DAY 17
It's an understatement to say we had a shitty night. The camp is exposed and we had non stop wind from 2am until we got up. Breakfast is delicious once again but we're in a gloomy mood when we take off at 7:30. It's still cold and we're hiking with our winter gear (polar, wind-breaker, gloves, hat) The plains up there are beaten by the wind with not much growing. We're still in the “alpine afro” terrain. The monotony is broken by little rivers that dig in the plain. It creates a shelter from the wind and the little valleys it creates have the weird palm tree all over them. We see no wild-life this morning, only a few horses grazing. The terrain is not as steep as yesterday but even a small climb makes your heart rate go up quickly. It's windy all morning and we can hear nothing but our own noises and a few birds every now and then. It's 9:30am when we reach a incredible spot at 3910m where we have incredible views on both sides of the ridge.
The bad news is we have to go on the ridge on the other side of the valley and there's no bridge to be seen. That means going down in the valley then up again. The descent is steep and treacherous. We're almost at the bottom when we come across a group of 150 gelada baboons. They are on our path so we take a break to give them time to clear the way. They'll go up the mountain, past us, on both sides. Some of them look at us but they don't seem stressed by our presence. One of the particularity of that specie is the number of different sounds they can make and we're in the middle of them, watching and listening... so cool! We come upon another group shortly after, before reaching the bottom of the valley (3616m – 10:50am). Time to climb again :( It's as steep as the descent. We go through the forest, one step at a time, it's tough. It finally gets a bit easier over the tree line. We pass by another big group of gelada near the top then through cattle to reach our lunch place at 4064m (1pm).
(The peak you see in the distance is where we where at 9:30am...)
Lunch and a break are very welcome after such a challenging morning but we still have some distance to cover and we want to avoid the rain so we get back on the track for more fun. It begins with a gentle slope downhill, very nice but it does last. At least, we can see our camp in the distance now. The path is following the cliff (Narjiss you couldn't do that hike...) and we are entertained by the birds retracting their wings and speeding up just a few meters above up before diving in the valley. They're not big but they go so fast we hear a swoosh sound as they pass by. We stopped counting the monkeys by now but we now understand why their local nick name is “cliffhangers”. To avoid the predators, they spend the nigh in small caves in the cliffs. Going up and down these cliffs looks horribly dangerous but they do it multiple times a day with the agility of a monkey ;) Exhausted, we reach camp at 3:40pm. We'll spend the night at 3620m tonight. We walked during 8h10 for a total elevation gain/loss of 1800m... no wonder our legs are gone!
We're going through our after-hike chore (tea, popcorns, streching) when we're called in emergency; 2 ibex are close by. I was telling the guide earlier that we had plenty of luck with the monkeys today and I was hoping we could be lucky too with the ibex tomorrow and, who knows, see the elusive Ethiopian wolf... wish granted! We're watching the ibex when we spot a wolf on the other side of the road. I run back to the camp (not out of fear) to fetch my camera. The 200m run destroys me. Don't run at 3600m!!! I come back walking ;) the ibex are still grazing peacefully and the wolf reappears a few minutes after, even closer. At some point we'll be on the road with ibex 5-10m away on one side and a wolf 10m away on the other side... Unbelievable. And it is only the beginning. Our guide brings us to the nearby cliffs to see the monkeys going down the cliff in the caves for the night. When we arrive there a group of gelada is on the nearby road. We observe them for a while; they don't mind our presence at all. We then watch the show of monkeys going down the cliff. The way they do it is insane but they manage it just fine. We turn our attention back to the road and watch them groom, play and fight for a good half hour. Completely uninvited the two ibex from before show up, walk past us (so much for being a shy animal) and walk among the monkeys, stopping to eat when they feel like it... Surreal!
We head back to camp after one hour of animal frenzy and I tell jokingly to our guide that it'd be nice for the wolf to stop by and say bye. Wish granted not even 30 minutes later. But it won't be just one but 3 that we'll see close to camps. I think we were both exited like a kid would be for his first visit to a zoo :D
DAY 18
We slept well this time, no wind and decent temperature. Today is a round-trip to the 2nd highest peak in Ethiopia. It's a 10km round trip but it should take us 5h... We leave the camp at 7:55am and walk past yesterday's monkey spot. Sadly, they're not there to wish us luck. We have been walking for an hour when we see the last animal missing in our collection – the male ibex. And to be consistent with yesterday, we don't see one but 6 of them in a group which is unusual because older males are usually solitary.
The way up is nothing special. We follow the road, taking shortcuts every now and then. The views are not as exceptional as the previous days either. For a while we have wildlife to keep us distracted. Everyone goes uphill this morning, monkeys, ibex and humans. Only the unofficial sub-specie homo touristicus suffers in the process though. For a while, we see an male ibex close to the summit as if it was waiting to welcome us.
After 2h50 of a very demanding ascent we reach the summit at 4435m; it's 10:45am. The view from the top is not as impressive as the other ones we had. We spend a half-hour there and it's time to come back down. It's the same way, it's much easier that way but the wild life is nowhere to be seen. We though our luck ran out with wildlife but a magnificent ibex is waiting for us not far from the village. It's lying down and looks at us getting closer then decides it's enough, stands up and start walking away. It had huge horns meaning it was an elder.
When we reach the camp, everything is packed in the car and we just go. It took us 5h10 to conquer the peak. The way out of the mountain is spectacular by road too. We drop most of the crew in Debark and are back at the hotel at 5pm exactly. It's so precise we'll mention it to Tesh, the organizer.