[2019]
[2019]
OUR FAMILY HOLIDAYS
9127 OU40 - Ethiopia – Lalibella
The most important tourist attraction in Ethiopia is Lalibella. It is full of dozens of churches carved out of the solid rock. Unfortunately, it is in the middle of nowhere.
Accordingly when we flew into the airport, this time just a grass strip, the only structure which was there for tourist use was a large tree. This was the waiting room! The flight in to Lalibella had been interesting, since - as we approached it - the pilot of the plane took it low over the town and -- so that we could get a good aerial view of it -- stood the plane on a wingtip and went round and round. It was quite frightening.
At the airstrip at number of backpackers came off with us, and wondered how they would get to Lalibella itself, which was a dozen or more miles away over the mountains. Despite my protestations the guide who was there with the Land Cruiser insisted on cramming in the backpackers as well as ourselves, and charging them for. I sympathised with a backpackers, but I was furious that my private Land Cruiser in which was supposed to be comfortable was as uncomfortable as hell with everyone crowded into it.
What was worse was that, as we were driving along the road to Lalibella, the guide was distracted by papers fluttering around its dashboard and took his eyes of the road. The Land Cruiser left the road and ran into the ditch which ran down one side; which was fortunate for us since there was a sheer drop on the other side. It was much less fortunate for an Ethiopian family - of a man, woman and baby - who were on that side of the road and had dived into the ditch to avoid the car that was coming towards them. The baby was killed outright and the woman was very badly injured. The Land Cruiser itself was trapped in the ditch and couldn't be got out. We did manage to get the woman and child out from underneath it; and the local Ethiopians turned up and helped to nurse her.
When I said it was in the middle of nowhere I really meant it. The nearest first-aid station was in Lalibella, 12 miles away, and the nearest hospital -- which the injured woman urgently needed -- was 150 miles across the mountains. What was even worse, was that there was no traffic on the road. It was something over two hours before the first lorry arrived. We put the injured girl on the lorry and had to wait another two to three hours for a Land Cruiser to be sent out for us and our luggage. All this time we were sitting by the roadside surrounded by the local villagers. What I didn't know was that the code in the area was a life for a life. Had I known this, the Kalashnikovs that they were carrying would have been much more threatening. It was a horrible experience. We were not injured, but the suffering of the poor girl was terrible.
Eventually we arrived in Lalibella, very, late so all we could do was go to the hotel and have our dinner. The hotel was fairly primitive though not as bad as some we'd been to,
No sooner had dinner finished than there was a power cut. All the lights in Lalibella went off. This actually was marvellous, since we were able to sit outside and see the stars in the skies as we'd never seen them before. It was miles away from any air pollution and there wasn't a single light, apart from a few candles, to distract us. We saw the cloudless skies overhead as our ancestors must once have done. The stars looked as if they were so close you could reach out and touch them. We were able to see, for the first time, the Milky Way. It was a wonderful experience -- which contrasted with the terrible experience earlier on.
The next day we had to take a new guide to show us the various churches, the previous one had been rapidly removed before the locals could exact revenge on him! When I previously had learned that these churches were cut out of the rock I had assumed that they would be rather like Petra, where they would be cut back into the rock, with facades which were cut out of the living rock as well. In fact, what had happened was that the complete church had been cut out; but remained was in essence a normal church seemingly built out of stone -- except it was carved out of the living rock itself -- sitting in a quarry.
There were many different churches that we went around. Inside, since these were very old churches -- perhaps 1,000 years or more, they had wonderful artefacts and bibles. The most famous church of all, which is on all the Ethiopian postcards, was one cut in the shape of across. As you stood on the ground above it you could barely see what it was until you got to the edge of the hole that had been cut to contain it when you suddenly realised you were faced with a massive church cut out of the living rock.
As interesting as the churches themselves were, all the connecting passengers and chambers which had been cut through the rock to connect them were just as fascinating. Thus, for example, one minute you found yourself going down steps into the churches themselves and then the next climbing up the other side, and going over a wooden bridge with a drop of 100 feet or more below you.
In one case a staircase went up inside a pinnacle and then down again the other side on the outside, which we had to negotiate just inches away from 100 foot drop. If you like stories in which there are secret passages, you will love the secret passages which riddle the rocks of Lalibella.
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