Simien mountain view and camp kitchen.

We spent Easter in the Simien Mountains, it was fabulous. Six of us set off early on Friday morning. We were lucky because Gemma organised the whole thing as she had two visitors from the UK coming out. We went in more luxury than Michael and I would have allowed ourselves but I think it was worth it. We had private transport there and back (sounds grand and I was expecting a 4 wheel drive but it turned out to be one of the minibuses they use for line taxis!) and a cook! The journey there was pretty hard work – as soon as you leave Gondar you are travelling on an unpaved road for 2 – 3 hours until reaching Debark, a sizeable town and the stopping off point for the mountains. The scenery switched between spectacular views and devasted landscapes where people were trying to eek out a living. At Debark we picked up a guide, an armed scout (obligatory) and the cooks assistant and rattled on for another hour or so. A couple of hours walking from the first camp we were slung out of the bus and left to gawk.

The views are really just too much to take in – amazing crags and weathered hills rolling off into the distance. Everything looking faded, burnt out by too much sun. We walked for two full days and two half days, mostly along the edge of an escarpment – over 1,000 metres high in places. Vegetation was sparse, some giant lobelia and some erica zones like we saw in Bale but much less lush. And few trees. There were gelada baboons a plenty, huge great groups of them. They feed on grass roots and don’t seem at all bothered by humans. You could sit and watch them eating and grooming each other for hours. My favourite animal was the Walia ibex which Mabo, our scout was great at spotting.

The first camp we stayed at, Sankaber, was at 3,250 metres and we climbed to about 4,000 metres when we were walking. It was hard work but I felt the biggest effect of the altitude at night – it was quite hard to sleep. The second night was at Gich (3,600 metres), an exposed campsite – we just managed to get the tent up before a heavy hail storm. We didn’t go for Ras Dashen, the highest peak in Ethiopia and I think the fourth highest in Africa (4, 620 metres tho there is some dispute over this figure!).

Before we went I trotted (!!) off to the local clinic – I had been feeling bad for some weeks and wanted to check that I didn’t have anything too serious before heading off for the hills. Also, Michael had been diagnosed with amoeba earlier in the week and I figured whatever he had I was likely to have too. Our medical book informs us that those with amoeba can often be ill-tempered – hmm, so quite difficult to spot then! Anyhow I was relieved to find that not only did I have amoeba but also giardia! Fortunately the same evil drugs kill both so I was sent off with three days supply. Physically I feel much better.

Work brought me down to earth with a crash this morning – I had thought I had done well last week. I laid out on paper what has happened so far with Continuous Professional Development (CPD) in the college (not a lot) and what the college have promised but not delivered (rather more) and went to talk it over with my line manager. He committed himself and the head of the Staff Development Unit (SDU) to a meeting either at the end of last week or this week. I was pleased with myself for putting the monkey back where it belonged (thank you Kay Bedford) and felt much better afterwards. Needless to say the meeting didn’t happen before we went off to the mountains and this morning I discovered that my line manager had gone off to Addis for the week. Now I am trying to talk to the Dean to tell him there is a monkey loose in the college.

The monkey business, by the way, is all about responsibility. The ultimate responsibility for CPD lies with the college management but they are really neglecting it.

We’ve just had the weirdest of evenings. It’s a bit of a long story I’m afraid. Last week I bumped in to one of our neighbours. She teaches in a first cycle school and her husband is an instructor at the college. She insisted I go back with her and visit her house. While I was there, eating special, Thursday before Easter food she invited Michael and I round this evening. I went through the whole thing about us not eating meat – Easter in Ethiopia marks the end of two months fasting so meat is big. Dorro wat (chicken stew) and sheep are very high on the menu and it is almost impossible to buy anything veggie for sometime. Anyhow, we went round tonight and I don’t know if we were too early or they had just forgotten! We were almost served meat but I checked just in time! After a few strange moments the son stepped in and made us tagabino which we had with the best injera yet, freshly made and delicious. Tesfaye, the husband, teaches chemistry and spent eleven years in Russia.

Tired now. I got absolutely savaged by fleas when we in the Simien. This despite the fact we used our own tent and sleeping bags. We are fumigating everything now we are back home.

Families are fabulous aren’t they? I got two parcels today – they know me well at the post office (cries of ‘small packets for Gillian’ echo the length of the building as I am sent down to the parcel office at the back and I see familiar handwriting on the envelopes). What I want to know tho is whether I can open them now or if I must wait til my birthday?