Travel information on Security & Safety for visitors in Ethiopia

Category Archives: kremt

Melkam Addis Amet / Happy New Year

Waterfall in North Shoa on the Ride the Rift trip

Waterfall in North Shoa on the Ride the Rift trip

ለአዲሱ ዓመት እንኳን በሰላም አደረሳችሁ።

Yesterday (Sunday 11 Sep) Ethiopia entered into 2015. The Kremt – rainy season is still drenching the capital and much of the north of the country with its monsoon rains. Much of the highlands is is now green, rivers are running in torrents, with waterfalls impressive everywhere, and the ubiquitous yellow Meskal Daisy adding a splash of yellow to the landscape. Over the coming weeks the rains should begin to peter out and by early October, Ethiopian skies should be blue, and sunshine will turn the emerald fields of crops to gold as harvest time approaches in November. This is the time to travel in Ethiopia!

We at Tesfa Tours wish all our friends, clients, partners, team members, and all Ethiopians. everywhere a healthy, happy and peaceful 2015.

By the way you can follow the dates and holidays in 2015 with the Tesfa calendar or diary/agenda – out now

and remember our Ride the Rift Meskal trip to the green Gurage highlands is approaching. Sign up soon.

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Kremt Season – The Ethiopian Monsoon

Rain storm approaches in mountains of Tigray

Rain storm approaches in mountains of Tigray

When is the Kremt?

The Ethiopian highlands get drenched each year from late June through September. In Addis the rains are heavy and start early and end late finally finishing at the start of October. But by mid to late September the rain becomes noticeably lighter and less frequent. Further north they might not kick in till mid July and tend to fizzle out a bit earlier in September.

Visiting Ethiopia during the Kremt

People ask about visiting Ethiopia during this Kremt season. For people living in Addis Ababa, looking for an escape from the cold and wet weather the best advice is to go to somewhere lower in

Kremt Rain Addis

Kremt rains in Addis  

altitude. Take a break from Addis by visiting Bahir Dar or Arba Minch. Or just head into the Rift Valley, as even the 50km drive to Bishoftu gives you a change in climate. Yes it’s still rains, but the rain storms are shorter lived with more blue sky between, and temperatures are a good deal higher than in Addis.

If the Kremt is your time to visit Ethiopia, don’t worry most places are still good to visit. You just need to be prepared that a rainstorm might track through and you will be sitting in a cafe, chatting to people waiting for the weather to clear. So don’t try to pack too much into one day but give yourself a little bit of extra time. And of course do pack the right clothes (it will be cooler and rain jackets are  needed – and maybe an umbrella!).  Of course the high mountains with moorland at around 4,000 meters altitude are perhaps not the best places to go. Particularly in the

Blue Nile Falls

Blue Nile Falls

Simien mountains where you could be in cloud and driving rain for very long periods of time. But it may still be worth spending a night at the lodge for the probability of clear skies early in the morning and amazing views. Some of our community treks are not advisable at this time and we close at a number of guest houses. However Lalibela, Gondar and Bahir Dar are well worth visiting at this time. Indeed by August the Blue Nile Falls – locally known as Tissisat are really pumping. Harar to the east, and many places in the south are also great to see in the rainy season. In fact in the far southwest, in the

Meket Shepherd boy with whip

Meket Shepherd boy with whip

Omo Valley July and August are not even rainy season.

Festivals in the Kremt 

There are also some key festivals to look out for in August. The Buhe/Ashenda festival time comes in late August. Buhe is celebrated in Addis on 19 August with the Debre Tabor holiday marking Jesus’ Transfiguration. Special bread is baked, and there is singing and dancing around campfires. A few days later, Ashenda is celebrated as the two week long Filsetta Fast ends. This is mostly a women’s day where they dress up often with skirts of grass and dance and sing, but in some areas such as around Lalibela and Meket, boys will have a contest to see who can make the loudest whip crack.

What is the Kremt?

Trading routes used by dhows in the Indian Ocean and the monsoon

Trading routes used by dhows and the monsoon

So is the Kremt season really a monsoon? Technically yes, this rain is driven by the same global patterns that drive India’s monsoon. There is a kind of climatic equator where the Southern and Northern Hemisphere’s meet called the Inter-

Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) . This was the phenomenon that causes the doldrums sailors used to fear. In July-September this band moves north, far north into Asia and it also moves north of the Horn of Africa. Behind it it pulls up winds that blow broadly north from the Indian Ocean, and these moisture ladened winds soak the Ethiopian highlands with life giving rains.

