Saturday morning and my first free weekend. With Yanis, Delphine, and Brook the driver from MVP, we headed to climb to the churches of Mariam Korkor and Daniel Korkor, which is the cliff top churches on the mountain directly opposite as viewed from my Lodge room. The drive to Mageb was quick, picking up water and Haftu, a guide recommended by Sarah. A short drive out of town, we entered the road to the climb starting point. The cliffs looked even higher close up and we were going up them, but how? was I fit enough or was the challenge as I found out due to lack of oxygen.
We set off on the 3 part climb, paid our 100 Birr each for entrance to the church. We then went up a narrow gorge with loose rock, about 20 min, although I had to stop every 10 m which made it even longer. This was part 1, a climb of about 200 m at a 60 angle. There climb was narrow enough that we were able to hold onto teh sides. Conming out on a plateau, we found the site of first attempt to build a church. During the ascent we had been joined by an elderly guy who accompanied us for the rest of the trek.
A number of men and women were coming down after a long night in the church due to a service. We also had encountered a German but living in Brazil, Yohanis , whom we had met at the Lodge and was embarking on a 4 day trek with guide and donkey in the Gheralta region. He had spent the night camping at the church site.
The next part of the climb was another more scary climb up a rock face that was at about 60-80o angle. As i sdiscovered thsi was te male route. Only holding points were the rocks themselves and footholds worn into the rocks. Another slow climb due to my lack of oxygen. So I managed to get to the next ledge with the help of the guide and elderly gentleman.
From there it was basically an easy slope up to the almost top of the plateau where the church was located. Soem areas near teh church reminded m eof the books that have the "100" most challenged golf holes in the world - this woule be one of them.
The Mariam Korkor church has a 75 year old priest who after checking th ereceipt of our ticket opened up the lock on the church door. The church itself was built into the cliff face. After removing our shoes, and rolling our socks over our trousers to minimize fleas getting up our legs and a quick spray of insect repellant we entered - one entry for males and one entry for females. Inside the church there were 4 rock hewn columsn remaining that suporte dteh roof with paintings some what faded as they were over 1400 years old. The church was devided into 3 areas, i) general seating, ii) a priest area and iii) holy of holy's where a copy of the Ark of the Covenant was placed and which we could not eneter. Haftu explained the paintings and we sat in the semi-darkness absorbing it all.
We then left the church put on our shoes and walked around the cliff face to another smaller church - daniel Korkor (about 6 x 6 m) built into the rocks. The priest unlocked the door, no larger than 0.5 by 1 m, through ,after removing our shoes, we squeezed in. The paintings were in a much better state and we could see all the colours. However, no flash photography was allowed so the pictures I took were the best I could get. We then passed throug ha small tunnel into a smaller chamber which was described as the holy of holy's. Minimal wall paintings but non the less interesting. We left this small church and made our way further along the cliff face to an open cave in which baptisms occurred.
Back around the way we came we climbed a bit further up to a series of caves in which children of about 12-14 years of age lived (in priest training) and a claimed 120 year old bedridden priest - a predecessor of the current priest. The ancient priest rose with help from his bed to greet us. The room he was in was dark and smelt of olive wood smoke from a small charcoal fire burning in the corner. Further back in the cave was another room for the 2 women who looked after him - one of them a nun. I cant imagine living in a cave , smelling of smoke, and no good ventilation.
After about an hour in the church area we headed on down to the car. This time we went by the "female" route to avoid the "scarey" part experienced on the climb up. This was a gradual descent circular descent.
We then reached the car and paid the elderly guide. Haftu worked as part of the Gheralta Guide Association and for a reasonable (at least to me) 250 birr for the 3 of us (about $5 each) he had provided good explanations over 4 hrs. We had to pay this at the Association office in Mageb. In Mageb we had planned to visit the market, but as we were stopped we were mobbed as "ferenje", kids asking for birr.
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