Are You Gonder Come My Way?

Aksum was once where Queen Sheba had her throne but today it is only a small, dusty town with a few reminders of it's former greatness. There is a large number of stelae (stone pillars, similar to Egyptian obelisks) ranging from 1m to 33m in height and tombs marking the graves of Kings and Queens of the past but more significantly it is where the Ark of the Covenant rests. I say this as if it were fact but nobody is allowed to see the famous stone tablets which Moses brought down from Mount Sinai, and us foreigners, or "Farangis," aren't even allowed to come near the chapel where they are allegedly held. Aksum also marked the spot of my first illness for the trip. I have somehow managed to stear clear of any disease for over 3 months, but I picked up some form of food poisoning with the only real suspect being a chocolate donut I had splurged out on. After recovering from the short bug we got on a very bumpy, sweaty, dusty and long busride to the town of Gonder. Gonder is often dubbed as the Camelot of Africa, and with it's history and medieval-looking stone castles set within a walled enclosure it's not hard to see why. We strolled around the 17th century compound (hopefully marking the last of our "historic building and sights-tour" for a while) and also managed to squeeze in a short trek of the Simien Mountains to do some monkey-spotting including the endemic Gelada Baboon. After 3 days we moved on south to Lake Tana and the small town of Bahir Dar.