Ethiopia (November-December 2013)

Korem to Tenta (3): From Camp 4 (Muja) to Camp 6

Return to main Ethiopia November-December 2013 webpage

 

To see the map of the trek with the plot of the waypoints in another tab, click here.

To see the waypoints in Google Earth, click here.

 

Soon after leaving Muja, after a short up and a longer down, we reached the village of Densa, where we were greeted by curious, but relatively quiet kids.

 

Densa, located along a river, was the start of a long ascent to a high plateau. These people were going down to Densa.

 

There were many people in the fields, like these two friendly women.

 

Another view during the ascent. Densa is located at the bottom of the first valley, and Muja behind the intermediate ridge (barely distinguishable in the photo). Wondach and its market are located on the highest ridge in the background, slightly to the left of this photo.

 

We eventually reach the plateau at an elevation greater than 3000m. We were going to stay on this flat plateau for 4 consecutive days.

 

We spent the first night on the plateau (5th camp) near a small group of stone huts at 3500m. Here we had our coldest night (probably around -5C) of the entire trek. When we waked up in the morning there was a thick layer of ice in the jerrycans. (At most camps there was no immediate fresh water available. Someone had to go to a remote source and bring back filled jerrycans. Local people often helped us for a few birrs.)

 

In the morning we shared breakfast (pancakes cooked by Gebrehiwet) with the friendly local people.

 

On that day, we reached our second market. This market, located along the gravel road from Weldiya to Gashena (see map), was larger than the first and had more products brought by trucks. The market is held every Thursday and the name of the village is ′′Thursday′′ in Amharic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Selling salt from the Afar depression.

 

More farmers′ villages on the plateau (and their wooden tools).

 

 

We set our 6th camp near one of those villages.

 

Other sections of the trek:

-             Korem to Camp 2

-             Camp 2 to Camp 4 (Muja)

-             Camp 4 (Muja) to Camp 6

-             Camp 6 to Camp 9

-             Camp 9 to Camp 10

-             Camp 10 to Magdala

-             Magdala to Tenta

 

Return to main Ethiopia November-December 2013 webpage