Tour Notes Historic Ethiopia - Timkat Festival Tour Duration – 13 Days Tour Rating Fitness ●●●●○ | Off the Beaten Track ●●●○○ | Culture ●●●●○ | History ●●●●● | Wildlife●●●○○ Tour Pace Busy Tour Highlights Join worshippers celebrating at Ethiopia’s most important religious festival Engage with some of Africa’s finest scenery in the Simien Mountains Visit the unique rock hewn churches of Lalibela and Tigray Tour Map - Ethiopia - Timkat Festival Tour Essentials Accommodation: Mix of simple but comfortable hotels and lodges Included Meals: Daily breakfast (B), plus lunches (L) and dinners (D) as shown in the itinerary. Group Size: Maximum of 12 Start Point: Addis Ababa End Point: Addis Ababa Transport: Minibuses (groups of 1-8), Coaster buses (groups of 9-12) & internal flights Countries: Ethiopia Extension options: Harar and Danakil Depression. Also, the Omo Valley Explorer tour runs back to back with this tour. Ethiopia - Timkat Festival Join us on this small group tour to Ethiopia for the Timkat Festival which is the Ethiopian Orthodox Church’s celebration of Epiphany. Pilgrims travel for days to the churches at which the celebrations are held and we will join them this year in Gondar. In addition, discover Ethiopia’s natural beauty as revealed in the Simien Mountains, where we walk amidst some of Africa’s most captivating scenery looking for endemic gelada baboons and other wildlife. In Lalibela, we spend time exploring both the main churches and lesser known ones before driving to the region of Tigray. It is similar to Petra with churches hewn out of the surrounding landscape, but quite spectacular, with many built halfway up almost inaccessible cliff faces. We spend time learning about the history of the ancient Axumite Empire at Axum and travel to ‘Africa’s Camelot’; the wonderful castles and palaces of Gondar. A truly unforgettable tour. Tour itinerary notes While our intention is to adhere to the day-by-day itinerary as printed below, a degree of flexibility is built in. Overnight stops may vary from those suggested and on occasions alternative accommodation, of a similar standard to that named below, will be used. Tour Guide Our guides are a key strength, chosen for their knowledge of and passion for the areas in which they work. All of our guides are carefully hand-picked, and are not just passing through these countries, but are usually locally born. Unlike some companies it should be noted we do not send a guide or tour leader from Undiscovered Destinations in the UK as we have every confidence in our locally appointed representative who is responsible for operating the tour on our behalf. Groups of 1-4 people will have a driver and different guides in each place visited, rather than one guide accompanying the trip throughout. Groups of 5- 12 people will have the same guide throughout. Itinerary Please Note – Dates shown are for the January 2021 Departure. Day 1 – 13th January- Addis Ababa Arrive in Addis Ababa and transfer to hotel accommodation. The rest of the day is free to relax. Overnight at Nexus Hotel or similar. No meals are included today. Day 2 – 14th January- Addis Ababa – Adigrat and Tigray churches (260 km, Approximate driving time: seven hours) A morning flight takes us to Mekele and on by road to Adigrat. We explore the sites of Tigray, visiting some of the region’s 130 rock churches including Medhane Alem Adikusho, Wukro Cherkos and Abraha Atsbeha. The architecture is notably different here. Churches are in part or wholly excavated within the living rock, rather than carved from it. Overnight at Agoro Lodge or similar. (BD) Tigray’s rock-hewn churches The rock-hewn churches of the Tigray region are one of Ethiopia’s most enchanting and fascinating sites. Many of them are carved into sheer cliff faces which take effort to reach, perhaps to protect the treasures that many of them hold in terms of paintings and artefacts, or to provide the solitude necessary for religious meditation. Isolated and mysterious, the churches are still used today and if lucky enough to visit when a religious festival is taking place, an unparalleled place to witness Ethiopia’s spiritual traditions. Even without this though, they retain an aura which is spellbinding, enhanced by the fact that very few western travellers actually get here. However, the time and effort it takes to reach them makes them all the more special. Day 3 – 15th January- Day 3 – Mekelle - Axum (130 km, Approximate driving time: three hours) The road to Axum passes through spectacular landscapes. Axum is Ethiopia’s holiest town and since 1980 a World Heritage Site. Highlights include a remarkable collection of ancient stelae, the bath and palace of the Queen of Sheba, and St Mary of Tsion Church, claimed by some to hold the Ark of the Covenant containing the