What makes Hammerstein so special? Hammerstein has lots of furry friends that stay on the property…
Who stays on the property?





- Lisa the leopard who was raised by the families’ son
- Caesar and Cleopatra – two cheetahs who have also had two batches of cubs
- Two Caracals, the small African Lynx
- Hans the Hartman’s Mountain zebra (his name in Afrikaans means cheeky…and that he is!)

Visitors are warned not to get too close to Hans the Hartman’s Mountain zebra for he may bite. My fellow traveller, Lloyd, from Western Australia was very intrigued by Hans and decided to meet him. For some reason Hans was very friendly to Lloyd and the two had a great time bonding. Of course the fact that Lloyd was feeding him camel thorn pods (a nice tasting treat!) did help a little. So if you are ever in southern Namibia stop by and say hello to Hans, just remember the pods.

- Chantal (Jenman Guide)

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Rhinos are truly magnificent animals; well feared and extremely popular for safaris. Nevertheless, no matter how breathtaking these animals are, the sad truth is that it’s not uncommon for rhinos to be hunted by men. Often, poachers hunt down rhinos in order to get their majestic horns. Most of the time, they don’t even stop from killing baby rhinos to get whatever little horn they have. These horns are then sold to the highest bidder – collectors from all around the world (we ran a story a few days ago – click here to read it).

Our very own Aline and Lisa were sent on an educational safari which took them through South Africa and Swaziland. On their second day they arrived at the Hlane Royal National Park in Swaziland and were given the opportunity to go on a walking safari in the rhino enclosure. While following their guide, they ran into another group of tourists, telling them, that there were some rhinos behind the bushes, just around the corner. They slowly approached the area to find two rhinos fighting. Surprisingly, there were two females battling each other, which is rather unusual. While watching them fight, the tour guide explained to the group what to do in case the rhinos go rogue and start to charge them: You should stand down-wind, be quiet and hide in the nearest & biggest tree. This is only a safety precaution for the group since rhino attacks rarely happen and as long as you are careful and respectful of their space, they are not really a threat.

The group continued their approach while watching the “ladies” fight. All of a sudden; they stopped, looked at the group, circled and then started to charge the group. Obviously, most of the participants started to panic and they forgot all the advice they had gotten just a few minutes ago. Finally, one lady regained her composure and remembered to climb the nearest tree. The others quickly followed her but the rhinos still kept charging the group. Now that everyone was safe in the trees the time had come to plan a counterattack and chase the rhinos away. This was the responsibility of their tour guide who rather casually got the rhinos to disappear by batting a stick on the ground (making a loud and scary noise to intimidate the rhinos). Even though, chasing the rhinos away was less spectacular than expected, it didn’t make the guide anything less than a hero for the group.
They survived the attack!

So, the rhinos gave Aline and Lisa the fright of their lives. Still, this adventure will remain an unforgettable memory and, who knows, maybe it will become their safari story of a lifetime!

—–

If you want to know more about our safaris in Africa, please click here to see our tours.

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City couple’s book on exploring the Cape Peninsula’s mountain chain is memorable, writes VIVIEN HORLER

WHEN you want to get up high in cities like London, Paris, New York or Sydney, you have to climb up some man-made structure like the London Eye or Eiffel Tower, the Empire State Building or the Harbour Bridge.

Impressive though they might be, they’re pretty puny compared with the mass and majesty of our mountain. It is 1 088m high, and geologists believe it may have once been twice that height. It’s the universally recognized icon of the Mother City, our playground, our breathing space, our ever-present view.

And now it is the subject of a splendid new book called Mountains in the Sea, by John Yeld and his wife, Martine Barker. Yeld, environment writer with the Cape Argus, is also a photographer and many of his pictures appear in the book. Barker, managing editor of Independent Newspapers, Cape, was the designer.
It’s a glossy, large-format coffee table book that grew out of a much smaller pocket guide to the Table Mountain chain produced by the couple six years ago.

