On our last day stationed at the Gheralta Lodge, we traveled furthest afield to the "Abba Yohani" Monastery. After we arrived at the base of the monastery, we were greeted with this fluff pile (pictured above and below) who seemed to not notice or care we were there and continued in this unbelievably adorable dirt display before our very eyes.
That white spot, midway up the sheer rock face pictured below, is where Abba Yohani himself is peering out at the world from. One gains access to the monastery inside of those white windows ("one" meaning men only, unfortunately) by climbing up the left hand side of this rock stack and then walking through a series of tunnels dug into the rock, but we will get to all of that in good time.
Rock stacked and roof thatched dwelling places Yohani-adjecent
Tunnel digging practice site? Perhaps
Handrail detail
Tour guide and monks peering into distant Tigray as the terms of our monastery entry were discussed
Monk stand
Monk squat
Stairs up to the green door which let us into the the beginning of the tunnels that eventually dumped us out into the belly of the Yohanni sanctuary. This, unfortunately, was also were we had to leave M
Tigrean: rock carved, time-zorched
Before we entered the monastery, we were taken to this rock-bell shack that, when rung, calls the faithful to church services inside Yohanni
Electricity crutch
Lil door
and at last, we began our march through the tunnels down to the church itself. Below you will find Steve walking towards the light of the sanctuary
Pillar work much more vibrant than Maryam the day before. Tri-un G-d pillar
Up close onna approximation of infinity
Bible stories wall adorned for centuries
St Francis accommodating a parched bird, lions at his feet
I stepped out onto the balcony (the one we had previously looked up to from afar, midway up a sheer thousand foot cliff) and looked up. The quarter circle above me used to adorn the inside of the church at some point, before that part fell off. A slight blow to my confidence in that current balcony, but I remained upon it
and took in a different angle of G-d of the open air vs. he/they/she enclosed
A feline black metal saint
Mostly secret
Roof work quite astounding
Monk peering out from his perch
Making said monk take a photo of me while Steve and Jan worked some angles through the access tunnels and the astounding light play within it my camera couldn't do much with.
Instead, we will rely on master lensman Jan to visually describe them monkish tunnels.
Steve and Jan shoot each other
Up
Portrait of one of Abba Yohanni's residents
and down
Steve directs, while Jan continues to shoot (and thus end the Cieślikiewicz interval).
Sunshine again during my own ascent through the tunnels as the Elkins Cieślikiewicz tunnel exercises came to a close, nearing the top entrance/exit
Steve filming a monkish tunnel exit
Another perspective on a handrail before we left Abba Yohani after a few hours (the fullness of which Melissa had to wait outside of the sanctuary for) exploring that astounding complex
On the way back to the lodge, we dropped by the base of Abuna again so that Steve could fly and swoop some shots of the ascent we made the day before with his functional drone. Couldn't get enough of the endemic rock hut architecture of the region
If you look halfway up the rock face on the right, you will see said drone in action
Hay-treed to last/outsmart grazing animals on the way back to the car from our evening Abuna drone
Our bags being schlepped to our rock hut in the dying light by a guy strapped with an AK-47 for our last nite at the lodge (I'll explain very soon).
In the office of the man who runs the lodge is this priceless photo of Dubya. Totally wish we could have hung out with him there, drank Tej together, perhaps even gursha'd each other. Oh well
During our stay at Gheralta Lodge, we became more and more convinced that we needed to make our way out to the Danakil Depression (due to the various books on the subject in the lodge's library and through speaking to various people who had either been there before (including this guy, who hiked the entirety of the depression back in the seventies, with a team of Afar nomads and donkeys to eat along the way. Just scroll through the rest of his adventures on that page and realize the absolute pitiful nature of your "adventures" because that is what it felt like for us as we hung out with the man at the lodge) or were offering a ride out to there), and thus shoved this multi day trip to the consistently hottest place on earth into our itinerary, between exploring the Gheralta range and heading south to Lalibela. We gathered up our things and piled them in the lobby for our post breakfast descent into Dune from those highlands we came to know and love.
Melissa taking in some last Gheralta moments
and Jan with birr stacks, ready to pay his way to Arrakis. Stay tuned for that mega-post
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