Travel information on Security & Safety for visitors in Ethiopia

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Melkam Meskal

The Demera – Bonfire – for Meskal

Ethiopia celebrates the finding of the True Cross – lighting bonfires across the country. The cross at the centre of the bonfire eventually falls – and the direction of its fall predicts whether the year will be good and peaceful.

Lighting the chubo

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used to light the main fire. It is often decorated with the beautiful Meskal flowers that are everywhere at the end of the rainy season.

Tesfa Tours wishes everyone a lovely Meskal Holiday (This year on 28 Sept) and a peaceful and happy year.

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The New Tesfa Calendar is available now

Calendars produced by Tesfa Tours

Tesfa Tours 2012 Calendars

Dear Friends and Supporters

The new and unique Tesfa Calendar is now ready

Runs from Sep 2019 – Aug 2020 (ie Ethiopian Year 2012) is now in its 13th year and is ready!

This calendar is unique in that it details the Ethiopia dates, holidays, saints days, fasts, Islamic holidays and more onto a western calendar month format. So for example you can see on 12 September it is Meskerem 1, 2012; you can see it is a public holiday – Enkutatash (New Year); its also Yohannes – (John the Baptist’s) Annual saints day and not to forget its the monthly Lideta Mariam (birthday of St Mary) day.

This goes along side stunning photos that will make you want to get out of Addis, or fly over from where ever you have the calendar and see this beautiful country. The photos are taken from the Tesfa Community treks across the north of the country (the Agenda has photos from other additional places too).

The calendar comes in 3 versions:

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Traditional hanging calendar (29cm across ands 53cm down)- 12 months with 13 photos. We ask a donation of 200 birr to help support the Tesfa communities who have guesthouses around the country hosting visitors enabling them to walk through their beautiful landscapes.

Desktop version, like the hanging calendar but smaller to fit on your desk (20cm x 17cm) – same pages – with photos facing back and dates forward. We ask 150 birr donation for these calendars.

The Agenda – great for note taking with all the information packed in & 50+ photos

Newly designed this year is the Agenda (approx 21cm x 15cm) in portrait format, has 1 week to a page and so 53 pages (52.14 weeks a year) – running from Monday to Sunday on one side on easy to write on paper, and with a photo to match on opposite page. The agenda also includes a map showing where the community tourism guesthouses are located. For this agenda we ask 300birr donation!

The calendars are available from our offices at Kebena, but we will also have copies at various locations around Addis, notably ICS, Sandford School, German School, GIZ & EU offices. If you would like to hold copies to distribute in your organisation please let us know.

For further information call 011 124 5178 or email calendars@tesfatours.com

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Did you spot Tesfa Trek in Selamta Magazine ?

This was in the May/June issue – but you can read it at your leisure on line (go to page 54) on the link below. Journalist, Terry Adby, who trekked many of the Tesfa trails in the mountains, describes the experience trekking and staying with communities across the Ethiopian highlands.

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https://issuu.com/selamtamagazine/docs/selamta_mj19_issuu

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Tesfa treks ‘are one of the best’ – in the Rough Guides

Tesfa treks are down in Rough Guides as ‘one of the best 7 walking trips you’ve never heard of!

Recognising the off the beaten trail nature of the Tesfa treks,  the Rough Guides have us – check it out

See the various community treks that are possible with Tesfa Tours in Ethiopia . – in Wollo near Lalibela, in Tigray’s Agame mountains, in the Simiens south of the National Park, and on the Rift Valley escarpment near Ankober in the Wof Washa forest
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Ethiopian holidays that can change lives – article in the UK Guardian Newspaper

A great article by Kevin Rushby in the Guardian Newspaper (26Jan 2019)

A farmer in Janamora Woreda – Photo by Kevin Rushby

“A new tourism project in the northern Ethiopia highlands brings spectacular scenery and a warm welcome, where ‘your holiday can become the source of someone else’s dreams’.