“We were commissioned by the Table Mountain National Park to do the guidebook, in a format which could be popped into a rucksack” says Yeld. “The idea was for a detailed guide that could be used by hikers, by the mountain guides who were being trained by the park at the time, and by anyone who wanted to get to know the mountain.”

That little book, also called Mountains in the Sea, is full of detail on the mountain’s flora and fauna, as well as the trails and routes that can be taken.

But the format meant the pictures were necessarily small, and Yeld and Barker wanted to produce a companion volume in which the pictures would dominate, the sort of book you could pore over after you had been hiking, or perhaps to inspire you to go.

It took a while, but with South African National Parks and Africa Geographic as co-publishers and the sponsorship of the French Global Environment Facility, the big book is now a reality.

Capetonians tend to talk about “the mountain” when they mean any one or all of a series of peaks that make up the Table Mountain chain, the series of mountains that runs for about 40km along the spine of the Cape Peninsula. It is the chain, rather than just the front table of Table Mountain, that is the subject of the book.

The mountain chain is part of the Cape Floristic Region World Heritage Site, and has the richest floral diversity anywhere in the world. Yeld’s introductory text sets the scene, emphasis the biological significance of the park, goes into its history and describes the often acrimonious struggle that led to the establishment of the park.

But, as planned, it is the magnificent pictures that are the heart of this book. About two thirds of them were taken by Yeld, but others were found in a variety of sources, including the Cape Archives.

You might think it’s hard to get a new angle on such a well-photographed icon as Table Mountain, but Yeld and the other contributing photographers have succeeded. Even regular hikers will find vistas here that are new to them. Check out the wonderful pictures of the “tablecloth”, or the family of baboons all perched on a single burnt-out tree, or the relatively rarely visited Myburgh’s Waterfall Ravine above Hout Bay with its remnant of indigenous forest.

And then there are the fire pictures, as well as the spectacular rock-climbing pictures by Mike Scott, and the underwater pictures by Geoff Spidby.

Table Mountain might be a very public icon, but it is full of hidden spaces, and they are reproduced in this book in glorious abundance.

HORLER, Vivien; New sides of an icon exposed in Weekend Argus; 10.07.2010

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Tiara Walters chats to a documentarian who took a dip on the wild side to get to understand the Nile crocodile

ENVIRONMENTAL documentarian Roger Horrocks has a beef with airbags. „The modern world has sanitised our lives,“ he yawps as we manoeuvre our way through De Waal Drive’s Saturday-afternoon traffic towards his Kenilworth home to watch the documentary on crocodiles he has co-produced.

„Don’t get me wrong. I dig the benefits of my car and all that,“ the 41-year-old says, gesturing towards the bonnet of his bakkie. In low-key silver, his ryperd is nothing flashy. A bushwahacker’s workhorse. „But we’ve very cleverly insured absolutely every single thing you can possibly think of. And, yet, living in jeopardy is what makes you feel alive, right? Jeopardy is what shaped our ancestors’ consciousness. It’s what makes us human.“
Horrocks’s answer? Go find yourself a dragon. A crocodile. Preferably a wild one in the Okavango Delta. And none of that croc cage-diving malarkey that’s recently taken off in Oudtshoorn, hear. You need to go scuba-diving. Just you, your wetsuit and your camera. To record it for posterity. Oh ja. And your stun gun, but like only if you really need it. Otherwise, leave it on the houseboat. Hundreds.

At least Horrocks armed himself with a human shield when he first wafted into the delta’s subterranean caves three years ago. The shield was 52-year-old Didier Noirot, marine titan Jacques Cousteau’s chief cinematographer for 10 years. They first met in 2007 when they both worked on The Great Tide, a BBC documentary series about the sardine run.

