travel blog – Page 32 – PalmTreeMusings

Ethiopia: The oldest independent country in Africa

January 29, 2010March 20, 2022Posted in AfricaTagged Axum, best things to do in, blue Nile, ethioia, Gondar, lake tana, lalibela, travel, travel blog

My first job teaching in Texas was sixth grade World Geography. The textbook we used had a picture of some amazing rock-hewn churches in Ethiopia, and one of my students asked me if I had ever been there. At that moment, I knew I wanted to visit that place one day.

Very soon after I arrived in Sudan, two of my colleagues mentioned that they were going to Ethiopia over Christmas break. “Oh, I want to go too”, I said, basically inviting myself along. I think maybe they thought I was kidding, as I had just met them. But no, I was serious, and on December 19th, four of us left Khartoum- by bus, no less- to head for Ethiopia for twelve days of touring.

The bus was fairly horrendous and the first night’s stay at a border town was awful (it involved a donkey cart and sleeping at a brothel). But it quickly picked up as we visited the town of Gondar, known as the “Camelot of Africa” because of the 17th century ruins of nearly a dozen castles scattered around town. We enjoyed the cool weather and the quiet atmosphere of the ruins as we roamed around with our guidebook and Hussam as our almost-local helper.

Debre Birhan Selassie church in gondar ethiopia — Debre Birhan Selassie Church

Gondar camelot of ethiopia castle — Gondar: The Camelot of Africa

camelot of africa gondar ethiopia castle — Gondar: The Camelot of Africa

After Gondar, we boarded another bus heading south to Bahar Dar, a small town that sits at the southern edge of Lake Tana: the source of the Blue Nile river (which then flows into Sudan and ultimately Egypt). At Bahar Dar we hired a small boat to take us to see several island monasteries scattered throughout the lake. Some of them have ancient manuscripts and other Orthodox Christian treasures still. We also ventured out to Tis Isat, the waterfall that marks the actual source of the Blue Nile.

papyrus canoe lake tana ethiopia — A papyrus boat on Lake Tana

coffee ceremony lake tana waterfall ethiopia — A papyrus boat on Lake Tana

Finally we arrived in Lalibela, home of the 11 churches, hand-carved out of rock in the 13th century. Amazing sight. And how were they made so quickly, so perfectly? No one knows. The pilgrimages of white-robed Ethiopian Christians to the rock churches is truly a sight to behold.

We really enjoyed our time in Lalibela, with the exception of Christmas Eve, when I got very sick and had to go to the hospital. Which is a whole crazy story in and of itself! All I can say is thank goodness we had eaten Christmas Eve dinner at a fancy hotel and I had made friends with a doctor from Medicins Sans Frontieres. But, several hours later, it all turned out just fine after an ambulance ride and a surprisingly inexpensive shot of something that made me stop vomiting (thank goodness).

Tired of busing around, I hopped on a flight to Axum by myself to take a quick glimpse of the giant stelae, the tall stone obelisks that were raised two thousand years ago. Made by pre-Christian groups living in the area, no one is completely sure what purpose they served. But they are incredible to look at and wonder about. How can a society that lives in small grass huts build 45 meter tall obelisks that are carved to look like 13-story apartment buildings? A mystery. And of course- the ark of the covenant. Is it there? Axumites swear it is, and even have a guard posted at the small church building its purported to be in.

the building that houses the ark of the covenant axum ethiopia sign and the seal — Is the ark of the covenant truly in this building? Ethiopians say yes.

Stele at Axum ethiopia with door and windows carved in — Stele at Axum, Ethiopia

tri-lingual tablet found at axum ethiopia exana stone — Stele at Axum, Ethiopia

After Axum, I took a direct flight down to Addis Ababa, and spent the final couple of days with my travel companions. Addis was… disappointing. Although it is much cooler weather than Khartoum, and I did get to partake in the hot water mineral baths that gave Addis their name! Someday I hope to go back to Ethiopia and take a tour of the southern half of the country as well. Some amazing sights to see there, as well as the cradle of all civiliation. All in all, a delightful Christmas holiday, and a welcome break from life in Sudan.🇸🇩

Visiting the Silverback Gorillas in Uganda

January 8, 2010March 20, 2022Posted in AfricaTagged best things to do in, biwindi impenetrable forest, Kampala, Kigali, Rwanda, Rwanda gorillas, travel, travel blog, Uganda

silverback gorillas parc de volcanes rwanda uganda

I flew into Kampala, the capital of Uganda, on December 29th. Chris had arrived the day before for a work meeting. I got a taxi into the city and found him at our hotel, the lovely Kampala Serena. It felt great to have a little luxury after 10 days backpacking in Ethiopia. Kampala is a nice, fairly small and clean capital city- but big enough to have a movie theater, which we hadn’t visited in quite a while! We went to see Avatar and had dinner out in the city.

