Today we left the Ark Hotel at 7.30am, stopping at a few hotels along the way to see if we could sort out reservations for the day we return to Aksum. Because of the festival it is uber busy and the prices are high even out of town, so we'll take our chances and see what happens. We travelled to Adwa, then Adigrat, finally stopping at Sinkata for a nice local lunch. After this we saw our first rock hewn church of the Tigray region in the Takatisfi cluster - Medhane Alem Kesho was beautiful and mass was about to start as we arrived, so we were ushered in and out very quickly and got to hear a service which has probably not changed in the last 1500 years.
Another drive away we visited Abraka Atsbeha in the Gheralta cluster. It's Wednesday (fasting day) and a holy celebration on Saturday, so there were lots of people worshipping today and plenty of photo opportunities. There was also a service on during our visit here. I was particularly impressed with the ceiling and wood carvings in this church as well as the Adam and Eve paintings!
We then watched the sunset before checking into a local hotel in Hawsien and dining out on some of the local rice and meat dishes. An orange Mirinda washed it all down and I was in bed by 8pm - bring on the climbs tomorrow!
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