May 15, 2024 Wednesday

The official description of the day

The O.A.T. booklet described the day as follows:

Morning: Set off on a full-day wildlife trek in the Simien Mountains National Park. Simien teems with a variety of extremely rare animals, including the Simien fox and the Walia Ibex, a goat found nowhere else in the world. Sometimes called “monkey mountain,” the Simien range is also home to large troops of geladas, a gregarious species of Old-World monkeys found only in the Ethiopian highlands.

Lunch: Enjoy a picnic lunch amidst the beautiful mountain scenery.

Afternoon: Continue our wildlife trek for another few hours before returning to the Lodge.

I don’t know when we left for the hike, but it was after breakfast. While dinners were prix-fixe, breakfast was something you could order. Once again, I stayed with the safe omelet with tomatoes and cheese.

Experience of the hike

The beginning of the hike was a van ride to the park. Melaku once again had to hire two guards and a guide. All of whom carried rifles. The same guy whom I had accused the day before of not knowing how to walk with a rifle was with us again. Too bad.

There were two options for the walk in the morning. Those who were exhausted or didn’t want to take the long walk could stay in the van and go on a shorter walk farther along the road. Since I’d about died on the walk the day before, I opted to stay in the van with a few others. John, Becky, and the boys went on the long hike. Those of us staying with the van dropped them off with the guide and the guards and drove to another spot where Melaku took us on a shorter hike.

Monkeys

The views were spectacular—mountain after mountain. We walked awhile and caught up with the road and the van. Not too far off, we did indeed see the geladas. They were beautiful. They mostly walked on all fours and had a full mane of flowing, shiny hair from their head to their midsection. Their manes shifted from side to side as they walked. Seeing them doing their own thing in the wild was thrilling.

First, we saw what Melaku thought was a bunch of bachelors. Soon, we came upon a mixed troop further up the road. There must have been at least fifty individuals, many females with babies on their backs. They all foraged as they walked. Our presence didn’t seem to bother them at all. We tried to stay back and not infringe on them. We must have been successful because they ignored us. I got lots of pictures.

John, the intrepid hiker

The van stopped at our lunch stop, a flattish area with some trees. We waited for the rest of our intrepid group to show up. It was fun that we could see them farther down the mountain as they made their way to us.

The group voted John, the most intrepid hiker of the tour. Everyone else was either younger, used hiking poles, or sat out some hikes. John walked every hike without poles—not me. I bailed on this one. I was proud of his stamina.

Lunch

We settled under some trees and ate lunch. I found a rock for a stool. At breakfast, the kitchen staff told us our sandwich choices. Nothing sounded good to me. Becky had some peanut butter, and I said that would be best for me.

Melaku, the driver, and the guide/guards pulled out two large plastic containers packed with our lunches. One container contained water bottles, and sandwiches were in the other, which were labeled by name and handed out. My peanut butter sandwich was dry, but I’d asked for it, and I was hungry. I ate half of it, which was all I’d have eaten of any other sandwich.

Melaku asked us to be careful not to leave any crumbs for the wildlife to get into. The kitchen had packed us some prune cake for dessert. I ate half of that and wasn’t sure I liked it.

“Bathroom” time and another hike

After lunch, we had another open-air pit stop. I did my best to pick my way into the trees to pull my pants down and go with getting it on my clothes and flashing my butt at anyone. Once again, I didn’t litter the ground with the tissue, but we had a trash bag to put it in this time. I must say that one has to be flexible when traveling to places that don’t have the same sanitary facilities as we have in most of the States. Of course, you face the same issues if you hike in any wilderness, such as the Adirondacks.

After lunch, we took another hike, which I joined. It wasn’t long because I think Melaku knew we were exhausted. We saw a big, muddy waterfall.

Peddlers

On our way down the mountain from our hike, we were discovered by some locals who wanted to sell us their wares. Melaku insisted they lay out what they wanted to sell and not get into people’s faces. He said his guests would look at the offerings and decide if we wanted to buy something. I bought one of the round discs mainly to reward them for doing as Melaku asked.

Home again, home again

Then we drove back to the Lodge for some rest and dinner. During our rest time, Sam and Micah discovered a rope swing that went out over a ravine and then swung back to the path. Becky was with them, so I decided they weren’t likely to kill themselves. I took a picture of them inspecting the swing and some videos of them swinging.

I don’t remember what was for dinner except that the soup was pumpkin. I said, “No, thank you.”

After dinner, we hung out in the restaurant’s bar at the back of the lounge, which had sofas and tables in front of a fireplace. The boys brought the Uno cards, so we played with Josephine and Ebony.

One funny thing that happened was that one of the members of our party, an older adult, got up to get another beer. Sam said, “You are getting another beer?” Everyone laughed. I said out loud, “I’m glad we’re all family now.” My concern was that his comment might offend people, but they thought he was funny. I know why Sam was surprised. The only adults who drink beer around him are his father, and Kevin usually drinks about half of a beer when he has one.

Storm

While in the Lodge, the weather turned to hard rain with thunder and lightning. We decided we’d best get back to the rooms. The staff gave several of us lanterns. John had already gone to our room, and one of the employees walked me back. He carried a large umbrella over our heads, and I carried the lantern.

He slipped as we came around a curve in the walkway to the cabin, and I twisted my ankle a bit. It didn’t hurt much. I was worried more about him. He said he was fine. He walked me to the door of our place. I thanked him, and he took the umbrella back to the lobby. John let me in when I knocked. I was wet and glad to be able to get into some dry clothes and under the covers of the bed. The following day, I took the lantern back to the main building.

As I said in the last post, the room we stayed in was rammed earth, meaning it was well-soundproofed. However, the thunder boomed loudly. Also, the rain on the tin roof was noisy. I got under the covers and looked out the wall of windows across from the bed, propped up on the pillows, listening to the rain and watching out the black windows for the sudden light of the lightning. Even when I was expecting it, I’d still startle every time there was thunder. It was a unique experience. Eventually, I got sleepy, and I turned over to sleep.

The next day, we headed back for Gondar and the adventure on the internet for Becky’s class.