Sunday 16 February 2014

Simien Mountains, Ethiopia

Simien Mountains, Ethiopia
This postcard came all the way from Ethiopia.  The sender is Kate Fereday Eshete who is the headmistress of the Empress Mentewab School for poor rural children.

Simien Mountains National Park is located in the the Amhara Region. Its territory covers the Simien Mountains and includes Ras Dashan, the highest point (4,550 m) in Ethiopia.  It was one of the first sites to be made a World Heritage Site by UNESCO (1978).


 The Simien Mountains

It is home to a number of endangered species, including the Ethiopian wolf and the walia ibex, a wild goat found nowhere else in the world.

The postcard shows an Ethiopian next to a Giant lobelia (Lobelia rhynchopetalum).

 When this postcard came to Western Australia and stayed in the mailbox for some time,  snails got on to it and ate away parts of the nice stamp on it.