6 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES JUNE 7/JUNE 8 2014 Travel

ebre, our guide, was get- ting exasperated. “It’s easy,” he said. “Women come up here with babies on their backs – it’s easy.” GIt was not easy. I’d been paralysed On foot through with fear for five minutes, stuck half- way up a cliff with no rope, spread- eagled on the sandstone, starfish-like, my hands and bare feet, slick with sweat and terror, slipping from the tiny crannies. Twenty feet below was a forgotten land the narrow ledge I’d set off from; 1,000ft below that, the valley floor. Above, somewhere up there, was the clifftop rock church of Abuna Yemata Guh. And above that, only heaven. Ending up at any of them was dis- tinctly on the cards.

Great walks In the second of a series on hiking holidays, Mike Carter treks to the ancient cliff churches of Tigray in

If the 100 or so ancient cliff churches of Ethiopia’s He pointed out the birds as we went We walked on, along the rim of the SUDAN by rock hyraxes, golden eagles soar- in the country’s far north are difficult – the black-winged lovebird and the mountains, the sun starting to fall, ing on the thermals, and along nar- to get to, the same could have been white-cheeked turaco (both endemic), gradually turning the sandstone from row, crumbling ledges with sheer said until very recently for the area as the African firefinch and cinnamon- vermilion to ochre. A Verreaux’s eagle ERITREA drops and, every few hours, in the a whole. Remote and mountainous, it breasted bee-eater; brilliant flashes was being mobbed by a dozen ravens, middle of nowhere, came across a was blighted by civil war from the of colour, all completely tame. A troop the whole like some graceful dogfight. Red Sea church door in a cliff wall. There was 1970s until the 1990s, and in the 1980s of gelada monkeys watched us from Right at the end of the ridge, the only always a priest and nearly always was also the centre of the famine that a giant fig tree. There was a real man-made structure for miles, and a congregation, usually just one or horrified the world. Since then, any sense of Shangri-La about these inches from the cliff edge, was the two men, eager to commence a four- Mek’ele tourists who do venture north of Tigrayan valleys. hedamo at Enaf. A simple stone build- hour mass. After another long day of Gondar Addis Ababa tend to stop at the coun- The path rose again. After an hour ing of rooms set around a courtyard, walking, we reached the hedamo at try’s headline attraction, Lalibela’s we reached a door in the mountain- based on the traditional Tigray farm- Gohgot, tucked at the foot of a large rock-hewn churches, rather than car- side. Endele disappeared and returned houses, it had been built by two sandstone bluff. Lake Lalibela rying on to Tigray. with a priest, with silver hair and NGOs, Adigrat Diocese Catholic Secre- Tana On our third day, crossing the But a new chain of community-run chaotic teeth. The door was unlocked tariat and Tesfa Community-based Shimbrety plateau, we were invited hedamos (guesthouses) dotted through and we entered a cave. In the gloom, Tourism. Dinner was cooked on an ETHIOPIA inside a sheep farmer’s house for a the gloriously stark landscape of I could make out carved sandstone open fire and served by villagers who coffee ceremony. In the country where mesas and deep ravines, means that Aksumite pillars, a barrel-shaped run the guesthouse as a cooperative. the arabica plant originated, drinking Addis Ababa Tigray, with its rock churches, its pas- knave and pews of rock. Covering the After the meal, tired from the five 200 km coffee is a serious business, attended toral culture unchanged for millennia walls were frescoes in primary colours hours of hard walking, and with no by ritual and love. Fresh straw was and so much besides, is now more eas- depicting familiar scenes from the electricity to provide night-time dis- laid on the stone floor in our honour. ily accessible to trekkers. Built by tractions, there was nothing to do but Clockwise from main picture: An AK-47 hung from the rafters. NGOs, the guesthouses are basic (but walked along the valley floor, through drift off into the deepest kind of sleep a priest at the clifftop church of “They have been having problems often with astounding views) and treks villages of stone Tigrayan tukul I’d been paralysed with on mats laid on traditional mud beds, Abuna Yemata Guh; Mike Carter’s with leopards,” said Endele. can be bookended by stays at two lux- houses, past people in white robes listening to the wind howl. group have breakfast at Enaf; climbing The ceremony began. The beans ury lodges, the