Horrocks considers Noirot to be his mentor. He is one of the most experienced underwater cameramen in the world and, hypnotised by a phantasmagorical underbelly never-before captured on film, Noirot was the one who dreamt up the idea of slipping into the delta’s mostly unexplored bowels and flushing its mythologized beast – the Nile crocodile.
„I wanted to film crocodiles already in 2005, because this is a very unknown animal,“ the Frenchman lilts in Into the Dragon’s Lair, the Animal Planer/NHU Africa documentary that premiered on Dstv on Wednesday and chronicles Horrocks and Niort’s adventures in the delta. „And I think we deserve to make something nice with this animal. Because no one likes crocodiles. They all end in bags and shoes.“

In 2006, Noirot dived solo, but the animals were just flitting shadows that kept ghosting into the papyrus.
„As we discussed filming, the terrible reality dawned on us that we would need to go deep into the crocodile’s lair,“ recalls Durban-born Horrocks, whose Freudian stills of the planet’s liquid viscera do for local underwater photography what Dali’s pocket watches did for surrealism.

„We had heard stories of how these crocodiles dragged their prey into the underwater papyrus cave systems. And we just knew that, if we were going to achieve our goal, this was where we had to go.“
Into the Dragon’s Lair attempts to be more than just a machismo display of derring-do and it does this well as an arresting psychoanalytical meditation on the human condition and its relationship with fear. In it, Noirot too, warns of the perils of the over-insured life.

„Maybe we need to relook at fear and relook at the things we see as being dangerous. And fear of a crocodile… how do you get over it? You go face to face with a croc,“ says Horrocks.

The documentary is a fitting nod to Captain Cousteau, the marine frontiersman who invented the aqua lung and pioneered the idea that the oceans are worth conserving. Given that there is no record of men diving with crocs, Into the Dragon’s Lair has indeed opened up a new frontier in the documentary business.
„We think we saw stuff there that no one has seen,“ says Horrocks. „One of the things we were told by scientists was that crocodiles do not feed in winter because it’s cold and they’re hibernating. But we saw a crocodile on a river bank with a sitatunga in its mouth in the middle of winter. We’re not trying to compete with scientists – all we’re bringing is actual observation in the field, and I can tell you now those crocodiles definitely feed in winter.“

„Humans are the most distinct creatures on the planet because they walk upright… they’ll quite readily take a human being, knowing full well what we are,“ says the crew’s river guide, Gregory Thompson. „I was thinking they would show more aggression towards the divers. (But) the way the croc sort of hides his head in the undergrowth, the way they expose their back, they don’t make eye contact, they don’t show their teeth… to me this was pure and simple submissive behaviour.“

If their misadventures aren’t enough to convince you that these netherworld explorers are a few scales short of a full croc-skin purse, consider Horrocks once touched a croc while filming in the delta’s waters.
„Didier’s very anti touching. For him it’s a respect thing. I’m slightly different – science plays an invaluable role, but I don’t bury into the myth of the objective observer. The danger is you can’t develop a relationship with that animal, but we’ve engaged with animals since antiquity. It’s helped to define our understanding of ourselves, of human consciousness,“ says Horrocks. „But, for the record, I’m still wary of crocodiles – one wrong move an they’ll nail you. There aren’t any guarantees.“

What does a croc feel like?
„Quite soft. Pliant. A bit like a handbag, actually,“ remarks Horrocks.
One of the most extraordinary encounters in the film is the moment when Horrocks and Noirot follow a 4m croc into its aquatic dungeon beneath the papyrus.
„Squeezing our way through some quite narrow tunnels was terrifying, because it was quite possible that the animal was right next to you and you would never know it,“ Horrocks reveals. „ And then we saw it. This incredible golden dragon… It was almost as if all fear and all of the anxiety fell away, because we had such a strong sense that this animal was inviting us to be in this very private place.“

As they follow the dragon through the undulating tunnels, it seems as if the two divers are also making their way through the darkest passages of their own subconscious and find that, in the face of the thing that scares them the most, that thing becomes something else.
„One can be fearful of many things, but most of the time you’re actually fearful of the idea of the thing… One of the biggest journeys in life is learning how to move more away from being in a world where you fear, to being in a world where you love and engage and appreciate.“

For all their kvetching about how the 21st century has trained the life out of our dragons – those things that scare us the most but often make us feel most alive – Horrocks and Noirot seem to have spent a good lot of time trying to train their own. But perhaps they’ve chosen their dragon more carefully than they might’ve let on. What would a life be if you knew for certain your dragon would never whip around to bite you?

