Tesfa Tigray

multiple day treks between village guesthouses

Tesfa Tigray is located in the Gheralta Mountains in the far north of Ethiopia.

This is an extensive area of arid granite inselbergs and undulating hills which conceal an incredible wealth and diversity of secret rock-hewn churches.

Many of these amazing places are extremely inaccessible and many can only be reached by traversing some pretty extreme hiking trails.

The experience of visiting these churches is, without doubt, one of the most exciting and atmospheric things to do in Ethiopia. It really feels an honour that the lovely local people are generous enough to share these intimate places with outsiders.

Ownership

Tesfa Tours is a rather unique operation which was set up by British expat Mark Chapman, who first visited Ethiopia in 1992 and has been resident in the country since 1997.

Mark is passionate about what he calls community tourism, by which he means simple sustainable hospitality provided by local people, who are able to retain the majority of the revenue.

By this means local people are able to lift themselves out of poverty, afford health and education, be proud of their indigenous cultures and ways of life, protect their natural environment and get to spend quality time with welcome guests from overseas.

The result is a wonderfully gentle, authentic and intimate experience, a real breath of fresh air and, in our opinion, one of the great highlights of a visit to the country.

Trekking overview

We usually recommend undertaking a two night trek with Tesfa Tigray, staying a night in each of two remote guest-houses.

The beautiful red sandstone mountains in the Adigrat area contain a number of remote rock churches, more remote and less-visited than those slightly further south.

Guests are led through the mountains by specially trained guides from the local community, with baggage being carried on donkeys.

The trekking leads through beautiful irrigated valleys and pretty villages, with plenty of opportunities to interact with the gentle local people, before heading up onto the dramatic sandstone ridges where the ancient churches and the guest-houses are mostly situated.

There’s also a surprising amount of wildlife in these mountains, including Gelada baboons, rock hyrax and jackals, plus sunbirds, lammergeiers and bateleur eagles.

Each guest-house has accommodation for up to six guests in three rooms, plus a roof-top terrace for relaxing and dining, as well as simple eco-toilet and ablution facilities. Local staff provide simple but tasty traditional food, along with coffee and tea, with bottled water, beer and soft drinks being available for purchase.

Trekking routes

There are presently eight of these guest-houses range through the mountains of the Tigray area.

It is possible to undertake treks of anything from one to twelve nights, visiting one or all of the guest-houses.

We most commonly recommend staying a couple of nights in one of the lodges in the area in order to visit one or more of the best known churches, followed by two nights with Tesfa Tigray.

It’s a close call, but we have a slight preference for spending a night in each of Shimbrety Guest-house and Erar Guest-house.

The days generally include a hike of around 4-5 hours and regularly go up and down 200 metre escarpments, so you do need to be pretty fit and active.

Shimbrety Guest-house

From Kiat it’s a walk of around five hours through scenic valleys to the village of Shimbrety.

As you approach the village, there’s an interesting rock tunnel that has been carved through the ridge to give villages on the western side access to the lovely rock church of Maryam Buzuhan.

From there, the trail hugs the mountain and winds up to the plateau on the top, where the guest-house is located, on the western ridge of the Agame Mountains.

Erar Guest-house

The most westerly guest-house at Erar is built on an isolated section of the western escarpment with wonderful views westward to the mountains of Adwa and the Nebulet pillars.

From the village called Rahya it’s a 90 minute walk along the escarpment to Erar.

The Gheralta area tends to be combined in trips with various places of interest in the north of Ethiopia, including Danakil Depression, Axum, Lalibela, Gondar, the Simien Mountains and Bahir Dar.

Seasonality

The best time to visit the Gheralta Mountains is generally considered to be during the Oct-Mar dry season period, but it really is a viable option year round.

The greater region has a subtropical highland climate, with an Apr-Sep rainy season, which reaches a peak during Jun-Aug.

But whilst the majority of the north of Ethiopia experiences significant rains, in this more arid part of the country only tends to bring light afternoon showers, which tend not to be too disruptive to treks and the water soon evaporates and drains away.

Peak daytime temperatures are usually very comfortable, at around 27C/80F. But in advance of the rains during Mar-May they can rise to 30C/85F, potentially accompanied by high humidities, which can become uncomfortable (although night time temperatures usually still fall to a pleasant 13C/55F).

In an ideal world we would be able to plan visits around specific cultural events such as the wedding season, but these tend to be quite unpredictable. The main religious festivals of Ledet (Christmas) on the 7th January and Timkat (Epiphany) on 19th January are certainly interesting, but there tends to be a surge of both local and international visitors, so they might actually be worth avoiding.

It is also important to note that visits to the churches in this area are very much dependent upon the local priests being available and willing. But given that the treks are community based, there’s a good chance that doors will be opened wherever you go.

Getting there

The north of Ethiopia is usually reached by means of regular daily flights from the capital Addis Ababa.

Some of the interconnecting journeys within the region are best done by air, others have to be done by road.

Gheralta is usually connected by air to most locations (via the airport at Mek’ele), but by road to nearby Axum and the Danakil Depression.

taking the Gheralta experience to another level