We arrive at sunset. The guesthouse sits on a rising prow of rock with dizzying views of the vast gorge below. The altitude is around 3,000 metres, and after six hours’ walking, I am tired. Inside the thatched hut, two young

photo of Ras Dashen while on a Tesfa Trek in Simiens, curtesy of Kevin Rushby


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women are tending a fire where the shiro, a kind of bean stew, is cooking. I glance out of the small window and a lammergeier, a bearded vulture, comes sailing past. Perhaps he, too, is drawn by the smell of food. This is a hungry land. My guide, Suleiman, comes in and we chat to the women, who seem very excited and happy…..”

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2019/jan/26/ethiopia-holiday-can-change-lives-new-tourism-project?CMP=share_btn_link

 

 

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Staying with the community on Tesfa treks will be the highlight of your trip

The view from Mequat

We just received this amazing feedback:-

“Mark, your treks were amazing. Staying at these 4 places [2 nights in Wollo & 2 nights in Tigray] was just pure happiness and the best moments of this trip. We’re grateful.”

From a French couple who came out of the Agame Mountains in Tigray this morning having traveled across the North of Ethiopia with Tesfa Tours.

Don’t miss out. Spend at least a few nights with the Tesfa communities on

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View from Enaf Community Guest house

your tour of Ethiopia.

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Big Saint’s days and fasts in November / December

November /December (Hedar/Tahsas) sees an increase in the number of big Saints days in Ethiopia. For many the harvest should now be in, and traditionally this would have been a time for celebrations.

The smog on the morning of 21 Nov - Hedar Mikael

Smog – 21 Nov – Hedar Mikael

If you were in Addis on 21 November and looked out in the morning you might have thought you were in Delhi, it was hard to see beyond 50 meters. There was a smog such as I have never seen before, as the smoke from hundreds of thousands of fires combined with the increasing air pollution to reduce visibility to mere meters. This is the day – Hedar Mikael – when householders burn their compound rubbish and with the smoke it is believed that disease and sickness is taken away.

As November comes to an end another big day looms – Tsion Mariam – 30th November. This is one of the biggest

Ancient stones in the Church compound in Axum

pilgrimages in the orthodox calendar, all hotels are full for Tsion Mariam as thousands of pilgrims descend on the town and spend the night at the ancient church of Our Lady Mary of Zion (to give it it’s full name). This church is arguably Ethiopia’s most important church. It was one of the first churches built in Ethiopia back in the very early 4th century, and has been destroyed and rebuilt at least twice with destruction inflicted by the armies of Queen Yodit and Mohammed Gragn. It was here that Emperors came to seek the coronation. If an Emperor was not coronated at Mariam Tsion or at least had a special ratification service they could not hold the title “Atse’.
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Sunbird in Axum

The church compound is worth spending some time visiting if you can arrange a stay there at another time. There are stones on which is old Sabean script, that must have been sources from far older buildings. The church built by Emperor Fasilidas has lovely frescoes aside (though only men can enter here), and the trees are full of sun birds and other iridescent birds.

November also marks the beginning of the advent or Christmas fast running from 24th November until Gena on 7th January, so its a great time for those vegetable lovers to enjoy the lovely fasting food at traditional restaurants, and the fried whole fish that is often served too.

The biggest annual Saints day in December is Kulubi Gabriel (28 December). On this day you want to keep away from the big Gabriel churches in Addis unless you want to attend the service. The roads going up to the palace above the Hilton are always blocked off as thousands head to St.Gabriel’s church. However the epicentre of this festival is another major pilgrimage is at Kulubi, a town not far from Dire Dawa and Harar. Here tens of thousands of pilgrims descend on the church, some crawling on hands and knees as a penance or to fulfil a vow to St. Gabriel.