Agoro at Adigrat and winnowing maize by hand, or thresh- fear for five minutes, The next day we walked across roll- towards one of the churches; a woman were roasted over an open fire, the Gheralta near Hawzen. ing millet with pairs of oxen. Clear ing plains of golden teff (Ethiopia’s prepares a coffee ceremony for the pounded with a mortar, then taken We had planned a three-night, four- springs fed fields of onions and stuck halfway up a cliff staple grain for making injera bread), group; a priest at the church around and shaken under the guests’ day walk of about 40 miles, setting off cabbages, and everywhere we went, spiked with cypress trees, the whole of Gohgot Eyesus Mike Carter noses to allow them to smell the from Agoro, the first of the luxury we were trailed by a coterie of small with no rope, my hands scene redolent of Tuscany. Then along aroma. Endele told us how three cups lodges, built in 2011 just outside the giggling children. Everyone waved at slick with terror valleys of giant candelabra cactus and of coffee are served in honour of a town of Adigrat. Our group was made us, smiling. “They will not have seen aloe, riven with sparkling brooks, so legend involving three monks. The up of four British walkers, Endele too many outsiders before,” said visually perfect and ordered that they Great Journeys first round of coffee, called the awel, Teshome, our guide from Addis, and Endele. It was a scene, he added, that looked as if they had all been formally From a boat trip through Myanmar to a is the strongest, the second, kale’i, is the two donkeys we’d hired to carry would have been little changed since Bible but with the unfamiliar twist for landscaped. Following tracks walked drive across New Mexico, read more lighter, and the third, bereka (“to be our luggage, for where we were going biblical times. a westerner such as me that all the by Tigrayan highlanders for millen- from our Great Journeys series at blessed”) the lightest of all. The coffee there were no roads. faces were African. nia, we climbed up escarpments, eyed ft.com/greatjourneys was accompanied by balls of barley We climbed, through forests of euca- According to Endele, nobody is paste skewered with twigs and lyptus, the floor carpeted with wild really sure why Tigray’s churches dunked into a chilli sauce. sage, the fragrance kicked up by the were carved into cliff faces. Just as We bought a sheep from the farmer donkeys’ hooves, the thin air 6,000ft nobody really seems to know when and invited him and his family to join above sea level making us work hard. they were built, with guesses ranging us for dinner that night. We walked A mule train came the other way, from the fourth century – when what to the edge of the plateau and there carrying grain to Adigrat. was then the Kingdom of Aksum was Shimbrety, our final guesthouse, After a couple of hours, we reached became one of the world’s first official built, like the others, on the edge of the top of the ridge. Spread before us Christian states – to the ninth, mak- a sandstone cliff. This one was enor- was a landscape of such epic scale and ing them older than the churches of mous, maybe 3,000ft high, and the grandeur that it took a while to take Lalibela, 150 miles to the south. Until views so staggering and the world it all in: vast canyons for miles, and the mid-1960s, when the churches so beautiful that even a confirmed buttes and mesas topped with juniper were first chronicled, they were atheist might start to wonder. forests, with the ragged, shark-teeth almost unknown outside Tigray – The farmer, his family, and a group Adwa Mountains forming the back- even to Ethiopians. But in many of other locals arrived. The mutton drop, like some lost world imagined ways, the mystery only deepens the was fried with garlic and onion, and by Hollywood animators. sense of wonder about Ethiopia, the eaten dunked in a fiery sauce of chilli On the edge of the escarpment, we only African state never colonised. and araki, a potent spirit. sat under a giant wizened olive tree “Encompassed on all sides by the The sun disappeared. The tempera- and looked out, the soundtrack of this enemies of their religion,” wrote ture plummeted. We moved into a world drifting up to us in snatched 18th-century historian Edward Gib- tiny room, lit only by the fire burning fragments: children laughing; a howl- bon, “the Ethiopians slept near a at its centre. Somebody produced ing dog; a woman’s voice, sensual, thousand years, forgetful of the world tella, fermented maize beer, and some- singing softly. We descended and by whom they were forgotten.” body else a few bottles of tej, the

