Simien Mountains National Park

Listen first. Wind moves across the grass in long, dry waves. Somewhere below the cliff edge, a low chattering rises and falls, like a crowd talking in another room. The air is thin and cool, even under a bright sun. Your boots crunch on dark volcanic gravel. In front of you, the ground simply ends. Beyond it is a drop of more than a kilometre into blue haze.

This is the Simien Mountains National Park, in Ethiopia's Amhara Region, north of the old royal city of Gondar. People sometimes call this high country the Roof of Africa. The name fits. Much of the park sits well above three thousand metres. The plateau looks gentle and rolling from the inside. Then you reach the edge and see the truth. This is a high table of rock, broken into towers, gorges and sheer walls.

The story of this landscape begins with fire. Millions of years ago, huge volcanic eruptions spread layer after layer of lava across this part of Africa. The lava cooled into basalt, a dark, heavy stone. Then rain, rivers and frost went to work for an almost unimaginable length of time. They cut the basalt into the shapes you see today. The pinnacles that stand alone in the valleys are the harder remains, left behind as softer rock washed away.

Now look for the source of that chattering. If you are lucky, it is coming from a troop of gelada. These primates live only in the Ethiopian highlands. They are often called baboons, though they belong to their own separate group. Watch the males. They carry heavy, lion-like capes of golden-brown hair. On each chest there is a bare patch of skin, shaped roughly like an hourglass. In the males it can glow bright red.

Here is something most visitors do not realise. The gelada eat grass. Almost nothing else. They are among the only primates on Earth that live mainly by grazing, like sheep or cattle. They sit on their haunches and pluck blades with quick fingers, shuffling forward without standing up. At night they climb down onto narrow ledges on the cliffs to sleep, safe from predators. In the morning they climb back up to the grasslands, and the day of feeding begins again.

The gelada are the easy ones to see. Other animals here are much rarer. The Walia ibex is a wild mountain goat found nowhere else in the world except these mountains. The males carry long, curved horns, swept back over their shoulders. They move along cliff faces that look impossible to stand on. In the twentieth century their numbers fell very low, and protecting them was one of the main reasons this park was created.

Keep an eye on the high grassland too. The Ethiopian wolf hunts here. It is one of the rarest wild dogs in the world. It is slim and long-legged, with a coat of rusty red and white. It does not hunt like a pack animal on the move. Instead it walks slowly, stops, listens, and then pounces on rodents in the grass. Seeing one is a matter of patience and luck. Many trekkers spend days here without a single sighting.

Then look up. Large birds ride the air currents along the escarpment. One of them is the lammergeier, also called the bearded vulture. It has a famous and unusual habit. It feeds largely on bone. It carries large bones high into the air and drops them onto rocks to break them open. Then it swallows the pieces. Watch for its long, diamond-shaped tail. Its wings look very narrow for such a large bird.

The plants here are just as strange. At the highest levels, look for the giant lobelia. It grows a tall, straight stem that can rise far above your head, topped by a crown of leaves. Lower down, you will pass giant heather. In much of the world heather is a low shrub. Here it grows into gnarled trees, often hung with pale, grey-green lichen. In the morning mist, these heather woods feel quiet and closed in.

This is not an empty wilderness. People have farmed these highlands for a very long time. You will pass villages of round stone houses with thatched roofs. Fields of barley climb slopes so steep that ploughing them looks like hard, careful work. Children herd sheep and goats along the paths. You may hear a shepherd's call carry across a valley. Remember that this is home for the families here. A greeting and a smile go a long way.

The park's importance is recognised far beyond Ethiopia. In 1978 it became one of the very first places on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Later, the pressure of farming and grazing, and the falling numbers of rare animals, caused serious concern. In 1996 the park was placed on the list of World Heritage in Danger. After years of conservation work, including efforts to protect the ibex and wolf, it was removed from that list in 2017.

Most visits begin in the small town of Debark, at the edge of the park. From there, roads and trails lead to camps along the escarpment. Walking here is different from walking at sea level. The altitude makes every slope feel steeper. Take it slowly. Drink plenty of water. Visitors normally walk with a local scout and guide. The scout's job is to protect walkers and know the land. Many have grown up in these mountains, and they notice things you would miss.

Now, come back to where you are standing. Feel the cool wind on your face, and the grit of basalt under your feet. Look out at the towers of rock, and at the shadows of clouds as they slide across the valleys. Listen again for the gelada, and the dry rustle of the grass. As you walk on, watch the cliff edge, and the sky above it. In this place, something is almost always moving.