WALTERS, Tiara; Going Deeper in Lifestyle, July 25 2010

Suddenly, the great grey shape of a bull elephant materializes beyond the fire, and vanishes as silently as it came into the darkness. It’s just another regular night in Botswana’s legendary Okavango Delta

There aren’t many places left on earth that can be called true wilderness areas. This is one of them. Deep in the heart of Botswana, it’s the only inland delta of its kind in the world. Formed by the Okavango River, which floods down from the Angolan highlands once a year, it fans out into northwestern Botswana in a meandering, complex network of papyrus-lined channels, deep still pools where crocodiles lurk and hippos snort, secret waterways where reeds and grasses almost meet over your head, palm-fringed islands and natural lagoons. The limpid, lily-studded crystal-clear water is so pure you can drink it.

This year the rains and the flood have been exceptional and the water has almost reached Maun. Even the legendary „Stolen Channel“ – The Savuti River – which has been dry for decades, is flowing freely. Thousands of zebra are roaming the area accompanied by the predators which have followed in their wake from Moremi Wildlife Reserve.

Lettie Letsile, manager of Xakanaxa Camp, says in all her years in the area, she has never seen so much water. As a small girl growing up in Makalambedi village, north east of Maun, she remembers going to fetch water from the river for Beauty, her grandmother.
„One evening I saw an owl with two faces and ran all the way home. I was so frightened.“
Although now an accomplished birder, Lettie didn’t know then that the fierce tiny Pearlspotted Owlet, which fits inside a beer mug, has „mock“ eyes on the back of its head to deter predators.

“And we were always very careful at full moon because Beauty told us the moon was a giant eye watching us, and we were very scared of giants. And of witches too. We could always recognize a witch because she had long long nails.”

Beauty would no doubt be amazed today to see her granddaughter managing one of the delta’s oldest and loveliest camps, where some of the staff have worked for decades, like Lettie herself. You’ll feel immediately at home as you pass through the thatched entrance.

Two young American brothers, Ryan and Matt Fleming from Seattle, have momentarily fled South Africa’s soccer frenzy to come to the Okavango. We have driven far sough this day, have watched a pride of 12 lions dozing in the midday sun, a baby waterbuck running after it’s mother, several stately giraffe, and some Okavango “specials” – red lechwe, and the highly endangered wattled cranes and saddlebilled storks.

After a picnic beneath a giant sausage tree, where parrots scold us and starlings murmur, we climb into the boat for the long journey back to the camp. The sky is a washed-out blue, and a chill wind whips round us, because this is winter, when temperatures can drop to freezing after the sun goes down. We chug along through feathery fronds of papyrus, thick reeds, flat bright green lily pads, and carpets of white water lilies whose long red juicy stems float just below the surface. My world is half sky, half reeds and water. Tops of tall trees show above the head-high vegetation as clumps of waterberry trees arch over us. A tiny bejeweled Malachite Kingfisher darts across our narrow channel as it opens into a wide sparkling lagoon where hippos eyeball us inquisitively and jacanas lily trot. The wind picks up, and a heavy-lidded crocodile which has been watching us from a sandbank, slithers into the water.

But there is another danger in this Eden. A Brazilian water weed (Salvinia molesta) is encroaching. Back at camp, our ranger, Baams, shows us a weevil breeding project which combats the weed. The weevils (Cyrtobagous salviniae) are bred in large half drums of water then released into areas where the weed is proliferating. The project has been going for 25 years and is just keeping the danger at bay.

Like many guides in the delta, Baams has his share of hippo stories. Once, after being chased by an angry hippo, he describes how he “was shaking like a small tree in a big wind”. And like all the local guides, he is an expert poler, skillfully guiding our mokoro through a maze of hippo channels and narrow waterways.
“We learnt to pole as children, Our parents wouldn’t let us use their mokoros because they said we would break them, so we cut down palm trees and made mini mokoros out of the trunks.”

