Asheton Maryam Monastery

In the morning, latest around 7 you will meet your guide either at your hotel or the Highland Eco Trekking office- you will also find a mule man and all things nicely wrapped around the quite stoic animal, prepared for your trekking experience into the LASTA MOUNTAINS above Lalibela. If your hotel has not fed you properly we normally start this day with a nice and filling breakfast at a local Cafe`, so you'll have a solid base to rock our mountains! In case we have not agreed on the details beforehand via e-mail, it would be nice if you arrange this one day before starting the hike with our guides in the office or with the one who picks you up from the airport, so you and we know exactly where to meet. It is actually only a very short walk out of town, 10 minutes after leaving the office you are already above Lalibela, right on the very same trek which locals always used and still use all the time bringing their goodies to the market and home again. This is the only connection from the highlands to Lalibela and therefore it's very important. You might see busy grandmas running barefoot over the stones, carrying huge baskets, young men with huge piles of hay on their backs, mules carrying bags full of whatever the mountaineers need. Anyway, you will not see many tourists up here but you will pass little rural villages and some people on their fields, doing their daily work. Up and up you will be going, in serpentines- the first breathtaking views will make you stop (and may be also the altitude itself- but don’t worry, we are not in a hurry!) in around 3400 meters height you will reach the still working mountain monastery called ASHETEN MARYAM, home for some monks and nuns, living some sort of hermit life there. The monastery itself can be visited- there is an entrance fee. You will see old original crosses and bibles and the rooms of the cave church itself. Normally the priest is there and will show you all the holy things, it's a good opportunity to take impressive pictures. Either if you decide to go inside or not, here you will have your first stop, getting something to eat and you will rest for a while- you can enjoy the vast view over the land literally underneath your feet and take a deep breath of the clean mountain air.

Medhane Alem Church

After this break your way brings you up even deeper into the highlands, the view becomes rougher and the vegetation more little. Wherever you are at mid-day: lunch will be brought to you, freshly prepared by the company cook. You now soon arrive at AD MEDHANE ALEM (ATABKIT), a big plateau overlooking Lalibela and the WOLLO land, even Gondar region and Tigray, it is also already a great place to spot all different kind of birds enjoying their flight up here. Now it's also time for your lunch and a well-deserved long break- you are now at around 3600meters! You will continue to walk towards the AD MEDHANE ALEM VILLAGE, NEAR ASTABIR, your 'home' for tonight. The hike now is not steep anymore, so you can take it easy. Having reached the village you will get introduced with your 'family'. They will show you around, make you take part on some daily activities. Of course there is the famous Ethiopian coffee ceremony waiting for you and many other things you might never have seen before. You can also wander around in the village and check out how it looks like- the life up here. In the evening we normally prepare a fire or you will sit with your family around their fireplace inside the huts. Dinner will get served and you can relax from a day with hopefully many interesting impressions.

After breakfast you will gather your things and the walk towards Lalibela starts- here and there you will have a stop to enjoy the views or the animals. Town will be reached around 4-ish in the afternoon.