This monsoon even has an effect on Oman’s east coast with the Dhofar mountains getting a good soaking in the same period, before returning to the usual dry arid climate. Along Africa’s east coast trading Dhows used this shift in winds to sail north the July-Sept and as the ITCZ shifts south from October, so the winds would switch allowing sailors to take their shows as far south as Madagascar. Zanzibar was off course a key port and trading centre in this international traffic, with its fabled spices. It was in fact part of the Sultanate of Oman.

The Kremt and the Origin of Ethiopia’s Calendar

Nile flood waters at Giza

Nile flood waters at Giza

Ethiopia’s Kremt rains have also had a huge effect on Egypt. Ancient Egyptians relied upon the Nile’s floodwaters to reinvigorate the lands beside the Nile and so allow them to plant a crop as the floodwaters receded. For them the flood was a renewal. The ancient Egyptian New Year started when the Nile began to flood. And it is no surprise that this flood was due to the deluge in the highlands of Ethiopia, most of the water from which makes its way into the Nile basin. And in an ironic exchange Ethiopia has taken the basic timeframe of the Egyptian calendar for itself. The Ethiopian New Year which is currently on the 11th of September each year is derived from the ancient Egyptian New Year. Over the many thousands of years the date has slipped back from mid August when the flooding starts.

So whether you live in Ethiopia and are wondering if you have to endure endless weeks of rain in Addis, or you are considering to visit Ethiopia and are wondering if the rainy season is an OK time to see this marvellous country, please talk to us as Tesfa Tours and we can ensure you see some blue skies, get some sunshine and experience the best of Ethiopia.

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Melkam Meskal – best wishes for the Meskal Holiday

The Demera – Bonfire – for Meskal

Today across much of Ethiopia food is being prepared for tomorrows Meskal holiday, and bonfires are built and decorated with Meskal flowers ( a yellow daisy) and national flags. Tonight many will light the bonfires, although in some places they are lit tomorrow.

Meskal commemorates that St. Helena found the True Cross of Christ in Jerusalem. The Cross had healing powers after Jesus’ crucifixion which was attracting many converts, so the Jews threw the Cross into a rubbish disposal pit, the location of which over the centuries, became lost

In 327 A.D. the mother of King Constantine, Queen Helena, made a trip to Jerusalem to find the Cross. She was advised by an old man called Kiriakos to light a bonfire with incense and be guides by the smoke.  Helena’s people started digging at the spot on

A Meskal Demera (bonfire) built by locals in Addis

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Across many of the peoples south and west of Addis – such as Gurage and Wolaita, Meskal is celebrated over several days and is the major celebration of the year. Meskal also comes at the point where the rainy season -the kremt

Meskal flower seller in Addis

Meskal flower seller in Addis

– is ending. In Addis Ababa where the kremt is longer there are typically still a week or two of sporadic rains, but further north where it is drier the rains have pretty much finished by Meskal. So the holiday also marks the onset of what the greenest season that is often (rather inaccurately) described as spring. The Meskal daisy can be seen growing in fields and open lands across the highlands.

Now is the time to start planning your trip out of Addis. The country is opening for tourism. All those in the tourism sector, hotel staff, guides, cooks, drivers etc are desperate to work and earn something. Foreign tourists are very few and so the tourist sites are all but empty, and it is a wonderful chance to see them without the crowds.

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COVID19, and Ethiopia re-opening for Tourism

Peering through the gap

Its been a while since I sent out an update on how things are progressing here in Ethiopia. The Kremt rains have been heavy this year,  for those of you that do not know this Ethiopia’s rainy season bought about by the same weather system that causes India’s monsoon, and like the monsoon it runs from its beginning at the end of June until it peters out in late September/or early October.

As anticipated the rains, which drive people indoors in confined spaces, and force people who would walk to use public transport, have seen a spike in cases of COVID 19 in Ethiopia with daily cases rising above the 500 mark in late July, and peaking at over 1,500 per day in late August (using the 7 day moving average on ‘worldometer’  https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/ethiopia/).  However since then the spike has dropped off with the average back down to 500 a day for 14 September. The mortality figures are similar, peaking in later August at 22, and coming down now to 13 (again the moving 7 day average).

Mekdela – the mountain fortress of Emperor Tewedros

Although the New Year holiday on Saturday will have affected social distancing as people came together,  I anticipate that the figures allowing for a blip, will continue to fall as we move into October and could see new infections drop below 100 a day with the dry weather that we anticipate being the norm from mid October.