Another day, at Orient Express’ Eagle Island Camp, I go for a bush walk with Fiannula and John from the UK, on their first visit to the delta. Our guide is the experienced Roc, from the Bayei tribe, who has lived and worked in this area for many years. We have zoomed through pods of hippos, along innumerable waterways, drifted along in a mokoro, and are now walking on one of the delta’s many islands. Roc explains the “four keystones of the delta – termites, elephants, hippos and mice. These creatures keep the waterways open, and renew the vegetation and soil.”

“Mice?” I question. “Oh yes, very important,” says Roc. “Mice spend a lot of time gathering and hiding food supplies of seeds, burying theirs caches in holes in the ground. Problem is, they often forget where the’ve hidden them, and that means the seeds sprout and grow and so new trees, plants and shrubs spring up.”

Our trip ends with a helicopter ride over the Okavango back to Maun. Stuart Mackay, who runs Mackair, has just dropped off England’s Prince William and Prince Harry, frequent visitors to Botswana, in Maun. He points out game as we fly 600m above the seemingly endless water wilderness. A herd of buffalo doesn’t pause in its collective chewing as we fly over. Elephants are more skittish and Stuart takes great care not to alarm them by flying too low. Giraffe are ultra cool, while sunbathing hippos take to the water in a splashing, hectic rush.

But that’s about the only rush you’ll experience in the Okavango Delta. You’ll experience tranquility, a cocooning-away from the real world, as you are suspended timelessly in a bubble of perfect peace.

Very importantly – and safety is an issue on many traveler’s minds – it’s safe. More than 40 years on after independence in 1966, Botswana is not only the world’s leading producer of gem-quality diamonds and one of Africa’s richest countries, stable democracy. You might have lions, hyenas and leopards outside your lodge or tent, but there certainly won’t be predators of the two-footed kind.

If you would like to find out more information on the Okavango Delta or join a safari that includes the Okavango Delta then please contact Jenman African Safaris for further information. They can be contacted on info@jenmansafaris.com or alternatively visit their website www.jenmansafaris.com for more details.

TURKINGTON, Kate; Okavango Magic in Travel 2010, 24/25 July 2010

As female lions are not picky when it comes to males, this delayed mating process will often give the dominant male the chance to reach the female. He will depose any inferior males and take over…

When the lioness is ready to mate she will approach the male with a swaying motion and flick her tail in his face before lying down in front of him. The actual mating lasts only a few seconds… the female will growl during the mating and swipe at the male after. After swiping the male she will roll on her back. Both the male and the female will loose condition during this time as hunting is far from their minds. If the mating has been successful about three and a half months later some cubs will be born, anything from 1 – 6 cubs may be born. These she will wean after 10 months and then take a little break. 20-30 months after the birth she will come back into oestrus and give the male her signals to start the process again.

- Chantel (Jenman Safaris guide)

Going out and having a good time with my mates! Before I knew it, it was already Monday and I had to start work. Besides sports and sleeping that’s what my life basically consists of at the moment (work!), which isn’t too bad since I therefore don’t have much time to mourn Cape Town. But every time I show people my photos I become “homesick” and really wish to go back – even if it is only for one night on Long Street or a day on Clifton 4th

But for now I have to be content with my memories and the thousands of pictures I took – especially during my“Southern Experience” trip with Jenman Safaris from Victoria Falls through the north-western part of Botswana, Namibia and South Africa back to Cape Town. Although the pictures are just amazing they don’t even come close to the reality. Thinking about this tour I’m still overwhelmed by all the spectacular game sightings, cultural experiences and landscapes. Everything was so totally different to what I’d ever seen before and it’s impossible to choose only one highlight. After the first two days on which I did white water rafting on the Zambezi River and visited the Victoria Falls – which are just breathtaking – I thought it couldn’t get better. But I was already proved wrong the next day when we did a boat cruise on the Chobe River in Botswana, where we saw numerous hippos, crocodiles and big herds of elephants and buffalos; to name just the most impressive ones. And the tour continued like that; every day we saw something fabulous…

