During our Danakil tour, few us expressed interest in seeing
the rock churches near Mekele. I was
told before the tour that it would cost about $100 to do a day trip to see 3
rock churches. So more people the
cheaper it is per person. I had
entertained the idea of one way trip to visit the churches and ending in Axum,
my next destination. But the price $200
per car is too high for me. After getting an idea on what everyone’s plan is
for after the tour, we ended up with Merijn, Katie, Hunter, plus Noam, who
still in Mekele. So it is $20 per person, which is much reasonable. Others in the Danakil tour all had plan of
leaving Mekele the next morning.
The driver for the church visits turned out to be our driver
to Danakil. The way to the churches took
the same poorly constructed paved road as to Danakil. Chinese has been building new roads in
Ethiopia for a while now, you will see their typical blue shirt and straw hat
standing in the construction zone and directing the work. This road in particular, is already warping,
so typical of cheap and fast Chinese made goods.
Anyway our first stop is Abune Yemata Guh church near
Gheralta Lodge. The landscape we passed
reminded us of American Southwest, but with wheat fields and other farmland. After we reached the parking area for the church,
our driver pointed us up to the rock formation that is about 10 minutes away,
it looked to us just some vertical rock formation, but he insisted that the
church in up there, this is going to be fun and interesting. As we got out of our suv, and were met by a
local person that introduced himself as a guide from local association of
guides. He insisted that we needed a
guide to visit the church. We asked our
driver, and he said that we could visit without a guide, but he stayed out the
discussion. As we continue to walk toward the base of the outcrop, the guide
followed us. We were met by the ticket
person there, and at this point another group of tourists were coming down from
the outcrop, and we asked them if they got a guide, but they had hire a person
from where they from, so they didn’t get a guide here. Anyway, Hunter forcefully told the so call
guide that we didn’t need one, and the guide threaten to call the police on
us. We ignored his threat and begin our
trek up the rock. The guide didn’t
follow, but we were followed by another local elderly person, but he is not
pushy and just seems to tag along.
After a short steep climb we reached a vertical face with
hand/foot holds, and there were also many local people sitting around, ready to
help the foreigner up the rock face (with expectation of tips of course). We
were asked to take off our shoes and with custom of visiting any churches in
Ethiopia. So one by one the local people
helped us up the rock face. One of them even took my backpack. Once we were up
the rock face, we then negotiated a small 1.5 foot wide ledge with long
vertical drop off to reach the church’s entrance. The priest at the entrance
just stand there until we offered him a tip to open the door to the church
(another common practice), he didn’t want to open the door until we offered the
amount to his satisfactory.
The church itself is decorated with nice paint on the wall,
pillars, and ceiling. We were all busy taking photos. Soon we were on our way
back down through the vertical wall and again with help of the local
people. Katie, who works in high places,
was hoping around the rocks and along the edge, to the amazement of the local
people. With quick thanks and tips to the local people, we headed back down to
find our suv. The church itself might
not be that interesting, but the journey to get there and the dramatic setting
of the church are the highlights of this church. The so call guide or any police was not there
waiting for us when we got down, so I guess you don’t need a guide.
We then head back toward Mekele, but stopped along the way
for couple more churches. The first one is
Abreha We Atsbeha Church and it is perched nicely up on a small hill, but with
a steep entrance fee of $8, we all decided not worth the money, so we just take
pictures from the outside. According a
notice in English, the price was raised by 50% percent unanimously by the
church’s leaders in June, so we unanimously decided not to pay! It is one thing to pay foreigner price for
almost everything, but to be overcharged on top of the foreigner price is just
too much and greedy (common theme in Ethiopia).
Ethiopians might consider foreigner as atm with two legs, but we can
exercise the rights of not giving out any cash if we so choose.
Finally we got to the last church, Chirkos, in the town
Wurko, the entrance price is same as Abune Yemata Guh, but most people decided
not to pay to go in. I said to myself, this is the last of the rock churches I
will be visiting in the area, so why not check it out, so only Katie and I
decided to go see the this semi-monolithic.
While others chatted with locals outside, the priest took us
inside. There aren’t any repairs made to
this church (damage few hundreds ago by Muslim invader Ahmed Gragn) and there is
also water seepage too. But all in all this is not a bad end to our visit to
the Tigray rock churches.
On the way back to Mekele, we stopped for drinks, Merijn and
I ordered early dinner (or very late lunch)
After we got by to Mekele, everyone just parted their ways
to dinner (I had another dinner couple hours after the first one), internet,
shower, etc. We all expected to leave
Mekele early the next morning, except Noam who is still waiting for a tour to
Danakil.