Learn more about the holidays, saint’s days, fasts and special holidays that punctuate the Ethiopian Calendar from the Tesfa Calendar. Get you copy (donation to the Tesfa Communities required) – email: calendars@tesfatours.com

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Backpackers Guide to Ethiopia in the Guardian lauds Tesfa Tours

Simien mountains. Photograph: Nigel Pavitt /Getty Images

Simien mountains. Photograph: Nigel Pavitt/Getty Images (from Guardian article)

[Except from Guardian Article] “………Adigrat, a border town perhaps set for great times now that a new peace treaty between Ethiopia and Eritrea has finally been agreed. Mark Chapman runs the lauded community trekking trail Tesfa Tours here, which also leads treks near Lalibela, Ankober and in the Simien Mountains……….”

Click on this link to see the full article: The Guardian travel a backpackers guide to Ethiopia .

 

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“Ethiopia has astonishing landscapes, ranging from the flat-topped mountains of the north to the otherworldly multicoloured salt flats and lava lake of the Erta Ale volcano in the Danakil Depression; rich flora and fauna(this is the country where residents and hyenas live in peace); and ancient cultures, including the the city of Axum (one of the oldest continuously inhabited places in Africa), the rock-hewn churches of Lalibela and Africa’s oldest mosque, Nejashi. It also has one of the continent’s fastest-growing economies (second only to Ghana), with booming cities and a young population. For all this, it is yet to attract large numbers of tourists, and visitors can often find themselves alone in this amazing country.”

 

 

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The Backroads in Ethiopia – Wer Illu to Mekdela (28 Sept 18)

Mekdela Amba.

Today started and ended in the rich historical annals is Ethiopia. In the sky above as I write Mars looms big and red near the sting in the tail of Scorpio. The Milky Way and trillions of visible stars light up the moonless landscape. I’m writing from Mekdela Amba, where the colourful reign of Emperor Tewedros came to a tragic and dramatic end rather like a shooting star.

The day started in Wer Illu, a Shoan town where the young Menelik, Negus (king) of Shoa, based himself in the 1870s while he waged campaigns that expanded the lands he ruled to the south, west and east. His power grew to the extent that upon Emperor Yohannes’ death he was easily able to claim the Imperial crown. It’s interesting to note that Menelik’s father was killed in battle by Tewedros and he himself was imprisoned on Mekdela, yet said Tewedros treated him like a son (but he still had to escape the fortress Amba!)

Early this morning in Wer Illu I walked around Menelik’s compound: a number of old stone buildings surrounded by a meter thick wall that took the high ground above the town with great views over the Wonchit gorge. One pillar is curiously signed as guest house with seating recently put around it.

I also visited Giyorgis church. I particularly liked the stone gatehouse. The church was closed so I didn’t see inside. Around the church were a number of old houses, probably once belonging to big families, now in poor shape. But the town had a feel to it with a number of old buildings with balconies, probably 150 years old.

Dawit had managed to find a mechanic who helped to fix the power steering oil leak. So we saved the pump from fatal damage and our arms from exhaustion. He also secured the fix on the engine oil leak, and we were ready to go.

It was a stunning drive from North Shoa to South Wollo. We saw large troops Geladas near the gorges that were all around at the start. Shoan houses with compound walls and fancy gate houses gave way to conical thatched cottages as we reached the highlands of South Wollo, with roofs reaching the ground to protect from the bitter cold.

We were climbing all the time in altitude. Wer Ilu was around 2,900 m but we climbed to well over 3,500 passing an amazing volcanic plug. Fields of Meskal daisies made it even more scenic.

We hit the ‘main road’ coming west from Dessie and enjoyed some 30km of asphalt before taking the road north to Adjbar and Tenta.
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It was along this road that we saw our first pilgrims to Gishen Mariam going on foot.

After lunch in Adjbar we picked up our Mekdela guide Getachew and two cooks and set off first to Tenta 10km to the north and then along a 17km road to Mekdela.

The road was pretty good. A bit steep in places, but just short of Mekdela the road was blocked by a rock slide.