skyline of Kampala Uganda — Kampala, Uganda

couple at the equator in Uganda — Kampala, Uganda

On the 31st, our driver picked us up and drove us to the southwestern edge of Uganda, right next to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest (home to the Ugandan mountain gorillas). The scenery the whole way was beautiful and although the drive was long, it was totally worth taking the time. Around 6 pm we crossed the border into Rwanda, and found ourselves just outside of Volcano National Park (home to the Rwandan mountain gorillas). Essentially the same mountain range runs through Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda, and the gorillas migrate between the three. Tourists can visit the mountain gorillas through either of the three countries, but costs and procedures will vary. Our permits cost us $500 for the day, as they were discounted for “low” season.

vegetable stands selling tomatoes bananas uganda rwanda — You never know what you’ll see next on a drive across Uganda

chickens going to market tied to back of car africa uganda rwanda — You never know what you’ll see next on a drive across Uganda

Early in the morning on Jan 1 (no staying up late for us, although we did share a bottle of wine at dinner to celebrate New Year’s Eve) we arrived at the park staging area and met the other trekkers and our guides. Only 30 people are allowed to trek each day and we were in a small group of 8. They gave us hiking poles- gaiters are also good to have along- and off we went up the mountain. The guides knew from some trekkers who spend the night near the gorillas where they were, so we only had to hike about an hour before we found them.

Deah at park de volcanes uganda gorilla trekking rwanda — Deah, Parc de Volcanes

Once we located the gorillas, we were able to watch them for one hour, from a distance of seven meters- close enough to smell them, anyway. We stood in the dripping rain, and watched the babies play, the mothers nurse, and the silverback choose a mate and make sweet, sweet gorilla love. All too soon it was time to hike down the mountain and find some dry clothes for us.

silverback gorillas having sex uganda rwanda parc de volcanes — “Getting Jiggy”

man on hill in rwanda uganda parc de volcanes gorilla trekking — “Getting Jiggy”

The next day, the 2nd, Chris had to fly back to Khartoum but I decided to stay for four more days. We went into Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, and visited the Genocide Memorial center, free for all visitors to the city. It is an amazing place. Rwanda, for all its bad press and the terrible things that happened fifteen years ago, is an incredibly forward looking country that is trying, probably harder than any other African country, to put the past behind them and move positively to the future.

milles collines green coffee hills of Rwanda — Milles Collines, Rwanda

view of city Kigali Rwanda — Milles Collines, Rwanda

Taking a moto-taxi, I decided to go to Lake Kivu, one of Africa’s great Rift Lakes, and the sixth largest lake in the continent. At an altitude of 1,614 meters, the weather is always cool and rainy there with occasional patches of sunshine each day. I was able to find a lovely guest house, Home Saint Jean, run by a church for only $20 a night, and stayed there for the next three days, just enjoying some solitude before heading back to work. Each night I watched the fishermen hang lanterns on the ends of their boats to entice the fish, and I read each day. A nice way to unwind before heading back to the hustle and bustle of Khartoum!

three night fishing boats with lanterns at lake kivu uganda — Views of Lake Kivu from my guest house

view from front porch guest house lake kivu uganda — Views of Lake Kivu from my guest house

Sudan: Whirling Dervishes and Pyramids at Merowe

November 26, 2009March 20, 2022Posted in AfricaTagged best things to do in, great elephant enclosure, hamad al nil, jebel barkal, meroe, merowe, naqa, nile, nubia, omdurman, pyramids, Sudan, sufi, temple of amun, travel, travel blog, whirling dervish

girl reading guidebook in desert in sudan

Last week we went to the mausoleum in Omdurman (which is on the other side of the Nile River from Khartoum) that houses the resting place of Hamad Al Nil, a 19th century Sufi Muslim leader. Every Friday night at his resting place, crowds of Sudanese pilgrims gather and make their sunset prayers. Women often pray to the ascetic leader’s bones and pray for a blessing, especially to cure illness.

tomb of hamad al nil whirling dervishes khartoum sudan — The tomb of Hamad Al Nil

whirling dervishes at tomb of hamad al nile khartoum sudan — The tomb of Hamad Al Nil

In addition to the women that visit the mausoleum to pray, a sect of Sufist Muslims (males only) gather to chant and beat their drums in a type of ritualistic worship. Sufism is a form of Islam that believes in purifying the soul to find inner peace. One way they purify their souls is to chant until they reach a physical ecstasy and they begin to dance and whirl around the circle, often on one foot. While most Sudanese men wear white robes on Sundays, the Sufists are easy to find because they tend to wear green and red robes. Some of the members of the sect are called simply “the poor”, and they spend their whole lives on the compound of the tomb of Al Nil, owning no possessions but the clothes on their backs, which are a colorful combination of patchwork cloths.

