Our original plan was to travel to Axum to Gonder via the Simien National Park (Debark), staying a night there to take in the gorgeous scenery we had seen in pictures. In view of crowded buses in the leadup to Timkat (Epiphany), uncertainty with accommodation in Debark and successive 5am starts … we decided to shell out for a shared minivan and go straight to Gonder.
The scenery en route was varied and beautiful. It was dry and rugged ata first then changed to grassy brown and rolling around Debark. As we approached Gonder, we were treated to spectacular clouds and lightning. The beautiful ride came to a sad end in Gonder 13 hours later when we had trouble finding decent accommodation. Timkat fever had reached here judging by the sad hotel situation 🙁
We spent an hour faced with booked out hotels or only double beds (when we required two separate beds). That was despite the assistance of hotel touts who make a living from finding people accommodation. In the end we managed to find one night at the Fogera Hotel.
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- We blew a tyre early in the journey.
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- Passers-by while we changed the tyre.
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- Might as well fix the mirror while we’ve stopped to change the tyre.
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- The river goes to Nairobi.
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- Beautiful scenery.
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- Looks like Mongolia actually except for the trees. Bad shot from moving vehicle.
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- Photos from moving vehicles don’t work well when it is getting dark 🙁
