Royal British Legion Talk: Ethopian mountain adventure

John Green, President of the Henley Branch of the Royal British Legion, gave us a delightful and informative illustrated talk about his trip to the Simien mountains of Ethiopia.

At the time John, 91, was a mere 84 years old, so when his friend Rebecca Stevens MBE (the first British woman to climb Everest) invited him to join her group he jumped at the chance for another mountain climbing adventure. John painted a vivid picture for us of Abyssinia as it was known until 1974 under the Emperor Haile Selassi, the friendliness of the people – current population of Ethiopia nearly 140m – their ancient agricultural way of life using ox-drawn ploughs, wildlife encounters with baboons and the magnificent Ibex, beautifully crafted raffia basket-weaving by the women and Lake Tana with the source of the Blue Nile in the highlands.

During his 10 days under canvas John and the group of 15 were accompanied by three armed guards ‘just in case anything happened’ and steadily trekked through majestic scenery, crossing a dangerously swollen river and rocky terrain to the 14,600’ peak of Bwahit, Ethiopia’s second highest mountain. Although this in itself was such a triumph, he had hoped to scale the additional 400’ to the summit of the country’s highest mountain, Ras Dashen, but by this time was suffering not from altitude sickness but from exhaustion and a pesky sore knee. However, back down at an altitude of merely 7,700’ in Addis Ababa towards the end of the trip John was able to pay his respects at the Commonwealth War Cemetery and lay three particularly significant memorial crosses.

John also shared his extraordinary photos on screen of the rock-hewn churches in Lalibela which he had the opportunity to visit, ending his gently humorous and otherwise modest talk with his proud achievement of raising over £3,000 for the Henley Poppy Appeal, which he said ‘his unforgettable experience’ was all about.