Lambaréné – Visiting Albert Schweitzer – Zu Gast bei Albert Schweitzer

Lambaréné is situated southeast of Libreville on the banks of the mighty Oogué, the “Congo of Gabon”, before it branches out, feeding several lakes and flowing into the Atlantic Ocean in a giant delta 100 kilometres west near Port Gentil. The town lies in the middle of dense rainforest, just like in the times of […]

Lopé

We were lucky because the van actually brought us to Ndjolé without thrombosis, bruises or other injuries. At the market in Ndjolé, we had to accept the fact that there was no way how we could reach La Lopé by road on that very day, so we took a taxi to the train station a […]

Bale mountains – Die Bale-Berge

The Bale mountains southeast of Shashemene rank among the most beautiful landscapes in the country. They are home to some decent peaks, including Mount Tulu Dimtu, with 4.377 m Ethiopia’s second highest mountain, rising out of the 4.000 m high Sanetti plateau, Africa’s largest area above 3.000 m. The lush montane rainforests on its slopes […]

Lalibela – Jerusalem in Africa – Jerusalem in Afrika

It was the village of Roha on an altitude of 2.630 m in the remote Lasta highland at the foot of 4.190 m high Mount Abune Yosef, that king Lalibela had chosen after a change of power at the end of the Aksumite rule to have his nowadays world famous rock-hewn churches being built. The […]

Tigray & Mekele

The bizarre mountain landscape of Tigray is characterised and has been formed and shaped by the sheer tectonic forces of the Rift Valley, that starts in the neighbouring Danakil depression in the east. Coming from this starting point, the Horn of Africa, and East Africa in general are breaking off the continent. West to the […]

Aksum

Aksum is located at 2.130 m above sea level in the far north of Ethiopia near the border to Eritrea, and it is the oldest continuously inhabited place south of the Sahara Desert with today around 60.000 inhabitants. That the town has been the capital of the empire of Queen Sheba as early as 1.000 […]

Gondar – City of palaces – Die Stadt der Paläste

The important imperial city of the 17th and the 18th centuries, Gondar, is a nice mixture of a modern-day town and its historic remains, among them the most famous palace area Gemp. Today’s Gondar has 600.000+ inhabitants and is located at 2.300 m in altitude near the Simien mountains and northeast of Lake Tana. Because […]