Thursday 29^th October: as the line of Trekkers dragged their weary blistered feet up the last few meters of the Bwahit Pass in the Simien Mountains there were more than a few who cursed Jamie Colon's suggestion of two years ago that a Challenge Trek in Ethiopia would be a great fundraiser for the Skerries Sodo project.

But it was only momentary. As the breathing returned to normal, the pain lessened and the eyes drank in again the magnificent other-worldly isolation of those volcanic mountain peaks we relaxed secure in the knowledge that it was all downhill now to our final campsite.
The previous day had seen us achieve the highpoint of our ambition in summiting the glorious Ras Deshen, the highest point in Ethiopia and 4th highest mountain in Africa. That day had started with a 3.30 am wake-up call and 5 am departure by torchlight from our camp high in the mountains and a 20 km trek to the summit and back. That was Day 5 of the trek which actually had its beginnings almost 2 years beforehand.
It was just after a presentation the Skerries Sodo group and Self Help Africa had given in Ardgillan Castle, mainly to our local politicians and a few interested locals, that Jamie approached me with the idea of running a trek. Being an enthusiastic hill walker myself I jumped at the idea of combining my love of the hills with a fundraiser. Unfortunately time constraints and the shock-horror phase of the impending recession put paid to the original date of Oct 2008 and the timetable was moved to 2009. On the plus side we ended up with a totally committed group of local trekkers all of whom paid for their own expenses leaving 100% of the fundraising going directly to the Sodo project itself. The sponsorship of our extensive medical / inoculation requirements by Adrienne Stack of Stacks Pharmacies was a major help & incentive as was the administration of the shots by Drs Jack & Sara Keane of Seaholm Surgery.

The first day in Addis Ababa was taken up with acclimatisation not just to the altitude (Addis at 2440m is one of the highest capital cities in the world) but to a bustling, traffic-choked, polluted, hectic city which sometimes looks and feels like thousands of small villages all thrown together around a few big streets and interspersed with urban farmyards, new high rise buildings and decrepit shanty towns. You are as likely to be knocked over by a herd of mules or goats crossing the street as one of the millions of smoke bellowing old mini-buses which crisscross the city and are the main form of motorised urban transport. It is noisy, bright, full of vividly colourful small huckster shops selling everything from sit-down toilets to mobile phones to cloths food drink and plastic everything. There is great poverty to be sure but Ethiopians everywhere we went were incredibly friendly, open & curious. I suppose being in the cradle of civilisation (the remains of “Lucy” one of the oldest hominids were found in Ethiopia & are housed in Addis) and the only country in Africa never to have been colonised must count for something.

Our second day was taken up with a visit to the Sodo project. A two hour drive south of Addis Ababa brought us to Buee where Self Help Africa have their Sodo Project Offices. I had been there two years ago and had already met some of the staff. This is a mainly rural area and Self Help are working here in partnership with local communities to introduce new farming methods & new crops to promote food self-sufficiency in a sustainable way as well as promoting a whole range of integrated services such as savings & loans schemes & provision of school buildings to assist farm families and communities break the cycle of poverty and hunger.
I was thrilled to see that the green field site in Keela which I had visited in April 2007 and where Trevor Sargent had planted a tree last year, now boasted a brand new secondary school recently opened and shortly to be officially inaugurated. The classrooms were all occupied and ex-Maths teacher Chucky was a bit intimidated (though rearing to teach) by the 60-odd number of pupils in each classroom and the sight of the library with no reference books was a poignant reminder of needs still not met.
A very full day was spent touring the area and meeting with the local people involved in the myriad aspects of the project from women's saving & loans groups, to the farmer who changed from single crop cultivation to multi-crop, other farms transformed  by wells,  new crops and farming methods. The welcoming faces of people of all ages spoke enthusiastically of how the simple innovative changes introduced by Self Help had improved their lives. It was both humbling and a privilege to know that we, in Skerries, are playing our part in this movement for change and we can all be rightly proud of our contribution to this.

Back to Addis that night we met up with a delegation of Irish people on the last night of their visit to Ethiopia through the Connect Ethiopia organisation (from where we originally spawned). Thoughts of a late night were overtaken by the long day we had out in and the prospect of a 4am start to get our internal flight to Gondar & start our trek.

