Days 17, 18, 19 - from Stone Town to Fumba Beach: Wow!

After breakfast the next morning we packed again (almost the last time) and were ready for the mid-morning transfer to our next accommodation... Fumba Beach Lodge.
Half an hour's drive from the traffic of Stone Town, the peninsula of Fumba is on the western side of the island, near the southern end, and Fumba Beach Lodge is set on a secluded strip of seashore with absolute waterfront and effectively private beaches. The west coast is calm, facing the African (Tanzanian) mainland several km across the water. At night you can just see the lights of the Port of Dar Es Salaam on the horizon.
This is truly a little slice of paradise, where the major concern is that you must shut the big heavy double sliding doors (timber slats & mosquito wire) at the front of your thatched hut whenever not in the immediate vicinity so that the local troop of monkeys does not come inside to play. They are quite destructive to linen, mosquito nets, etc and we were warned that the mess takes some cleaning up!
The sea water was great fo swim in at around 26 degrees, and the infinity pool is set amongst mature palms and tropical flowering plants. There is a bar made from an old beached dhow, and several levels of tree house built over the water around the roots, bough, and upper limbs of an ancient baobab tree.
The atmosphere was tranquil, with the capacity of around 50 guests probably half-full, good food and great company! The tariff included breakfast and dinner, so added costs were minimal once we were there.
Over the couple of days here we rested, reading a book in a hammock slung between a couple of pandanus or coconut palms, swimming, visiting the spa, or chatting with other guests or the manager. We met and enjoyed the company of a Scottish couple (Graeme and Candy) who manage a safari lodge in mainland Tanzania. Listening to them, it sounds like another place to add to the list; imagine the experience of a beachside location adjacent to a national park with lions, elephants, etc almost at your door. But that's a dream for another day...

Day 16 - exploring Zanzibar

Today we had booked a 6 hour excursion with "Zanzibar Different Tours". Our guide met us at the hotel and led us - with the ease of a local -  through the twisty little streets straight to the beach we had found yesterday.
The first activity on the agenda was a boat trip in a traditional Zanzibar Dhow. It was full moon with corresponding extreme low tide, so we were careful where we went - initially with the small outboard on this heavy old sailing vessel, and then the sail was raised and the rest of our journey was completed under sail. Quite an experience, with the traditionally-rigged boat quite unlike anything we have seen much less sailed in before.
To reach our destination (a ruined sultan's palace on the water's edge) we had to let the boat run aground on a low-tide mudflat and wade / squelch our way ashore. The old palace was fascinating, and the stories of past glory and recent neglect run parallel with the recent history of the island of Zanzibar.
Next we were off to a traditional morning coffee served on the lawn of an old grand mamsion fronting an idyllic beach - and now serving as a Steiner School.
The coffee and local delicacies were set up and served just for us. From there we were raken to the top of the highest hill on the island, where the deep rich red volcanic soil is home to an organic spice (and tropical fruit) farm. We were taken on a walking tour to see and sample all of the different products, from scrapings of a cinnamon tree's bark and then roots to a spectacularly collected green coconut each for drinking the water and eating the still-soft flesh.
This was followed by lunch at the home of a local lady called Maryam who had cooked a selection of typical dishes as eaten by "ordinary" folk here.
Lunch concluded our tour and we were escorted back to our hotel.
We did a little more local exploring (and losing ourselves in the maze - but this time we found our way without help) and otherwise had a quiet afternoon, again enjoying the sunset from our rooftop terrace and dining there as well.
The evening "bed turn-down" service at this hotel includes pulling the mosquito net canopy around the bed and setting the internal ceiling fan going. Nice touches...