Into the swing of things in Wales

Once a derelict maternity hospital, Celtic Manor has grown into a golf resort grand enough to host Nato’s next summit. Neville Hawcock checks in

eltic Manor is like a of the 330-room Resort 10 km BasedB on OOrdnance SurvSurvey of outdoorsy adventure, single room. It reminded me Perhaps inevitably, there YouTube Team Fortress For many, the main draw mappingmapping ©©C CCrown miniature country run Hotel, the twin-winged slab copyright. AMAM042/11AM042/1 nothing more: I don’t think of that scene in Help! where was a hot tub too, which sat tutorials and Adventureland will be the golf. But since C by a benign but golf- of a building that looms they’d be too impressed if the Beatles each go into in a spacious porch off the cartoons, the grown-ups none of us had ever played obsessed government. That’s over the M4 motorway as you turned up with a gun their apparently separate lounge. But if you’re going sipped tea in the tub and before, we booked an intro- true of most golf clubs but you head towards Newport. and a retriever. But is a golf terraced houses but it’s one to wallow in luxury, then assayed various permuta- ductory lesson on Saturday this Welsh resort is a bigger This would be more than WALES course – or even a golf big groovy space inside. wallow: I’m a sucker for tions of jets and bubbles. afternoon and, before lunch, deal than most. It may not grand enough for any self- statelet – any place for a It was all very open-plan: these things. This one had The Hunter Lodges are got in the mood by playing yet have an army or a space respecting parliament, espe- Celtic Manor family to spend the week- the lounge merged into the views across to the other self-catering but that’s an mini-golf on a course that programme but it does have cially one whose members end? Especially a barely dining area, with its big, side of the Usk valley, all option rather than an obli- replicated the most chal- a kind of capital, in the form felt the need for spa facili- Newport M4 sporting, definitely non- long chunk of a table, which cloud shadows sliding over gation. You can order in lenging holes of the world ties; maybe David Cameron M4 golfing family, lightly fraz- merged into the kitchen, patchwork fields and farm- hampers, for breakfast or and bore the grandiose and Barack Obama will opt Cardiff zled after a cab ride and a which had all the equip- houses and spinneys; on afternoon tea, or takeaways name Kingdom of Legends. for some pampering when crowded train journey from ment you could wish for. its putting-green floor, tiny (pizza, Indian, fish and I went two under on the Bristol Celtic Manor hosts the Nato M5 London to Newport? There was also a bathroom players were intent on chips). These cost roughly tricky long green at Valder- summit in September. In fact, that grumpy com- with a sauna, and a sort of their rounds. the same as you would pay rama, and the thrilling pos- It has regional centres, Bristol mute made our roomy, Zen games room, furnished As the children lolled your local takeaway and are sibility of a dormant talent too, with clubhouses scat- Channel immaculate lodge all the with bean bags, a big screen in their rooms in digital pretty good. If you’re feeling opened up – only to snap tered here and there, such more appealing. Like its and a games console. indolence, hypnotised by hungry and flush, there’s a shut again when we began as the one it built when the neighbours, the Plucky cook-it-yourself roast dinner our lesson. As patient pro Ryder Cup was held here in Pheasant had a congenially hamper, serving eight, with Michael taught us the 2010. It worries about educa- silly name (next door: the a four-kilo rib of beef for rudiments of gripping the tion, laying on a Golf Acad- proudly told me – bought Kooky Kestrel), was largely £240. That wasn’t much club and driving the ball, it emy to make sure its shift- the derelict maternity hos- made of wood, giving it a good for my daughter, who became clear that, like a ing populace of guests can pital where he was born shake-that-city-dust-off feel, is a vegetarian, but the risky investment, success in hold their heads high in the and set about doing it up. and was highly spacious. caterers came up with a the Kingdom of Legends is global golf economy. And it Now Celtic Manor has I think ours could have com- nice pulse dish for her; they no guide to future perform- does infrastructure, with embarked on a housing fortably swallowed up the were even unfazed by my ance. For every ball that I roads connecting its facili- programme, building 10 family home but that may gluten-free diet. (Yes, no one watched sail past the 100- ties and the three courses “Hunter Lodges” on a have been an illusion caused invites us for dinner twice.) metre mark, 10 scattered on Celtic Manor’s 2,000 vari- stretch of track along from by the lack of clutter. The Unless you’re a complete wildly to the left or right. ously hilly, wooded, watery, the 2010 Clubhouse. The main living room, though, slob, those options still Yet if you can do one grassy, putting-greened and aim is to extend the resort’s was certainly as tall as a entail clearing up, loading immaculate shot, with the bunkered acres. appeal by providing high- house: looking up, you saw the dishwasher and so on. ball lofting obediently into It has come a long way end self-catering accommo- the inverted “V” of the roof, Another option is to dial up the sky, you can surely do since 1980, when technology dation for families and all in pale planking, as you a car – there’s complimen- more . . . and so the interest entrepreneur Sir Terry Mat- groups of up to eight. would in a church. It had tary transport for guests – takes hold. Maybe if I focus thews – Wales’s first billion- The “Hunter” designation three ranks of windows too: and head for one of the six more on stance this time? aire, as a staff member is meant to make you think a whole house façade for a One of Celtic Manor’s new ‘Hunter Lodges’ on-site restaurants. Or adjust my fingers just

