uganda is one of the most densely populated countries of africa. Clouds are building up and all of a sudden we have rain! The first time on our journey!! Mike‘s landing in entebbe is a fabulous as his take off in kayonza; the rain on the runway is coming down real heavily now! We taxi to our plane and somebody has to get the umbrella there. We all get our shoes off, roll up the trousers, move the baggage over and wait for the handler. Our first tropical rainstorm and we feel accordingly; soaking wet.
Everything dries up pretty quickly, we take off in the rain, climb up to 19‘000 feet and since the winds have mercy with us, are able to fly directly over the clouds to addis ababa. There ground handling is extremely slow; we wait for 1 hour for fuel, another 1/2 hour for the hotel bus and finally are in the wonderful sheraton. Again our standards with high speed internet access. So welcome back folks! Read our diary of the last 3 days and look at some interesting pictures of gorillas!
To be continued; now i need a shower first. But unfortunately i have a lot of problems with the server to upload the gorilla pictures. Sorry folks – i keep on trying.
4th of June
Religion and intense pride in ethiopia‘s past resonate loudly within most people here. To them, ethiopia has stood out from all african nations and proved itself utterly unique – home to its own culture, language, script, calendar and history.
Ethiopia‘s human history dates back at least 4.4 million years, landing it squarely in east africa‘s heralded cradle of humanity. Recorded history dates back to 1500 bc. The kingdom of aksum, ranking among the ancient world‘s most powerful, rose shortly after 400 bc. Its capital, aksum, sat in a fertile area between egypt, sudan‘s gold fields and the red sea. It flourished on trade, exporting frankincense, grain, skins, apes and particularly, ivory. In turn, exotic imports returned from egypt, arabia and india.
The 4th century bought christianity, which enveloped aksum and would shape ethiopia‘s future spiritual, cultural and intellectual life. The zagwe dynasty eventually rose around lalibela in 1137. Although only lasting until 1270, it produced arguably ethiopia‘s greatest treasures: the rock-hewn churches of lalibela.
After breakfast, we take off to the airport and reach lalibela in less than an hour flying. It is amazing to see the mountains, canyons, high plains. We fly over some very remote settlements, some of them on over 4‘400 meters. This is the altitude where the swiss alps stop; here we have people living. No wonder they produce such excellent long distance runners, growing up on such heights!
We land in lalibela and after some short discussions with the security guy, we hire a guide and driver and set off to see the monolithic churches. The road goes up pretty steep and we encounter big crowds of students that come home from school. We reach lalibela around 12.00h and learn that the churches are closed from 12.00h to 14.00h. So off to lunch first. Then we stroll through downtown along the main road; which is actually just a dirt road. We are amazed how poor the place is. But people are very friendly, talk to us and the kids are waving.
The 11 magnificent, medieval rock hewn churches are an ancient world of its own. The dimly lit passageways, hidden crypts and grottoes was carved into the red volcanic rock almost a millennia ago by the zagwe dynasty. They are not carved into the rock, but freed entirely from it! Lalibela, a world heritage site, ranks among the greatest religious-historical sites in the christian world.
The churches are open now at 14.00h but people are still praying and have services. It is mystical: to me the chant of the priest really sounds moslem like. The people are wrapped up in veils, man and women pray in different rooms; one really feels back a couple of hundred years.
For me the amazing thing is the similarity between this religion here and the islam. The chants are very much the same (reminded me of the sunrise over cairo i have seen), the people are dressed pretty much the same way, graves are facing east/west, etc. The swastika that one can see here i have been encountered in buddhist temples in the far east. Maybe all religions go back to the same root and all the wars and millions of deaths in the name of religions were for nothing?
This area is also the roots of the reggae movement. We are told by our guide that the music in the countryside really sounds that way. And people there have no idea of bob marly or peter tosh.
The last church we see is the most important one: the church of st. George. The priests opens it up for us and does not seem to be too much happy about it. But we have to go back to the airport anyway since we want to be back in addis before dawn.
After an hour we land in addis ababa, drive back to the hotel and i try again to upload the pictures; unsuccessfully. It is a mystery to me but such is it. Sorry folks