original stone tablets handed down to Moses. Overnight at Yared Zema Hotel or similar. (BD) Axum The northern town of Axum is reputed to have been the capital of the legendary Queen of Sheba, in the 10th century BC. Once a great city and the capital of a powerful empire around the time of the birth of Christ, it is thought by some to be one of the great civilisations of antiquity, controlling the all-important trade routes between Asia and Africa for many centuries. Today it is a site of pilgrimage, containing many important religious buildings as well as palaces and tombs belonging to past Emperors of Ethiopia. The most notable of these is the church of St Mary of Tsion, which is said to contain the Ark of the Covenant and is watched over by a guardian who prevents anyone from seeing it. According to legend, the ark was brought here by Emperor Menelik, son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Axum is also famous for its collection of stelae, sculpted from single pieces of granite and intricately carved. Although some are in ruins, those that remain are the legacy of one of Africa’s most powerful civilisations. Day 4 – 16th January- Axum - Simien Mountains (290km, Approximate driving time: five- six hours) The journey to the Simien Mountains is long, but as we ascend towards the mountains the scenery is rewarding. Along the way it’s worth keeping an eye out for endemic Ethiopian wildlife, including Gelada Baboons and many species of birds. Depending on our arrival time there may be an opportunity for a short walk in the park to glimpse the breath-taking beauty of Simien mountainscapes. Overnight at Ras Dejen Hotel or similar. (BD) Please Note: it can be very cold in the mountains at night so you should bring warm clothing to wear. Simien Mountains Ethiopia is sometimes called the ‘Roof of Africa’, and the spectacular Simien Mountains hold its highest point Ras Dashen, at 4620m the fourth highest mountain on the continent. The Simiens are a dramatic landscape of green carpeted gorges and chasms which are home to some of the country’s rare and endemic species. It is relatively easy to see large troops of gelada baboons, shaggy maned primates with bright red patches of flesh on their chests, grazing on the vegetation, which are found only in Ethiopia’s mountains. You are less likely to see two of its other rare creatures, the Walia Ibex and the Simien wolf, the rarest of the world’s canine species. Walking in these mountains, watching lammergeier vultures swoop into deep ravines, offers one of the scenic highlights of travel in Africa. Day 5 – 17th January- Simien Mountains Today we walk in the mountains, taking in awe-inspiring viewpoints and spotting some of the endemic wildlife. The effects of altitude, though mild, will be apparent. We’ll make frequent stops, stay well hydrated and travel at the pace of the slowest. Shorter hikes are possible for those preferring not to walk for the whole day. Overnight at Ras Dejen Hotel or similar. (BL) Day 6 – 18th January- Simien Mountains - Gondar (145km, Approximate driving time: three hours) Drive to Gondar, once Ethiopia’s imperial capital, and famous for its beautiful castles and palaces. This afternoon, you can witness the Eve of the Timkat Festival celebration. Overnight at Goha Hotel or similar. (BD) Day 7- 19th January- Timkat Celebrations Early in the morning we will go to the church to see the Timkat celebration and the crowd waiting to be baptized by the holy water. The water which symbolizes the Jordan River is blessed by the priest, and the patriarch then dips a golden cross into it, and extinguishes a burning consecrated candle on the altar. He then sprinkles water on the assembled congregation in commemoration of Christ's baptism in the Jordan River. The ceremony will be over around 8am and afterwards we visit some of the town’s main sites, which include the Bath of King Fasiladas and the ornately decorated Debre Birhan Selassie Church (Light of Trinity) known for its colourful murals. Overnight at Goha Hotel or similar. (BD) Gondar The Royal Enclosure at Gondar is one of Ethiopia’s key sites, and rightly so. Enshrouded in mystery as to its origins, Gondar became the capital of King Fasiladas in the 17th century and an important city in the region. What is astonishing about Gondar is its collection of castles, very European in character and seeming very out of place in this corner of Africa. There are different theories as to who constructed them – some say Portuguese architects and builders were responsible while others claim that Ethiopian craftsmen constructed them. The best preserved is Fasiladas’ Palace, a two storey building with towers and parapets. There are several buildings within the enclosure, including a lion cage, a chancellery and the Royal Archive.