JUNE 7 2014 Section:Weekend Time: 5/6/2014 - 18:03 User: crawfordm Page Name: WKD6, Part,Page,Edition: WKD, 6, 1 FINANCIAL TIMES JUNE 7/JUNE 8 2014 ★ 7 Travel

Short cuts

London A luxurious 91­room a Shoreditch backstreet behind first “recorded ascent” – others hotel has opened on a former the budget Hoxton Hotel. may have already reached the bomb site in what was Soho’s firmdalehotels.com; summit without official seediest corner. The Ham Yard nobuhotels.com permission. Space is limited to Hotel is the latest property 12 people but other operators from Firmdale, the company run Kathmandu The Nepalese are likely to announce more by designer Kit Kemp and her government is opening 104 new expeditions to the newly opened husband Tim, who have seven peaks to climbers, offering even peaks in the coming months. other London hotels as well as those with little experience the The Nepalese government one in New York. In an area prospect of making a first hopes the move will increase once renowned for drugs and ascent. KE Adventure, a British tourism revenue while also prostitution, Ham Yard was the tour operator, has already easing congestion on the most last undeveloped second world responded to the move by popular peaks. keadventure.com war bomb site in Soho before launching a trip to make the Firmdale acquired the land in first ascent of Mukot Peak Virginia Hilton Worldwide, the 2009 for a reported £30m. It when it opens next year. The Virginia­based hospitality group has now been transformed into 6,087m peak lies to the north with more than 4,000 properties an “urban village” with 13 of Dhaulagiri, the world’s worldwide, is to launch a new specialist shops in a tree­lined seventh­highest mountain. The chain of hotels for travellers pedestrian street. The hotel has 21­day trip, departing October 3 “who seek local discovery and a rooftop garden, library, spa, 2015, costs £2,895; participants authentic experiences”. Rather 188­seat theatre and a 1950s need only to be fit and to have than being managed by the bowling alley imported from used crampons before. The group, members of what will be Texas; bedrooms have floor­to­ proviso is that this will be the called “Curio – A Collection by ceiling windows. Meanwhile, Hilton” will remain independently Nobu Hospitality, the restaurant owned and managed. The move and hotel company whose is designed to give guests more owners include chef Nobu individuality while still offering Matsuhisa and actor Robert De the group’s loyalty programme Niro, has announced plans to and guaranteed standards. For open a London hotel in what the hotels, it offers a chance to would until recently have been gain access to Hilton’s global considered a similarly marketing and distribution insalubrious location. The channels. hilton.com 156­room property is due to open in 2016 in Willow Street, The Ham Yard Hotel in London Tom Robbins

