The drive from Gondar to Debarq was quite short. We started at 8am and arrived at lunch time. While driving we gained some more altitude and ended up at 2,850m in Debarq. The town is considered the gate to the Semien Mountains and will be the starting point of our trekking activities. Despite from that Debarq has not much to offer.

Soon after arrival we went into one of the tiny local restaurants and had Injera for lunch. Injera is the local bread with a spongy texture. As a dish it comes with a stew (e.g. lamb) or as a fasting version with vegetables. Since it was a fasting day today only the veggie option was available.

After lunch my cooking group, consisting of me and two other people, went shopping on the local market. The options on the market were very limited. There were only some half green / half red tomatoes, onions, chillies, garlic, cabbage and potatoes available. No meat, no fruit and no other vegetables such as carrots or eggplant. So we decided to buy whatever is available, mix it all up, cook it and serve it with rice for dinner. For breakfast we will serve cereals we carry as bulk food in the truck and for lunch we managed to get some bread rolls which we will serve together with the tomatoes and some tined tuna and spam from the bulk food. Shopping for the tomorrows cooking duty done :-)

Actually, I do not aim to win a competition in serving the best food but I’m already happy when I have cooked enough food for everybody which is considered eatable. At home I usually do not cook for more than 1-2 people, so cooking for twenty people with camping equipment in a reasonable time can be a challenge.

On the way back to the hotel we found some bananas in a little shop and we also met a guy who offered us to get carrots from a nearby farmer for a little service charge. We used this guy and got 3kg of carrots delivered to our hotel at 7pm. In total we spent 550 Birr which is 32 USD for breakfast, lunch and dinner for twenty people. Not bad.

Since there was no other entertainment available in the afternoon I taught a handful of people travelling with me how to play Texas Hold’em Poker. We had no poker chips and so we used sweets instead. It was fun and we spent a few hours playing.