Day 15 - goodbye to Ethiopia; hello Zanzibar

Our last morning in Addis was an early one. The airport transfer picked us up at 6:40am, and after a short drive with little traffic we were at the airport, and going through the layers of security, immigration and customs control. We were in plenty of time for our flight apart from the last security queue at the boarding gate area. Here we were told we were too early and to come back in half an hour. We returned to the queue after 20 minutes or so, and now the queue was so much longer and slower that we were at risk of missing the flight!
We were eventually called forward into a shorter line and got through OK. The flight was great, we had around 100 people on a brand new Boeing 787 "dreamliner"..
On the ground in tropical Zanzibar, we entered a different world!
Our hotel was in a maze of twisty little passages between colonial-era grand and humble houses, hotels, mosques, and madrasas. This area in the Zanzibari capital of Stone Town is called Old Town, and to reach the hotel (or to leave for any reason) involves walking for several very confusing blocks in streets and alleys too narrow for cars. We were safely delivered to our hotel by the transfer driver as he led us through between potholes full of water, bicycles, scooters, businesses spilling their wares into the street, children in school uniforms, men and women in cultural / religious dress, and stray cats!
We got lost every time we came or went between our hotel and the rest of the town but it was fun! Tried buying a map but the streets have no names :-) .
The hotel itself was fascinating in many ways...
The name and history are interesting - Swahili House. Originally built in the 19th century as home to a wealthy Arab merchant and his family, it was later owned by an Indian businessman who started using it as a hotel. Internally renovated over recent years, it has large rooms with rickety balconies built around a central atrium; internal stairs between the very high-ceilinged floors (with every flight seemingly steeper than the last), impressive studded timber front doors, and a covered rooftop terrace with a spa pool of sorts, bar, and restaurant... Swahili is the major language of Tanzania, and more generally has been the language of coastal peoples and trade routes through eastern and central Africa for centuries. We are in the place where people actually greet you with "Jambo" and respond to a request with "Hakuna Matata"...
Our room was large in size, with a mosquito-net canopied bed with a ceiling fan inside the netted area, a large red free-form concrete bath with steps to climb to get in!
We explored the old town during the afternoon, mostly feeling quite lost until we randomly ended up at the waterfront where we enjoyed a quiet few minutes watching the sun on the water aand rhe passing parade of dhows and other boats.
A very commercial street of souvenir shops and the like runs away from the waterfront, and after browsing there we took the plunge back into the old town streets and frustrated ourselves by walking within half a block of our hotel at least twice without even seeing a glimpse of it, then finding the nearby (larger, on the map) Emerson Spice Hotel and asking for directions to our hotel which was less than 50m away!
We got there in the end and enjoyed sunset from the rooftop terrace and rhen a very satisfying Seafood platter for dinner.

Days 9, 10, 11. 12 - North to Gondar and beyond

We left Bahir Dar in our convoy of Toyotas, and surprisingly stopped just a few km from town. Elias had spotted something in a field..
We all crossed the road and scrambled down the embankment to the edge of a rice field, where several cattle were tied together and being led in tight circles by a farm worker.
Elias explained that they were threshing rice that had just been harvested.
On the road again, we made our wat north around the big lake toward Gondar, stopping at a district maternal health centre in a remote rural village to see the work of two Hamlin midwives. They deliver many babies there in quite primitive conditions, and this is a clinic that has had an upgrade. Apparently the dirt floor of the birthing room was tiled. I gave my hat to an old man at the centre and he couldn't stop grinning!
Travelling again we had lunch in Gondar and then on to Kosoye.
Here an enterprising soul has set up a small mountain retreat on the edge of a wild escarpment, offering local cultural experiences of hospitality and comfort in unique, if somewhat rustic, surrounds. Quite enchanting, from the coffee ceremony on a cut-greenery covered floor to dining and local dancing; with a comfy bed made up of a mattress on a stone/concrete base. Very peaceful after the somewhat frantic pace of the tour so far.
Day 10 dawned and we breakfasted well, then set off on a "4 hour trek". Starting at the lodge (at 3000m altitude, the air was thinner than we are used to) we wound our way down the face of rhe escarpment and out along every spur in this wrinkled landscape. We walked up and down, and for a while along a regular local walking path that went virtually straight up and down the face of the mountain rather rhan zigzag as we were doing. We shared this with some local people and as we turned off it I turned around to see a herd of sheep / goats was being hustled down the mountain behind us.
We all survived this spectacular (but exhausting) walk of some 10km through very steep country, and ended up back at the lodge for lunch before heading back in to Gondar.
We had 2 nights in Gondar, with a good look at the Royal castle complex that dates from the 16th century, and also a major church. We also saw the unique Baptismal Pool where every year on the feast of Epiphany thousands of locals celebrate the baptism of Jesus with a mass swimming event where they all jump into a large concrete lined pool with a small palace built in the middle. Water is diverted in a pipe from a local river and it takes several weeks to fill. The pool is full and available for less than a week before being drained ro another nesrrby river.
After our second night in Gondar we flew back to Addis, and a follow-up visit to the hospital. This was another happy time as the patients flocked around us, looking for a break in the monotony of hospital life. At this point (for the first time in almost two weeks) we were joined by the "other" group from Australia, who had been travelling around Ethiopia in the opposite direction to us, and it was decided to officially present the cheque for the total amount donated from our combined fundraising efforts this year. The amount totalled $280,000 AUD or around 4,000,000 Birr (local currency). The CEO of Hamlin Fistula Ethiopia said that this amount would run a complete regional fistula hospital for a year!

