Travellers' Testimonials
I returned safe home from an adventerous and fantastic journey in Your
country.
You gave us excellent information, and I should really want to explore more
of Your country.
I have studied Your home-pages. Impressive!!! However I cannot find any
prices.
As promised I send you the adresses for the 2 companies here in Norway that
I have found arrange tours to Ethiopia.
www.opplevetiopia.no and www.utforskafrika.no
Mailadresses: torhild@opplevetiopia.no and karin@tforskafrika.com
We talked about the book written by Philip Marsden. The title is "The
chains of heaven".
I wish you all the best!!!!
And do hope to have the opportunity to contact you later concerning other
adventures in Your fantastic country.
Love form
Anne Kristine Julsrud Fjellhaug
Ethiopia - travel impressions
This year we put a dream to reality and traveled to Ethiopia for two weeks. As
we did not have so much time and never had been there before we decided, against
our usual habit, to book an organized journey with a local guide. We were there
persons and wanted to book in any case a local organization With Moses Covenant
Tours, Temesgen Mengistu the Managing Director was the one we found an ideal
guide and tour Operator. Not only that he speaks very good English, he studied
tourism and economics and is very concerned about the situation of his country
and its people.
Through that we had very interesting conversations throughout the trip. Beside
that he is very Religious and he live the culture himself that he talks about.
This makes it very authentic when he explains all the pictures and frescos in
the churches and cloisters at Tana Lake, Gondar and Lalibela. All the stories
about the martyrs, saints and the merciful mother Mary. Through that we could
conceive all the church services, which are very different to ours, much better.
The hotels Temesgen and his Company Moses Covenant Tours chose for us have been
very comfortable. The rooms were always clean, light and tastefully outfitted so
that we enjoyed staying there. With his guidance we tried mainly Ethiopian food
which we liked very much and our stomachs coped with it without problems.
The Ethiopian culture which longs back till the queen of Sheba is incredible
rich and versatile what is very little known in Europe. Whether we visited the
palaces of Gondar and its kings or the ancient places in Axum with its
impressing monuments, Temesgen is familiar with all of it and has got answers to
all questions.
Most impressing are the churches of Lalibela. You can hardly imagine the
skillfulness and the Knowledge of the master builders who carved these beautiful
buildings out of an entire stone.
Almost unbelievable this beauty!
But a trip to Ethiopia - in this case to the northern part, north of Addis Abeba
- would not be complete without its unique nature. The best way to get in touch
with her is to go right in - trekking.
We undertook an 8 day walking trip through the Simien-mountains. This was quite
challenging but incredible beautiful and inspiring. The roof of Africa unveiled
majestic outlooks of beauty and drama to us.
We encountered unforgettable meetings with local people - ounce we were
spontaneously invited to join an Ethiopian coffee ceremony in there hut. We met
and watched a lot of animals - many baboons, Ethiopian wolves, bushbucks,
klipspringer, eagles, vultures and others.
When we reached our camp in the evening the tents were already set
up and a big pot of hot tea was waiting for us, what has been very agreeable
cause of the cool temperatures in the mountains. The food our cook prepared was
very opulent and tasty (every day a three dish menu). Everything's was perfectly
organized. Later we gathered with our guides, the cook, the mule-guides and
other travelers around the fireplace and talked.
Temesgen orchestrated all this in his calm and relaxing manner and organized
when there was Something special to organize. He was very caring, flexible and
opens for our wishes. The last day when my husband was a bit tired he took us to
the Addis Sheraton where we could stay in its beautiful garden relaxing and
having tea while he accompanied the friend of ours to the open market to do some
shopping.
We are very thankful to him, as through his company Moses Covenant Tours we
experienced an unforgettable journey and we warmly recommend to book your
journey to Ethiopia with him(info@mosescovenanttours.com). - As we are going to
do when we will travel to the southeast of Ethiopia with its volcanoes.
With many good wishes,
Sabine and Bernhard
Tenerife, Spain