Tips for being prepared for your trek through the Simien Mountains. Really a lot of these tips were garnered from the experience of doing it with little or no preparation. Sure it was possible, but honestly there were moments were I regretted being there because of the lack of preparation. Perhaps you can learn from some of my experience, particularly if you are planning to visit the park prior to arrival in the country!
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Pack warmly for your hike. During the day the weather is rather good, warm often actually, but at night it becomes freezing cold. You will want to have some extra layers for the cold nights.
Have a good light daypack that can pack all you need for the hike. Most of your stuff will be moved between camps by donkey, but you will need to carry some things with you for the day. .
You may want a couple smaller water bottles. Either some regular plastic ones or perhaps a couple 1 Liter bottles. They tended to give you really large bottles (1.8 liters) to carry and I found it would have been easier with a couple smaller bottles to distribute the weight better and for easier handling.
Make sure to pack a flashlight (torch), preferably a headlamp. Particularly useful for having to use the latrine late in the evenings. A headlamp is much more useful than a regular flashlight.
Pack good waterproof footwear for the hike. I recommend going with a good pair of hiking boots but it is certainly possible to do it with a good pair of sneakers (I did). None of the hikes we did were technical but it is a good idea to ask what type of terrain you will encounter on your itinerary. If you have waterproof ones I recommend that as there were times we did cross streams and there were muddy areas that I know I would have been been miserable had my feet been wet for the remainder of the hikes.
Pay attention to the temperature of the batteries and such with you in the evenings. Batteries will drain faster in the cold weather and you might run out of power quicker than you expected.
If you want, you can also pack a good power bank with you as well. I love my Anker power bank, and they have several models for sizes and power.
Be sure to pack a good amount of toilet paper. I would also recommend perhaps some wet wipes and / or hand sanitizer.
If you think you’ll be hungry a lot or just because you might want to pack a few snacks with you. Possibly some nuts or extra fruit. You’ll get lunch but generally I found it to be small (a sandwich and a piece of fruit or two). And if like my friend you hated the sandwiches you got you would be happy for a bit of extra food as well.
Pack a first aid kit and some medication for your time. Don’t believe that the tour company is going to have any of the expected bandages or antibiotics etc.
Be sure to pack a good amount of toilet paper. I would also recommend perhaps some wet wipes and / or hand sanitizer.
Be sure to pack sunscreen and lip-balm. I have more melanin in my skin and even I (who almost never burns) had issues from the sun. My lips were chapped and I was glad to have something for my skin and lips for the hikes. You’ll be fairly high and you’ll definitely burn easier than you may do in other locations. Apply liberally and often.
If you think you’ll be hungry a lot or just because you might want to pack a few snacks with you. Possibly some nuts or extra fruit. You’ll get lunch but generally I found it to be small (a sandwich and a piece of fruit or two). And if like my friend you hated the sandwiches you got you would be happy for a bit of extra food as well.
Be aware and pay attention to signs of Altitude sickness. Altitude sickness is serious and if you or someone you are with experience signs deal with it immediately. The best thing you can do is to go down in elevation. Also go slow, spending more time acclimating will help in terms of prevention. Discuss your plans with your doctor before traveling and ask about medications that are known to help such as Diamox.
Inspect the tent and sleeping bags you will be using for the duration of your stay. Some of the folks did not have season appropriate tents or sleeping bags and they were cold and miserable during the evenings. If the sleeping bag is a bit thin you might ask if there is another blanket or so you can get packed in with it. Also make sure to put the blanket in the sleeping bag (it will be a lot warmer than just putting the blanket on top).
I recommend going with a good agency or a well regarded travel planner for your time in the Simiens. It is possible to do in more independently and if you have the time to go negotiate for everything in Debark feel free. The only person actually required is the scout and our scout was way better than our guide actually. So you can do it for a lot cheaper than most places will quote you. But you’ll also be responsible for your food, etc. unless you hire out people to handle those aspects as well.
There are community lodges at some of the camps where you can get beverages and food. These are not located at all of the camps though so you will have to plan if you are going to be using these.
Not all of the camps are road accessible. So you will need to pay attention in terms of what your plans are for coming in and out and where you want to go. But generally you will get to a camp that is road accessible fairly regularly depending on your itinerary.
Be sure to specify what is you hope to do for your time in the mountains. Do you want to get altitude and perhaps bag Ras Dashen? Are you hoping for wildlife? Scenic overlooks? The folks know the mountains very well and can help you plan an itinerary that matches what you want to do.
Be sure to ask the company you are traveling with how they will deal with emergencies, be them injuries or altitude sickness. You want to make sure they have something in place for you to get out if necessary and that is not something you want to try to ask about just when an emergency occurs.
Be sure your tour company has a 4WD vehicle for extraction from the park. The roads are terrible and inaccessible to 2WD vehicles. Our organizer sucked (I’ll discuss that more later or in another article) and we had to hike out 3 hours to get to a road that was accessible.
Don’t just trust what you read on online reviews about tour planners. Some of those reviews are definitely fake. We got scammed bad by our person. We were joining in with another traveler we had met on the road and he found this person through Trip Advisor. Our friend got food poisoning and we ended up going along with them and regretted having gone with this person. I’ll write more about this later or post links to my review or my friend’s review of this person but just be careful. Be specific on the price and what you are getting. Don’t let them change the price once you get to the mountain or deliver clearly substandard product. This is one of the reasons going with a good agency will do you well. Sure you might “save” a few dollars with some guy on TripAdvisor but in the end, the cost will come out one way or another.
Be sure to budget and carry money with you for tips for the various people who support you through your hikes. These guys basically depend on tips for their livelihood and they may not have regular work so tipping is important. After dropping all the money for the tour it is easy to overlook having extra with you for the tips. Generally speaking, the guide will probably get the highest per day amount, followed by the cooks, scouts, and other support staff (such as the donkey handlers perhaps). I can’t speak for your budget but tip based on the quality of service for sure. We felt our scout was better than our guide so I made sure to tip the scout a bit more than we normally would have.
Info: Divergent Travelers has a great guide on the Simien Mountains Trekking. Be sure to check it out!
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Also consider planning for another night in Gondar following your visit to the Simiens. Most transportation seems to leave in the morning and you’ll likely take longer to get back to Gondar than you anticipate. If you are looking for places we ended up staying at two different ones.
Lodge Fasil: it was ok. the rooms were simple and it had a reasonable café on the premises. We ended up here by accident actually. The price was cheap and it had a good view from the windows. Overall an adequate budget option.
Lodge du Chateau: A bit pricier than Lodge Fasil but it was by far our favorite hotel we stayed at in Ethiopia. It was the place we had meant to stay when we ended up at Lodge Fasil. The rooms were simple but clean and nice. The staff was incredible, so helpful and went above and beyond what we could have asked for. The breakfast was great too, especially the teff bread (and teff pancakes). Highly Recommended.
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