Gheralta Area - Abuna Yemata Guh Church (Getting Down)

April 11 - It took 7 Ethiopians to get 2 Americans up here, now we had to reverse our course. With a blessing for the priest, we headed back down.  The escorts spoke a unique language similar to Amharic, and their English went as far as, "Hello, right foot here, left hand here". 

These two rocks serve as a bell, and the sound they make is beautiful. They're struck with the small round stone on the ledge to the right. Every Sarurday and Sunday the bell is rung to signal the start of Liturgy. Any other time the bell is rung, it signals an accident and the local people come running to help. 

Near the bottom of the cliff face, Carrie and Arya got my camera out and snapped a few photos of me coming down. 

Almost there...

YES!!!  And now we could put our boots back on. What a relief!

One happy couple!

The scenery was spectacular along the way. There is another church, Maryam Korkor, on the ridge in this photo.  It's difficult to see, of course, but there is an Orthodox Christian church in some form on nearly every mountain top and hill top in this region. 

Our entire group, except for the priest. Friends for life!

I can't believe we just did that!