The other positive news is that the Ministry of Culture and Tourism has announced that Ethiopia will re-open for Tourism as of 1 October. There will be protocols in place, including use of face-masks and sanitiser, spacing in transport (vehicles will only operate with 50% capacity) and getting people to keep a safe distance. Although details have not been made clear it is understood that the requirement for incoming passengers to quarantine will be dropped, probably relying on testing before the flight and on arrival, and a procedure to allow any positives cases to be tracked.

Meskal flowers near the Simiens – traditional for the New Year


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For those eager and able to travel to Ethiopia we will offer lots of fresh air (most monuments are outside), and we anticipate that there will be so few visitors that tourist sites will be far emptier than usual, so this could be the time to book that special trip.

Additional news – the Tesfa Tours hanging calendar is out – with the Desktop version and Agenda soon to be ready.

Let me wish all our friends, customers, suppliers, and those who just picked up this blog – a happy new year, – and wish that 2013 (for that is the new year in Ethiopia) rapidly gets better for the whole world!

 

 

 

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Rufael and Pagume

Today is the big annual Rufael (Raphael) day -one of the archangels and the protector of pregnant women in the Ethiopian Church! The rain that fell heavily this morning is taken as a blessed and holy rain – and it is a well received blessing.

The pages for each month - showing all the holidays and both dates

September with Pagume shown

Rufael falls on the 3rd day of Pagume which is the 13th month or more properly the period of added days that adds the extra days (5 or 6 in a leap year) needed if the 12 months are all 30 days (as are the Ethiopian months). This year is a leap year with the extra 6th day in Pagume as you can see on the Tesfa Tours calendar shown below. And off course the next day is Enkutatash. One of the biggest holidays – New Years Day.
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Let pray for plenty more rain from now into the first part of the New Year in Ethiopia.

Rain clouds in Addis

Rain clouds in Addis

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The rainy season in Addis

Rain in Tigray“A veritable monsoon!” Is how I often describe it, and it is. Its cause is the same weather patterns that cause the monsoon to sweep up through India – monsoon is the Indian word for their rainy season and kremt is the Amharic word.

And rather like the monsoon in India it does not rain all day, but rather heavy downpours roll through, skies darken, the wind picks up and torrential rain, often with hail follows. Later on or next morning the skies are clear and the sun shines brightly for some hours.  Its not a bad time to be in Addis or in Ethiopia. Pack an umbrella, put on the some boots, and head off to explore. If your visiting, just be ready to dive into a coffee shop and sit out the rain.

This year in Addis the Kremt is giving us a lot of sun and glorious weather, with much of the rain in the night. This is worrying, as the rain that comes to Addis is far more than the rain that goes to many other regions of Ethiopia, all of which depend on the Kremt to start off their crops, allow the meadows to grow hay, refill the water table so springs are replenished, refill reservoirs to generate electricity. If the rains intensify now that would be good, and they need to be strong through into late September. The official date for the end of the Kremt is Meskerem 25th which this year falls on 6th October, but already by the Meskal holiday (Meskerem 17 or 28th September) the rains will usually become far less frequent and the signs will be there that the dry season is coming.
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A reminder for anyone looking to do some trekking. Tigray is fantastic for walking at this time of year. It does not rain much there, mostly at night, and the sun will be out in the morning. Let us know if you would like to make a trek and we can organise it.

 

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Escape the rain: take a break in Tigray – with local flights $645 p/person

Rainbow comes out over the mountains in Tigray

Rainbow comes out over the mountains in Tigray

The Kremt rains (as the season is called) officially begins on Senay 26 ( 3rd July) according to the old church calendar and runs till Meskerem 25 (this year that will be 6th October). For those new to Addis it does not rain all day every day, but by mid August it will begin to feel like it has! For those hankering for a bit of sun, it does not rain all over the country, and certainly other parts of Ethiopia are not as wet as Addis. The Rift valley gets more frequent showers and some sweeping rain, but when the sun comes out its a good deal warmer, but up north in Tigray it stays bright.  Most mornings dawn with a blue sky and cloud does not roll in till later on in the afternoon. With the sandy soil keeping the paths more dry, we keep the community treks open all through the Kremt.

Prickly Pear - the Beles fruit, from the Cactus

Prickly Pear – the Beles fruit, from the Cactus

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A 3 night trip, with 2 nights at the community guest houses and one night at Gheralta Lodge will cost $645 per person including local flights (with Ethiopian ID or resident card), and 4 WD transport. Excludes church entry. For full details see  Journey in the mountains of Tigray

 

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