Varnished Vacation (Part Two – Ras Dashen)

We set out at 6am in the morning with our scout Nege (his name means

tomorrow / eats and drinks once a day / preferred beverage is tella [a

locally-brewed beer] / balances his belongings on his head / can kill

thieves and charm ladies with the same look). The rest of the group

consisted of Libby and Janelle (visitors from a distant land /

athletes / cute girls), Kyle and David (fellow volunteers /

experienced in the ways of the wilderness / can both skin a bear in 5

minutes flat while playing the harmonica), and Graham (couchsurfer /

experienced world traveler / rugged looks with baby blue eyes), and me

(experience in the wilderness comes from watching Bear Grylls, brought

one pair of jeans [these jeans now rest with Davy Jones], has softer

hands than Libby, complains about stuff, if he were to fill out a

survey on the amount of yearly exercise he partakes in, this one

backpacking trip would be listed as “exercises frequently”, while at

the same time being the only exercise he partook in for the whole

year).



The first day was amazing. We traveled from a highland plain to craggy

mountain cliffs. These cliffs made me think God had once had a field

day with a machete. The outcroppings and angles of these mountains

seemed to almost be man-made rather than the work of time, movement,

and weather. The inevitable shadows created rivulets and rivers across

the mountain sides and through the valleys, striping the land with

shade. Everywhere I looked it seemed there was one mountain after

another mountain receding into translucent blue. On one area, we ran

into a herd of what seemed like two hundred Gelada Baboons and were

able to get within 6 feet of them. We finally arrived after hiking for

8 hours at our first camp. We then ate dinner and drank part of the

lovely bottle of sake that Libby had brought for me from the states.

It was heaven.



The second day had perhaps some of the most astonishing and beautiful

views. It already felt like we were at the top of Ethiopia. The

highlands below us stretched out to the horizon. Once again the

terrain we passed through was astonishingly varied we went from lush

overgrown mountaintops to pastoral hills to a large grassy plain where

the final camp was. As I was starting to suffer the effects of not

having enough calories and protein whilst hiking, I bought 13 eggs

from one of the girls at the village right before the camp. I

hard-boiled most of those later that night so that I could have some

good snacks during the day. We all crashed pretty hard after the

second day. We sat there like zombies while snacking on food trying to

regain some energy. After a refreshing cold shower, we all felt

better. So we set up a slackline (like a tight rope, but with climbing

webbing) in a precarious position between two trees. It was great

getting all the scouts, guides, and cooks (we only had a scout [see

guard with gun] all the other farenji that were traveling through the

Simen mountains had cars, mules, and personal chefs) to scurry across

the line. We ate a large dinner (except for Libby who was feeling

sick) and went to sleep.



Apparently the third day was supposed to be up up down down down down

up up up up up down down. What I did not know before I came was that

most of the 5-day trek from Debark was going to be exactly this. When

we finally reached the last up before the down downs we had done a

steady hike up for what seemed like 4 hours. When we finally arrived

at camp, we found that they had bread and beer, the two requirements

needed in order to relax after a big day of hiking. I went down to a

stream to wash my face and feet and I found Kyle in his swimsuit

washing his whole body. The water was freezing so he was jumping

around like he was in the NBA. After he finished washing I borrowed

the soap and washed as well. There were a large amount of the crazy

dinosaur birds that are native to these parts hanging around a little

up stream. On my way back, I found out why. Just around the bend

upstream from where we were washing was the gutted carcass of a bird

laying in the middle of the stream. I prayed that I wouldn’t die of

some terrible disease and went up and ate dinner. After dinner,

feeling rested and fed we drank some whiskey that had been sent by

Nichole (a volunteer of Dessie-renown), smoked some cigars provided by

Dawit, talked, and wondered at the beauty of the stars.



On the fourth day, we set out for our next camp. This day was up up

down down down down down down down up up. On the first up up portion

of the hike, we actually spotted the Ethiopian wolf. Currently there

are approximately 550 adults left alive. After we reached the top of

this mountain path, we were nearly at the altitude of Ras Dashen

itself. Unfortunately for us, we had to drop down what I think was

about 7,000 feet to the valley floor below Ras Dashen. I handled the

days before this of long uphill walks with tiredness, but not hatred.

When we reached the valley, the temperature skyrocketed and it seemed

the number of flies that followed us around took a cue from the

temperature. I imagine I looked like a zombie of a man by the time we

reached the last camp before the summit of Ras Dashen. At this camp,

we surveyed the damage that the hike had done to our feet thus far,

ate, and then went to sleep early for our semi-agreed upon early

departure up the face of Ras Dashen.



We tried to get our guide to leave an hour earlier than the normal

starting time, but in the end he only budged on a half hour earlier.

It was freezing outside at this temperature. We soon realized why he

didn’t want to leave that early in the morning, he had only been up

the mountain once before and he didn’t know the way well. So we

huddled together in a sledding line for warmth while we waited for

another scout to come a half hour later (we found out on the way down

that we were a skip hop and a jump off of the trail while we huddled

there shivering). The path wound and wound around the mountains until

we were able to narrow down which mountain peak we were climbing.

Finally we scrambled up the sharp rocks to reach the peak. The peak

that guidebooks say seems slightly smaller than the other mountain

peaks around us. We also wondered if we were on the wrong peak, but

our guide told us this was the top. We were too tired to care. We had

made it. The roof of Ethiopia. The toughest climb I’ve ever done. We

allowed ourselves some celebratory pictures and a quick break and we

started the inevitable hike back.

Comments

[Kat]

you are a BEAST. sounds amazing and awesome

[TJ is the best]

That must have been so cussing fun. Jealous.

I'm arranging to mail you a gift soon. It's glorious and terrifying, so get excited.