Day 14 - the Great Race

Actually, I'll begin with the night before...
The "Great Ethiopian Run" is an event of national significance for Ethiopians and Ethiopia. Part of it is the foreign income earned by international competitors and importantly the international aid brought in by organisations who eais money for Ethiopian charities and also compete in the run.
We fitted into this category and so were invited to the pre-race pasta dinner at the Hilton Hotel. Some 600 Farenjis (foreigners) were invited, and we all had a good evening, with an energetic cultural dance show and the opportunity to be photographed with and shake rhe hand of the Ethiopian distance running legend Haile Gabriselasse. This year is his "farewell" race ss he (now a very siccessful local businessman) is retiring from competitive running.
The next morning we (among 40000+ others) set off at the appointed start time of 9.00 for the run. The crowd was so great that it took us over 5 minuted to cross the start line! We jogged some of the downhill bits and walked the rest, and completed the 10km course in two hours. I thrink the winner was under 29 minutes. We got a medal hanging on a red ribbon!
Being part of this major event was a surreal experience. I am not a runner, and to cover the hilly10km in two hours, at altitude, and in that unbeleivably huge crowd was quite rhe experience.
That night we had a farewell dinner hosted by the hospital staff and we said our good-byes to everyone. The dinner was held at an art gallery that is also a restaurant and a good night was had by all. We sat opposite a couple of board members from the UK fundraising arm of Hamlins and I enjoyed the conversation; and we bought some art as well!

Day 13 - Desda Mender and the Hamlin College of Midwives

Today we saw the remaining different operations of the Hamlin operations, the college of midwives (program to prevent future fistulas) and Desda Mender (literally "joy village"), set up as a farm and residential community for long-term patients whose fistulas were too medically complex to repair, and were thought to need life-long care. These two facilities co-exist on a large rural block of land that was gifted to Catherine Hamlin by the Ethiopian President (or at least given to the Hamlin organisation by the Ethiopian government)
The college provides an internationally recognised professional qualification in midwifery to the girls and this is fully funded by the Hamlin organisation (ie free to students). The students are selected from the regions where there is greatest need of remote rural midwifery services, and the entrance standard is high, so the selection process is quite a business. Usually in these areas the families cannot afford to educate all of their children and the usual pressures of Ethiopian society push them into educaton boys rather rhan girls. This makes the available pool of girls smaller and the task of selection more exacting.
In any event, this 4 year course has between 20 and 25 students in each year class, and they commit to working as assigned on graduation for a mnimum of 4 years in return for the free education,board, and lodging received for 4 years.
Desda Mender was set up as a safe and supportive place where the very small percentage of fistula patients that can't be cured can live out their lives in a sipportive and productive environment.
This system has recently changed under new management with a new philosophy of training these women for a return to society in some self-supporting capacity. They are taught skills and crafts, put into contact with micro-finance providers, and generally assisted to prepare for life outside rhe cossetted environment there. Now the plan is for a stay here of around 3 months rather rhan an indefinite number of years. It seems ro be working and is mich more sustainable than the previous system where the facility was approaching capacity.
We ended our visit with lunch at the Juniper Tree cafe within the grounds where they serve a well-made and delicious meat pie (Australian style).

Days 7 & 8 - Bahir Dar sights: the regional Fistula Hospital, Blue Nile Falls, local markets, and boat-ride to a monastry on the lake..

This morning we visited the regional Hamlin centre locatedwithin the grounds of the government hospital. Run by a very compassionate doctor, this centre offers life-changing and life-saving treatment to women in this region, supported by remote and rural health centres that have Hamlin trained and employed midwives embedded in them. The patients and staff treated us to impromptu traditional dancing and there was a general happines at the break in routine and a genuine welcome to us.
We have since learned that the total money raised by our group this year is enough to run a centre like this for a year. This hospital undertakes fistula surgery and importantly full maternity services focussing on caesarian section for previous (cured) fistula patients who subsequently fall pregnant.
In the afternoon we travelled the 30-odd km (over an hour on the worst road we have come across so far) to the Blue Nile Falls. Although shorter than the White Nile, Ethiopians consider the Blue Nile to be the "real" Nile River as 80% of the water of the Nile downstream is sourced from Lake Tana and flows down rhe blue nile over these falls (or around them through the 86MW hydro power station). The lake is relatively low at the moment and the power station not operating, so the flow we saw over the falls is the natural flow for this time of year.
On our second full day in Bahir Dar we spent the morning wandering in the local maketplace and in the afternoon travelled by boat to the "island" monastry / church that is actually on a peninsula that sticks out into the lake. A pleasant day getting the feel of this place and enjoying the sights.