I had no idea that there was a dirt road to the top of the Amba. Anyway we abandoned the Landy and walked the last few km to the top. The government have facilitated the construction of some 7 guesthouses is 3 clusters. Drone view of Mekdela Amba from east side

View from drone, guesthouses in bottom left, looming south along east side of Amba

It’s a bit over the top as we gathered they had 15 visitors last year. Due to the lack of ‘uptake’ there had been a decline the state of the buildings. Some are not in use. The toilet by our guesthouse had such a small hole in it that it was unusable. But the long drop at the ‘northern’ guest house was fine. The cooks bought some supplies: bread, rice, oil and onion. So I added veggies and Shiro. We had a delicious dinner: rice, Shiro & al dente veggies. I’m not sure what they planned to feed us. But no tea, coffee, bottled drinks or breakfast.

We explored the southern end of the Amba where Menelik had his buildings. His ‘suicide’ place was clearly marked, and the remains of the prison, store and Medhan Alem church (looted and destroyed by the British ?). We also saw Tewedros’ burial place, a quite glade of trees and a concrete stone. A very simple place and somewhat moving. At the southern end, beyond a water catchment) amusingly called Tewedros’ swimming pool) is Mariam church with a pretty wood around it,and a brightly painted church.

Later I tried to fly my drone of the western edge. I got a few photos despite the wind before I crash landed ?.

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The Unique Tesfa Calendar is ready!

New Tesfa Calendar
(desk top and agenda)

The new Tesfa Calendar that runs from Sep 2018 – Aug 2019 (ie Ethiopian Year 2011) is now in its 12th year and is ready!

This calendar is unique in that it details the Ethiopia dates, holidays, saints days, fasts , Islamic holidays and more onto a western calendar month format. So you can see on 11 September it is Meskerem 1 2011, you can see it is a public holiday – Enkutatash (New Year), its also Yohannes – (John the Baptist’s) Annual saints day and Al Hijara- Islamic New Year … not to forget its the monthly Lideta Mariam (birthday of St Mary) day.

This goes along side stunning photos that will make you want to get out of Addis,

The Tesfa hanging calendar – promoting the community treks

or fly over from where ever you have the calendar and see this beautiful country. The photos are taken from the Tesfa Community treks across the north of the country (the Agenda has photos from other additional places too).

This year the calendar comes in 3 versions:

The traditional hanging calendar (29cm across ands 53cm down)- 12 months with 13 photos. We ask a donation of 200 birr to help support the Tesfa communities who have guesthouses around the country hosting visitors enabling them to walk through their beautiful landscapes.

The desktop version, like the hanging calendar but smaller to fit on your desk (20cm x 17cm) – same pages – with photos facing back and dates forward. We also ask the 200 birr donation for these calendars.

But few things had to be taken care of in order to avoid prescription viagra problems in the near future. More natural methods such as taking exercise, stopping smoking, and relaxing from viagra buy daily stress have proven very effective for many people. If a diabetic polyneuropathy generic viagra 25mg occurs, means that something is wrong with them and they may be distressed about it. In addition to chiropractic manipulations, viagra without prescription djpaulkom.tv lifestyle habits and nutritional changes also play a significant role. New and exciting this year is the Agenda (approx 21cm x 15cm) in portrait format, has 1 week to a page and so 53 pages (52.14 weeks a year) – running from Monday to Sunday on each right hand page, and with a photo to match on the left hand page. The agenda will also include a map showing where the community tourism guesthouses are located. For this agenda we ask 400birr

The Tesfa Agenda – Ethiopia and western calendar merged

donation – however if you buy 3 we will ask only 1,000 birr!

The calendars are available from our offices at Kebena, but we will also have copies at various locations around Addis, notably ICS, Sandford School, German School.  If you would like to hold copies to distribute in your organisation please let us know.

For further information call 011 124 5178 / or email calendars@tesfatours.com

 

 

 

 

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