Gondar - "The Camelot of Africa"

I decided to stay at Queen Taitu Pension in Gondar as it is close to the castle area and near the center of the town. It sits right across from the Taye hotel, the upscale place in Gondar. Queen Taitu Pension looked and smelled not too great, but I figure I will probably stay one night and then find a better option if I can’t get goto Simien tomorrow.

 

The first order of business after dropping off my backpack in the hotel was to get something to eat. The pension person recommended the Quara hotel. The hotel restaurant is a nice terrace near the top of the hotel overlooking the city center. The price and the meal were decent, and with mix of foreigners and Ethiopians. After the lunch it was time to find a Simien mountain trekking tour that I can join for tomorrow. I first went to couple of the nearby tour companies, but they have no people, so it will be over $1000 for one person 4-days trek. Then I went to Lonely Planet Thorn Tree travel forum to see if other travelers were in Gondar currently and looking for people. I did find a Norwegian named Rasmus, looking for travelers around the same dates. So I emailed him and went to look for other agencies. Again not having any luck with agencies, I decided to call an Ethiopian guide named Yalew that I have contacted by email before my trip. He had good reviews online and his price was reasonable even for one person (fall back option). To my surprise Yalew said he has a German couples going tomorrow on a 7-day trek (highland down to the lowland) and I can join them for the first 4 days. Yalew came over to my hotel and explained the trek itinerary and how much it would cost. It would cost me $450 for everything, including round trip transportation from/back to Gondar. He also said another person might be joining us, and if the person shows up, then my cost will go down a little. The funny thing is that this person turned out to be Rasmus. He is doing 7-days a well.

With my Simien trek taking care of and the last uncertainty of my trip resolved, it was time for me to see the highlights of the city. But before that I went to Ethiopian airlines office to book flights from Bahir Dar to Addis and Addis to Harar – a crazy quick turnaround of about 8 hours between flights with overnight sleep in Addis, something to worry about later.

Gondar was once an imperial capital, and is nicknamed "The Camelot of Africa". There are three highlights to see and 2 are within walking distance of the downtown. First is the Royal enclosure that contains a group of royal castles from the 17^th and 18^th centuries. It was after 3PM when I got there, not too many people around, so I enjoyed my wondering among the castles and ruins. Afterward, I made my way to Debre Birhan Selassie Church. It is renowned for its intricately painted cherubs on the ceiling as well other painted religious images on the wall. I arrived in the late afternoon, about half an hour before closing time, the sun shined through the normal dark church at this hour so it was a good photo opportunity.

Back in town center, I met up with Yalew and Rasmus who just arrived from Bahir Dar and was looking for a place to stay, but by this time Queen Taitu Pension only had a room without a working light bulb. After getting cash from a bank and dinner at Quara, where we met the German couple by coincidence, Rasmus decided to stay at Quara for the night, with that I headed back to Taye hotel to meet a Canadian couple I met earlier @ Debre Birhan Selassie Church for a drink. They were staying at Taye. I did ask how much it would cost to stay here, and at around $60 a night with possible discount, tempting…. I waited a little bit before the couple arrived back at Taye, the service at local restaurant they went to was slow, so they ran a little late. I told them I was a little late as well, so didn’t wait too long. We exchanged our Ethiopian travel stories as well others. They have been to Danakil as well but didn’t goto the volcano, but they will head to the Omo valley to see the local colorful tribes. She prepared couple thousand of single birr bills to pay the villagers for photos – 2 birrs per photo. She is a photographer and has special interests in baobab trees and traveled to many places in the world. Here is link to her website. They graciously paid for my tea and gave me post cards designed with their artwork. Since we all have early start tomorrow morning, we wished each other safe and fun journey ahead. I headed back to my crappy hotel across the street – telling myself I need an upgrade soon!