Gonder and the Simien Mountains

Crossing the border from Sudan to Ethiopia was more like crossing a continent due to the extreme differences in weather and geography. Went from desert and scorching heat of Sudan to the lush green cool mountainous countryside of Ethiopia. It is such a beautiful landscape - not at all what I was expecting, and certainly nothing like the images of Ethiopia I have in my head! Our first stop was the town of Gonder. (This is the place you was talking about Rupert). Gonder has a wonderful castle complex built in 1632 by the Emperor Fasidar. The castle is still intact and I spent a morning climbing all over it, you can still get up onto the roof!
Ethiopia is quite a christian country and Wednesdays and Fridays are fasting days. On these days you are unable to eat meat. This is great news for me because there is always alot of veggie food on the menu. I have eaten so well since getting here, they do like their chillies though. The food is so spicy your lips are continually tingling from the chili. Traditionally Ethiopians do not use knives or forks. Instead they scoop up their food in 'injera' which is a type of flat bread. The bread is very spongy and does look like a giant ling but once you get over that its not too bad to eat! I did take a couple of days off eating to go trekking in the Simien mountains. The mountains are breath-taking and are also home to lots of baboons. I saw my first baboons here. The males are huge and when they run they do look a little like lions especially with their hair. There are also lots of eagles living in the mountains - I saw so many giant birds. The mountains do have vast canyons and gorges between each mountain and this made the trek very strenuous. It seemed at one point as if we were scrambling vertically for hours - with the altitude, this was not the most pleasant of experiences. We camped at roughly 3600 metres and it was that cold ice was forming on the tents. Although beautiful I was very pleased when we descended the mountain again. No rest for the wicked though, I return from the mountains at 6pm and at 5am the following morning I flew to Axum - but thats another story!