man in patchwork robes at whirling dervishes in sudan khartoum tomb of amad al nile

At the end of the ceremony, an elder walks around the circle with burning incense, a mixture of frankincense and gum arabic, and blesses the chanters and the crowds that gather. On the week that we went, there were about 300 Sudanese gathered, and perhaps 30 western visitors who had heard of the ritual and went to watch.

man in patched robes whirling dervishes khartoum sudan — Whirling Dervishes

man in black robes and man in green and red robes whirling dervishes khartoum sudan — Whirling Dervishes

The following weekend, Chris and I drove out to the pyramids at Meroe, also sometimes written as Merowe. Merowe was the capital of the Nubian kingdom (also called the Kushites) from about 300 bc to 300 ad. The city of Merowe is only about three hours north of the Sudan’s capital Khartoum. We went to three different sites of pyramids. Surprisingly, there are actually more pyramids in Sudan than there are in Egypt, although the ones here are smaller height and a smaller base, but rising at a much steeper angle. When we arrived at the first site, some guides with camels offered to show us around, so we gladly took them up on their offer! Later in the day we drove to another site called Naqa, and saw the Temple of Ammun and the Temple of the Lion. Finally, we ended up at Musawwarat es-Sufra and saw the ruins of a large building called the Great Enclosure, which is believed to be a building where the Nubians captured and trained elephants.

temple of amun sudan khartoum nubia desert — Temple of Amun

meroe sudan rams statues pyramids ruins — Temple of Amun

couple on camels at desert sudan pyramids nubia — Desert Taxis

reconstructed pyramids desert sudan nubia meroe — Desert Taxis

A Layover In Dubai

October 28, 2009March 20, 2022Posted in Africa, Solo TravelTagged best things to do in, Dubai, indoor ski, Palm Island, travel, travel blog, UAE, United Arab Emirates

Hello, everyone! I am in transiting through Dubai and feeling a lot better after getting some sleep. For some unknown reason, I can’t seem to sleep on planes, even after taking sleeping pills. So this flight was pretty bad for me. It was fourteen hours. The first five weren’t so bad and the last five weren’t so bad, but the four in the middle just about killed me. Only me and about four others were awake and we kept congregating in the back to talk and kill time. On the plus side I did get to watch 4 different movies, 5 episodes of 30Rock, and 5 episodes of 2 and a Half Men. Comedy really helps on long flights!

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Safari time! Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Swaziland, and Lesotho

December 2, 2008March 20, 2022Posted in Africa, Solo TravelTagged best things to do in, botswana, chobe river, gaborone, hazyview, hot air balloon ride, kruger national park, losotho ponies, luxury tents, maun, mokoro ride, okavanga delta, travel, travel blog, victoria falls, walking safari, wild horizons rafting, zimbabweLeave a comment

Wow, what an amazing three weeks spent traveling around southern Africa! It felt so great going to the airport to leave Angola. Once again, I had good luck getting through the Luanda airport and soon I was heading towards Johannesburg. Once there, I spent only one night, and immediately grabbed a bus to Gaborone, the capital of Botswana. From Gaborone went to Francistown, and decided to stop there for the night as well (and had to share the last hotel room with a guy from my bus!). Finally, the next day, I bused from Francistown to the Botswana/ Zimbabwe border. Without too much trouble, I was able to hitchhike from the border crossing into the little town of Victoria Falls, where my adventures were to begin (a huge thank you to the border guard, who very kindly waited until just the right vehicle came along- a Wild Horizons employee- to help me find a ride).

When I checked into my hostel in Vic Falls, ahead of me were two girls, Sonja and Steffani. They were from Germany and just arriving as well. We wound up going out for a walk to check out the town, and we signed up to go rafting together the next day, which was AWESOME! Definitely worth the money and a great adventure activity. That night, Sonja and Steffani and I, plus Rob and Dave, two other guys from our rafting adventure, headed up to the Wild Horizons office to watch the dvd of our rafting trip. After the viewing, two of the Zimbabweans who work for Wild Horizons, Victor and Future, took us to get some wine and beers and then we went up to the “Hippo Pool”, which technically was closed (due to the likelihood of hippos being there at night), but the moon was full and we were dying to see the falls up close and we had a lot of fun.