Day 6 - road trip to Bahir Dar

After Lalibela we had a road trip of around 320km to the lakeside city of Bahir Dar, a regional capital (and somewhat of a resort town in this land-locked country) on the large lake Tana - source of the (blue) Nile. For this purpose rhe locally-hired bus was replaced by a fleet of 4 Toyota LandCruisers (200 series wagons, ideal for the job). These had been driven the 800km up from Addis for our use and are to stay with us until we are ready to fly from Gondar back to Addis on Friday.
The drive was a mixture of bad roads and good, rough and smooth, mountains and flat... but with one constant: there are always people on the road, walking with family or donkeys or horses or cattle, sheep, goats. They can be well dressed or ragged, in school uniform or church-going robes. If you stop in the bush for a quick roadside comfort stop there will be kids there within minutes asking for money, pens, or anything else they can think of.
Our dinner last night was at an interesting restaurant on a cliff-top owned by a Scottish lady who came for an aid project some years ago and never went home. During dinner our guide Elias had a discussion with our Scottish host which has resulted in her providing picnic bags for each of us for lunch today.
So, as we drove along, past villages and rural or wild countryside, Elias had numerous discussions with our driver, usually involving unexplained slowing down and speeding up, as they were obviously trying to locate a suitable picnic spot. Eventually they agreed on a space in the shade behind the inevitable scrawny eucalyptus. It turned out that the driver "thought" they had agreed on the shady spot but Elias had other ideas. He went through the first row of trees, over a rough stile set in a fence of thorn bushes and sticks, and into the yard of a very simple cottage made of mud-daubed sticks and with a thatched roof.
After some discussions with the lady of the house, we were all invited over the stile and into the shady yard, with our drivers hanging around the stile to discourage the neighbourhood kids from following us in.
Our brand new hostess brought out a couple of very low stools and then a number of skins (cow, goat) for us to sit on as we ate our lunch.
The family willingly gave us a thorough tour of their very humble home, consisting of three rooms. The central room with both fromt and back doors served as a sort of living room and also hsd one small bed - for Mum and the daughters, and then there was a sort of storage room with a bed for Dad and sons, and the 3rd room had a high platform for more storage together with several sheep/goats penned in below.
The kitchen was outside in a separate traditional round hut with central cooking fire and no chimney of any sort.
After lunch we were treated to a coffee ceremony, which began with one of the local women (cousin/daughter/neighbour?) roasting beans on the kitchen fire and then hand grinding while the water boiled. A call out to neighbouring houses resulted in enough china corree cups being produced and we were served from a large tray.
The local children were then invited into the yard and we were soon swamped with little faces and hands, arms and legs, as they crowded round us cocmpeting for attention (and presents!). Small Australian souvenirs and trinkets were magically produced from our day-packs and soon the kids were running around with bouncy balls, koala and kangaroo toys, Australian flag stickers on foreheads and arms, pens and notebooks for school, and balloons blown up and being tossed around. Some of our group felt moved to dance, so with iphone speakers trying to compete with all of the local noises the gathered locals were entertained by such traditional Australian dances as "dancing queen" and "nutbush city limits".

Back to the cars we continued on to Bahir Dar and our hotel by Lake Tana. We got there after dark and dined in the hotel, while outside on the lake-front lawn was a big local wedding taking place. This provided considerable interest to us with the local music, dancing, and general festivities.

Day 5 - we leave Addis Ababa and discover the fabled rock churches of Lalibela

This morning we left early for tjhe airport and our flight with Ethiopian Airlines to Lalibela via Gondar. The plane was a Bombadier Q400 (the stretched DH Dash 8 used by Qantaslink for regional flights at home) and the flight was good. We then proceded virtually immediately the see the first "cluster" of the churches hewn from monoliths of volcsnic tuff.
The building principal seems ro have been to first identify a suitable large single mass of this rock (a monolith) underground and then dig a trench in the rock around the outline of the planned building, to a depth equal to the full anticipated height of the church. Then they started tunneling in from the sides and left behind the required structure of arches, walls, ceilings, stairs, floors, window openings, doorways etc. The chosen site would be "uphill" from a suitable drainage area, and so a tunnel or cutting dug to lower ground for drainage - probably after diversion through outdoor baptismal pools.
The churches range from simple to quite intricate in design, and appear rather larger on the outside than the inside due to conservative design using very thick ealls and columns. In all, we visited 11 churches, almost all built (we are told) during the reign of and at the behest of King Lalabela during a very short period of time (reputed to be around 23 years).Recently,UNESCO built protective structures including roofs over some of these churches as can be seen in photos.
Overnight tonight is a spectacurly located hotel perched on the edge of the escarpment with amazing views of the rolling hills and valleys below..

