Another trip we had was to Lalibela a holy place with many pilgrims visiting it. There were 14 churches built near to each other. They were cut out of solid sandstone. The legend was that every church was cut from the sandstone and what men had achieved in one day was doubled by the angels during the night. The one not made of sandstone was St George’s (Giorgis) which was calved in the shape of a cross which was grey in colour.
The first time I went to Lalibela we hired horses at Waldia and rode there. It took three to four days. We camped along the way and stabled our horses as before. It was a long way to ride so we walked some of it. As we got closer, we joined more and more pilgrims until we finally reached Lalibela. It was full of people so we wondered where we would sleep. We cheekily asked the local governor if we could camp in his garden which he allowed us to do. We went to a pub to get a cold drink, but it was warm as the electricity was off. A couple of hours later people told Mike to come and mend the fridge. He couldn’t remember having said anything of the sort but finally agreed to have a go. If he succeeded his payment would be a free supper for all of us. So, he looked at the plug and discovered that wires were not connected. He joined them up and the fridge went on, we got our free supper.
I have been to Lalibela since but there is now a road right through it. The first time was best as I thought we were truly being Pilgrims.