My personal highlights were Etosha National park, Sossusvlei, Swakopmund and the Cederberg mountains.
Etosha is Namibia’s most considerable conservancy and the density and variety of animals is incredible. We sometimes saw almost ten different species at one waterhole at the same time! There were giraffes, zebras, wildebeests, ostriches, oryxes and many other kinds of antelopes. At the waterhole which was next to our campsite we also spotted rhinos and elephants and on one of our game drives we saw a pride of lions which tried to hunt a giraffe. The attempt remained unsuccessful but the tension when the lionesses crept up on the giraffe was so intense that we didn’t even dare to breathe.

After many days of excellent game sightings the tour focused on Namibia’s gorgeous nature and landscape. One day we visited Sossusvlei, the famous red dunes in the Namib Desert, which are the highest of their kind in the world. Covered in the golden light of the sunrise the dunes are sweeping and it was worth every step up to overlook the entire area of red and orange dunes – furthermore running down the slopes of the dunes is a lot fun as well.

Very interesting – in particular for Germans – is the coastal town of Swakopmund, which is known as Namibia’s most German town. Even if the Germans left Namibia almost hundred years ago you still find many German street signs, shops and buildings. Therefore I had to go and buy a copy of Namibia’s oldest newspaper – which is German of course!

Besides all the history you can find in Swakopmund you can also do a lot of fun activities like sand-boarding that I did. Except for the boots and the board you can’t compare it to snowboarding – but it’s just as much fun and especially the lay down version gets your adrenalin flowing when you slide down the dune at 75 km!!!

On our second last day we entered South Africa and went into Cederberg Mountains. In contrast to the dusty and dry landscape in Namibia the Cederberg offers lush vegetation and huge citrus farms. It was great to overlook the tree-covered mountains and to breathe in the fresh air.

The next day it was already time to end our 3 week trip in Cape Town which welcomed us with the brightest sunshine and unusual warm temperatures for winter.
What a finish for an unbelievably awesome tour that I’ll definitely never forget!

And the weather stayed nice so I could even spend one of the last 4 days in Cape Town on my beloved beach. The rest of the time I had to do some souvenir shopping for the family and a lot of partying !
These were the last 4 terrific weeks of my time in Cape Town. I really fell in love with the city, South Africa and Namibia.
But that’s also down to my great colleagues from Jenman Safaris who were lovely and welcoming from the very first day on.

Thanks a lot guys, it was a pleasure to work with you – and to go out with you as well!!!
Also thanks for my farewell present – an adidas World Cup jacket. It’s really cool and I’m looking forward to wearing it soon as it’ll be a bit colder here, which won’t take too long anymore.

I hope you’re all doing well and hope to see you soon!
Tobi

Rhiannon Batten enjoys the panoramic vistas and the hospitality of the people of this ancient land

HAVING spent a sticky afternoon winding our way behind donkeys laden with luggage through rocky fields and green pastures, our small group reached the village of Mequat Mariam just as the sun brushed the horizon. After clambering over pentagon-notched basalt rocks, we sat on the edge of huge drop-off looking out over what one of the group described as “the Grand Canyon without the tourists”

We were trying out a new range of village-to village walking trips in Ethiopia.

For a country so often associated with images of famine and desperate hardship, it is also a welcome attempt to make more of its real attributes.

Village Ways works with Tesfa, a local NGO that has been running similar trips in the area for several years. The partnership offers tailor-made itineraries incorporating as much or as little walking as you fancy.

Our first stop was Gondar, a town in the north-west of Ethiopia that boasts an incongruous mix of art deco architecture and more ancient sites. Arriving in hazy early morning sunlight, we sped past acacia trees, market-goers and endless donkeys. Gondar was also the first of many places on our trip where we witnessed the intricate shoulder-shuffling Ethiopian dance, Eskesta. We ventured into a local bar to see it. When practiced by the locals it looks fluid and elegant, but when attempted by brave members of our party, it looked more like disastrously bad “dad dancing”.

