Ethiopia Simien Mountains Road

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Gondar

   Gondar was Ethiopia's capital for about two hundred years, and it still carries itself like it. Emperor Fasilides founded the city around 1636, and he and his successors built a walled royal compound, the Fasil Ghebbi, filled with stone castles that look as if they belong in medieval Europe, with towers, battlements and arched windows, though the style mixes Ethiopian, Portuguese, Indian and Arab influences. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and a walk through the grounds, with their crumbling walls and jacaranda trees, is a good introduction to the country's imperial past.

   Read the complete Gondar write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Gondar is where the day begins. Next is Debark.

2. 2. Debark

   Debark is a highland market town of about twenty-odd thousand people, high on the northern Ethiopian plateau at roughly the height of a Swiss mountain village, and it exists, in practical terms, because of the mountains behind it. The Simien range rises just north, and Debark is where the national park has its headquarters, where visitors check in, pay their fees and, if they plan to walk, pick up the armed scout the park requires. Riders arriving by road will mostly be coming from Gondar, about a hundred kilometres to the south-west, along a tarmac highway that climbs steadily through terraced farmland, eucalyptus groves and villages where the road doubles as the main street.

   Read the complete Debark write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Debark comes up about 104 km into the recorded legs. Next is Simien Mountains viewpoints.

3. 3. Simien Mountains viewpoints

   East of Debark the land does something that plateau country is not supposed to do: it stops. The Simien escarpment drops away in vertical cliffs of well over a kilometre, a wall of basalt carved by millions of years of erosion into pinnacles, buttresses and gullies, and the view across it is among the great ones in Africa. The viewpoints strung along the park track, with names like Sankaber, Geech and Imet Gogo, each give a slightly different angle on the same astonishing void.

   Read the complete Simien Mountains viewpoints write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 141 km into the recorded legs you reach Simien Mountains viewpoints. Next is Chennek.

4. 4. Chennek

   Chennek is a camp on the edge of the world, at around 3,600 metres in the Simien Mountains, where the highland plateau ends in a giant escarpment and drops away for more than a kilometre into the valleys below. The Simien range is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a landscape of towering basalt cliffs, pinnacles and deep gorges that was carved from an enormous volcanic shield, and the views from the rim are among the grandest in Africa. At the south, the highest peak, Ras Dashen, rises over 4,500 metres, one of the highest in the continent.

   Read the complete Chennek write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Chennek closes the day.