Day 4 - now this is why we came to Ethiopia

Today we spent the whole day at the Hamlin Fistula Hospital “by the river” in Addis Ababa.
What an experience. We spent most of the morning listening to the CEO (Martin) who explained the history of the Hamlins and their establishment in Addis, up to the current operations and future plans. Overall, there is now much more cooperation from the government, particularly in the regions, than in earlier times. Hamlin regional hospitals are built in the grounds of the local government hospitals, and Hamlin-trained midwives (world class education and very high standard) are able to mentor government-trained midwives (inconsistent standard) in regional settings, greatly improving the outcomes for all concerned.
After lunch with Martin and some of his staff we were given a comprehensive tour of the facilities, and then had free time to interact with the patients. These women have been through an absolutely unimaginably horrific nightmare, some of them for many years, but are all so grateful that they have been literally been given another chance at life at this place and in this way. Yet they are relaxed enough to laugh and dance with “farenji” (foreigners) and lots were absolutely begging for their photo to be taken with one of us or each other. Without any common language they made it absolutely clear that they want us to send prints for them to put up on the wall.
Overall a very positive day for all, and a humbling and moving experience for us.

Day 3 - exploring Addis... when too much shopping is never enough :-)

After our first night at the Debre Damo hotel, it was out and about for the day with general sightseeing, shopping for traditional clothes for the women, and then visits to the "bullets to beads" jewelry workshops and the nearby fair-trade spinners, weavers, and potters operations.
We drove up a significant hill to see the view back over the city, and what impressed us most were rhe women and the donkeys carrying firewood down from the hill. Ethiopia has been planted (many decades ago) with Australian eucalypt trees and these are harvested very young - trunks around 100mm - for scaffolding in the city, stick & mud house construction in the country, and firewood everywhere.
During the day we shopped interminably for clothes, scarves, and trinkets. I say "interminably" because, as the only male in a group of 12 women, I was shopped-out after around 15 minutes and spent the rest of the day exercising extreme patience!
We saw jewelry being made at a fair-trade enterprise, employing 100% hiv-positive women, and using metal recycled from mostly spent bullet casings from the "red terror" period when the communist regime in the 1980s used methods similar to Pol Pot to control the people with a terrible genocide.
Then after a visit to the scarf shop aand a walk through their spinning and weaving workshops we went to the chaos of "mercato", the central unregulated marketplace for everything imaginable. Elias (our guide) paid a policeman to follow our group as he was leading, to keep us clear of potential pickpockets!
We finished an exhausting day with dinner in our hotel :-)

One of many monuments featuring the "Lion of Judah" - symbol for centuries of the royal house of Ethiopia.

Firewood collector on the hillside above the city!

remote control firewood transport

Jewelry maker at the "bullets to beads" fair-trade workshop

More "bullets to beads" fair-trade jewelry

weaving is traditionally seen as a male task (women spin, men weave!)

mixed spices at the central "Mercato"

Metal recyclers / scrap dealers at mercato - note the person climbing on the mountain of scrap

Day 2 - from Dubai to Addis and here we are!

An overnight flight means that we arrived in Dubai early on day 2, and then flew on to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia!
A last-minute upgrade offered by Emirates meant we could enjoy the relative comforts of Business Class for around 5 hours, and we arrived to face the vaguaries of Ethiopian customs and immigration in good spirits.
By the time we (all 23 of us) made it through the airport halls it was getting late, and that meant an abbreviated visit to the national museum and its most famous inhabitant.... Lucy.
Lucy is the name given to the remains of the earliest ancestor of modern humans to walk upright "Australopithecus afarensis". She has been dated at around 3.2 million years old.
Otherwise, we are getting to know our fellow travellers and enjoying our informative guide Elias.
Dinner tonight is a buffet of traditional Ethiopian "Wat" underpinned by Injera.

Ethiopian Orthodox Painting in Museum

The "Lion of Judah" - symbol of Ethiopian Royalty for centuries - represents the union of the Queen of Sheba with King Solomon that founded the royal house

Skeleton of "Lucy"
actually a replica on display as the original is stored in an archive for research and safekeeping

typical urban shopping stalls - often manequins out-numbered shoppers!

Datsun 120 Why?! =local taxi...

the view from our hotel room in Addiba

traditional dinner with our group on the first night

Arrival at Addis Ababa airport

Departure gate at Dubai