Tigray Region

We took a truely beautiful drive from Aksum to the village of Hawsien. We saw amazing landscapes, peppered with towering rocky outcrops disrupting the flat pastures full of farmers and their cows ploughing the earth. Once again we had an overwhelming feeling of being back in time, watching this ancient earth being turned over like it has been done, without change, for thousands of years.

The reason for coming here was to check out some of the hundreds of rock-hewn churches in this region. Yes, more churches. But surely we could handle one more day. We stayed at a wonderful lodge, infact one of our favourites of this trip. After a day of recooperation, we set out and saw some of the churches. By far the most impressive and scariest was the Abuna Yemata Guh, spectacularly perched within a cliff face, half way up a sheer rock pinnacle. We had heard about this place a couple of months ago and we weren't necessarily looking forward it to. To get to the church itself involved a verticle climbs using footholds carved into the sandstone and then a precarious ledge walk over a 200m drop! Fortunately the rain held off. Near the church was a small carved out cave full of mummified bodies, our guide reassured us they were the remains of local priests and not unfortunate tourists. The church was great but maybe it was just a relief to be standing on firm ground and to be within it's walls which shielded our eyes from the potential drop only a few meters away. While at the top, we tried to not think about how we'd fare on the way back down. The guides actually had to place your feet into the footholds as the rock face was so steep you couldn't see the next step. All this at about 2000m above sea level it was no wonder it felt like our hearts were bursting out of our chests. Quite terrifying, but extremely rewarding and unforgetable, no wonder the rest of the churches we saw this day didn't seem as impressive.