Next morning we set off on the six-hour drive to Filakit and the start of our first walk. As we passed giant volcanic plugs, oversized haystacks, pocket of forest and fields of sunburnt crops, dust swirled around the minibus. We were glad to pull up and strap on our walking boots.

That afternoon’s trail led up past circular churches and fields so rock-strewn they appeared more stone than soil. After a few hours we reached Mequat Mariam and a dramatic panorama.

Tesfa’s founder is Mark Chapman. That evening, over a few beers before dinner, he explained the concept.“The typical version of tourism in Ethiopia is that people fly between the main sites. Their money doesn’t go to local communities and it doesn’t give tourists a chance to discover the country properly. This seemed an ideal alternative. The Meket area is highly “food insecure”. It is also close to the tourism honeypot of Lalibela, and the landscape is breathtaking. Throw in old Amhara culture, gelada baboons and lamergeier vultures and it offers a complete package.”

It took a few years discussing the project before anything happened, though. “Some of the villagers were suspicious but we just kept explaining it. We brought some tourists in with tents in 2003, showing the villagers that they could earn an income and slowly began to work.”

So much so that, in 2004, even Brad Pitt paid a visit. Though the villagers weren’t too impressed. “He was boring,” one of them whispered. “He went to bed early.” Up to 50 tourists a week now pass through Mequat Miriam in the high season, which runs from October to December.

Later that night, Tesfaye Asfow, the camp manager, told us how the villagers have earned enough to enable them to establish a grain store to fall back on during droughts. “We used to just farm but now we have lots of plans. We’d like to get electricity, a road, a school, we could plant trees to sell…”

The following day our walk took us along the edge of the escarpment, past ancient olive trees, scented eucalyptus groves and more remote villages. We crossed a prairie-like meadow, with butterflies swirling overhead, small boys shepherding sheep and men ploughing with oxen. Then we stopped for injera (huge, flannel-like pancakes topped with lentils, stew and vegetables), overlooking a tall but parched waterfall.

If this all seemed idyllic to visitors, we were given a reality check when we encountered two tiny girls hauling 20kg jerry cans of water up an incline. They told us that the nearest well was a 30-minute walk from their village.

If the scenery wasn’t quite as majestic as it had been at Mequat Mariam, Wajela had a disarming homeliness to it. From Wajela we walked on to stay at Aterow. Then we clambered down from the escarpment past purple-flowered hillsides, groups of haymakers and Metaya gorge.

Next came a brief stop in Lalibela, one of the most popular destinations in Ethiopia, thanks to its collection of rock hewn, 12th-century churches. With sunlight filtering in through stony windows on to intricate arches carved absurdly from the top down, it was easy to understand why Ethiopia holds a mystical appeal. The mix of familiar and exotic is everywhere and, in Lalibela, it seems natural that the Julian calendar is used; that clocks are set from dawn rather than midnight; that St Francis is painted with leopards rather than birds; and that people claim the country’s imperial family is descended from the Queen of Sheba.

Our welcome in Tigray, 400km north, involved being met by parties of colorfully dressed priests, riders on horses festooned with red pompoms, men with flags and rifles and women loudly ululating. The landscape around the project’s Tigrayan sites was harsher than in Meket: a parched panorama of high red cliffs and giant cacti peppered with rock-hewn churches. The challenges are similar, though. At Shenbritty, Kidane Mewgebo, the community’s women’s representative, told us how money from the project will help. The community plans to exploit a spring so they need not walk so far to fetch water and hopes to build a grain store, like Meket’s.

“My dream is that Ethiopia will become known for this type of tourism,” said Mark, as we reluctantly started the journey back to Addis Ababa. With experiences as inspiring as ours to offer, it has a chance.

BATTEN, Rhiannon; Walking the walk through Ethiopia’s less travelled roads in Travel 2010 – 10/11.07.2010