traditional Ethiopian honey wine. A Trekking to the man stood up and started thumping Daniel Korkor out a metronomic beat on a kebero church in Tigray, drum. “Shall I start this party with Ethiopia Alamy my drums?” he sang, Endele translat- ing. “The sunshine is in my room!” People got to their feet in that tiny space, began shuffling around the fire, clapping, singing, leaping, turning, twisting. The dancers’ faces were now rapt, transported. Then the ululation began, a trembling wave of sound that seemed to fill every inch of that room. I went outside. The wind was fierce now, banging the shutters. Through the cracked wooden door, I could see the dancers, flickering shadows against the fire. They were singing in Tigrayan, and the only word I could understand was “Hallelujah”. I went to the cliff and sat down, my legs hanging over the edge into the abyss. From my vantage point I could see for maybe 30 miles yet there was not a single light. Tomorrow, I would get stuck up a cliff and disappoint Gebre, the local guide at Abuna Yemata Guh. Then I would return to the world; my first hot shower in a week at the stylish Gheralta Lodge; a drive to the airport along the fast Chinese-built roads that have helped shrink the country and drive a decade of Ethiopian economic growth; a boy would ask me about the American wrestling he sees on TV – whether it is real or faked. For only in small, shrinking pockets, such as the Tigray highlands, can this still be con- sidered a country “forgetful of the world by whom they were forgotten”. But for now, I could just sit on a cliff, in the dark, listening to soft voices behind me singing “hallelu- jah”. In front of me, a huge crescent moon lay recumbent on top of the Adwa mountains, glowing scarlet, like a big lazy grin.

Details

Mike Carter was a guest of Journeys by Design (journeysbydesign.com), which offers a 10­night Tigray trip, combining four nights’ trekking, staying in guesthouses, three nights at Gheralta Lodge and three nights at the rock churches of Lalibela, from $6,450 per person including internal flights

one of those treetop rope trails. There are gyms, spa treatments and swimming, with pools at the main hotel and a big satellite clubhouse called the Lodge. And steam rooms: you could spend a weekend steeping yourself in different varieties of leisure water. After two nights, I felt clean, loose-limbed, glow- ing, a sleeker analogue of the jumpy stress-puppet who’d fetched up on Friday The main Resort Hotel night. The children, too, having resisted the exile so? Better get another 40 from our metropolitan WiFi balls, or maybe 400 . . . In the comfort zone on Friday, cubicle next to me, a man were begging by Sunday to and his young son were stay longer. School and steadily thwacking their work did not permit but, as stockpile out of sight; I told the train pulled away from him it was my first time but Newport, I wasn’t the only that I could start to see the one thinking, “Now when appeal. “You can have the can I do that again?” worst, coldest, blowiest round ever,” he said, “and at the end you’ll be think- Details ing, ‘Now when can I do that again?’” My 13-year-old, beseeching me for another Neville Hawcock was a guest session on the range, was of Celtic Manor (celtic­ clearly of a like mind. manor.com). The Hunter Not that there was any Lodges sleep eight and cost shortage of other activities: from £1,750 for a three­night archery, a laser war game, weekend break

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