baby warthogs in grass at victoria falls hotels zimbabwe — Wild Warthogs

three monkeys in the trees victoria falls zimbabwe — Wild Warthogs

The next day we ventured over to the actual Victoria Falls National Park, and got to see the falls in all their glory. Pretty impressive. Unfortunately, it’s hard to get the full scope from a picture, it’s so massive! While at the park I ran into Morton and Jasper, two Danish guys who were leaving the next day. We made plans to travel to Botswana together the next morning. That night we all went over to another hostel for some wood-fired pizzas and drank at their bar there. The hostel and restaurant owners all have to shop for food in Botswana, because the grocery stores in Zimbabwe are so bare, due to inflation. I brought a pack full of dried noodles to keep me fed for the few days I was here, and I wound up giving the rest of it to the cleaner at the hostel when I left. I also gave my old Teva sandals to Victor, our rafting guide, and he gave me a Zambezi-god stone necklace. I was also able to secure a Zimbabwean hundred million dollar bill so now I’m a millionaire!!

mosi ao tunya the smoke that thunders zimbabwe victoria falls — Victoria Falls

After a couple of taxi rides and some nice people who gave us lifts, Morton and Jasper and I made it over to Botswana, where we stayed a night at Chobe River National Park. We camped in luxury tents, which make camping pretty damn nice, and it was there that I met Henrietta, who as luck had it, was going to the Okavanga Delta the next day (as was I). The four of us went on a sunset river cruise that night and watched all the wild animals such as elephants, hippos, and buffaloes that came down to the river to drink.

Chobe river three elephants playing in water Botswana — Chobe River National Park

Chobe river boat cruise botswana — Chobe River National Park

Henrietta and I had to suffer through a really, really, long bus ride to get to the Okavanga Delta the next day. At that point, I was pretty damn tired of busing, so I made arrangements to stay in Maun (gateway to the delta) a few extra days and take a flight straight from there to Jo’Burg later in the week when Chris was flying to meet me. Henrietta and I stayed in the delta for three days, and for two days we took a mokoro safari into the interior parts, which was really cool. Mokoros are these flat-bottomed canoes that are poled through the shallow delta waters. The hostel we stayed at gave us tents and cookware, and we got a guide, and we went and spent a night camping way out there. The next morning we got up early and our guide took us on a bush hike and we saw tons of animals, like zebras, giraffes, elephants, wildebeest, etc. Definitely fun, although we both got bad sunburns from riding around in the mokoro!

walking safari makoro ride okavango delta botswana

Finally my last day in Botswana, and I flew back to Jo’Burg via Gaborone. Much faster this time! I arrived soon after Chris did, and we grabbed a rental car and headed toward our hotel. The next morning, we drove to Hazyview, which is a small town outside of Kruger National Park. We based ourselves from there for the next few days. That’s where our hot air balloon ride was. We really enjoyed the ride- although the best part was the landing! At the last minute the winds changed and we ended up landing on a tree, then bumping down to another tree, then landing on the ground. Then it took over 3 hours to get the balloon and the basket onto the trailer and get us out of the area we landed in. Not the best landing our pilot had ever made but it was pretty fun!

couple in hot air balloon basket south africa hazyview

filling the hot air balloon hazyview South Africa

After the balloon ride, we were all pretty hungry, and we got to have a champagne brunch with our pilot at a lodge. Then Chris and I spent the rest of the day driving around Kruger National Park. Still no lion sightings though!

We spent a day going to Swaziland, which was really interesting, as it is an independent country inside of South Africa. They have a king there, who has 13 wives! And his father had 70 wives! It’s a very pretty little country, full of valleys and hills and small mountains. We visited a candle making factory and a glass factory and watched the workers and bought souvenirs. When we got back to our hotel, we had a fabulous buffet dinner. Yum.

Happy 40 Years Your Majesty and the Nation Sign Swaziland — Welcome to Swaziland

After Swaziland, we drove over to Lesotho, another country inside South Africa. They have a king also. We stayed in this little mountain lodge that reminded us both of staying at Monica and Andy’s mountain house. There we sat on the porch at night, drinking Cape wines and looking at the amazingly bright stars. The weather at night was nice and crisp and cool, but warm during the day. We spent one day going on a pony trek around the area, and then later hiked up to the top of a hill where you can see pterodactyl footprints. Again, a very picturesque country to visit.

Finally, it was time for Chris to go back to work and for me to go home and look for work. After enduring a 22 hour plane ride, I arrived back home the day after Thanksgiving. In the last week, my sister had gone into premature labor and delivered Nicholas Paul, my new nephew! He’s still in the NICU, but he’s doing fine, and I’ve been able to go up and see him and hold him. He should be able to come home from the hospital in two or three weeks.

It was a great vacation and I definitely recommend some backpacking around Southern Africa for anyone who is interested- there is tons to see and it’s pretty cheap. And you’ll meet a lot of really friendly travellers!