Gondar lies on the shore of Lake Tana through which the Blue Nile flows on its way to meet the White Nile 1500  km away in Khartoum. Gondar was the capital of Ethiopia when it was the Abyssinian Empire. The extensive remains of massive castles dating from 16th and 17th Century  (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) testify to a glorious past. Our timetable however allowed for little more than coffee with our guide Asmare and last minute vital shopping before boarding the bus to Debark in the Simian Mountains. At Debark we took on refreshments & our two armed rangers who would keep us safe throughout our trip. The discomfort of a bone rattling dust ridden four hour bus journey over hard track was rewarded with increasingly stunning vistas as we passed through small bustling market towns and constantly changing rural scenery climbing higher & higher into the mountains of the Simien National Park until finally arriving in the midst of some of the most majestic mountain scenery you will find anywhere in the world. The bus stopped. We emerged to be greeted on one side by a massive herd of Gelada Baboons grazing on pasture and on the other by a stunning backdrop of mountains in the mist. The bus drove away and there we were...trekking! And then the most unbelievable thing happened....it started to rain..... and we understood what that mist in the mountains was. The luck of the Irish maybe but it wasn't’t the last time we encountered Irish weather conditions on the trek, the altitude saw to that.

The great thing about this sort of trip is that while it is tough & demanding in many ways and hotel type comforts are out of the question, small comforts time & time again take on proportions of succour & consolation in direct proportion to the time & distance traveled from home. So having the tents erected and ready to drop into was superb. A cup of freshly brewed locally grown coffee & roasted barley on arrival in camp each evening, immeasurable. On day 3 a cool stream to bathe our feet was better than any 5 star spa. By day 5 a small jug of water to wash in was like a Jacuzzi...ok exaggerating a bit here for effect. But our trusty local guide, Asmare, had assembled a team of between 18 & 22 locals (we were never quite sure how many exactly) to see to all our needs. Rangers, guides, cook, assistant cook, muleteers (who included a local Orthodox priest among their number) accompanied us from camp to camp, set up the tents, cooked the meals, heated the jugs of water for washing and sent us on our way again next day. Again a lovely friendly enthusiastic group of people and it was great to see that our tourist Euros were filtering down to local people.

The Simien Mountains are a high plateau of volcanic outpourings from 40 million years ago which have been shaped by erosion and uplift to provide some of the most spectacular mountain scenery on earth. With dramatic escarpments’ & gorges plunging almost 2000m in places to deep valleys and truly stunning views in every direction from mountains tops & passes like Ras Dashen (4560m) & Bhawit Pass (4200m) every hour of every day there, yielded some fresh wonder. And when we could stop gazing in awe at the canyons or weirdly isolated monoliths-like volcanic pinnacles there was barely enough time to admire the Lammergeyer Vultures soaring overhead or the rare Walia Ibex grazing on the precipitous mountain slopes or enjoy the social & anti-social behaviour of the Gelada Baboons. Sadly though, we were unable to catch a glimpse of the even rarer Simien Wolf, this time. And the human element was all around us also. Every little plateau at every altitude which yielded a little arable land would house a village. Almost as unchanging as the landscape itself the people of the mountains eke out a living in ways that have not changed since biblical times. The sheer intensity of nature in this environment is beyond a physical or emotional experience. It has a spirituality and stillness about it which can never be properly communicated, it can only be experienced.

Part of the absolute pleasure of being in a landscape like this is the splendid isolation from what we finally called – the other world. With no mobiles, tv, radio, papers or contact with the world we had left, our minds were left perfectly undisturbed to enjoy and soak up our surroundings & own good company,  unsullied by day to day talk of recession or shopping or whatever.
So yes it was firstly a fundraiser for Skerries Sodo and Self Help Africa and a fantastic success as this – over €31,000 raised; And yes it was brilliant to visit the Sodo project itself and meet the communities and project workers taking part and see how the money we contributed by Skerries people is being so well spent; And the trek in the stunning Simien mountains itself was unsurpassable as a place to visit; But for me the greatest pleasure was the sheer crack we had together & bonds of friendship  that developed among all of the group.
A huge thanks goes to all those trekkers for their fundraising and especially to all who contributed in every way. From Stack Pharmacies, Seaholm Surgery, Jamie Conlon, local businesses who sponsored various events (Supervalu, Olive, Red Island wines, Hugh Ryan, Frank Ferguson, Seasons, Shoe Horn, Tarragon, McMeels, Martin Scully, Christy Jenkinson) those who stopped me in the street or called in with sponsorship. Thank you....Your money is being put to very good and worthwhile use.

I would love to do it again. It’s not just that going somewhere exotic and totally different. The motivation that lies behind being part of something helping to effect positive change for others does bring the whole experience on to a different level. I can promise that that the experience will change your view of the world and probably your view of yourself. Let me know if you would be interested....2011 maybe...

-Shea Kelly