Amba Ras

The Eastern Circuit

Most Simien trekkers don’t reach Amba Ras. The standard itinerary from Debark runs to Chenek and Ras Dashen and returns the same way, or loops back via a different path. Amba Ras sits on the eastern extension of the plateau, past the high peaks, accessible only to those who extend their trek by two or three days and push into territory where the park infrastructure thins out.

I added the eastern circuit after Ras Dashen, partly because I had the time and partly because the guide who had taken me to the summit mentioned Amba Ras in the way that people mention places they think you probably won’t bother with. He was right to think that — it was the effort to prove him wrong that got me there, and the landscape that made me glad I went.

Reaching the Edge

The walk from the Ras Dashen area east toward Amba Ras covers broken plateau terrain, descending slightly from the summit zone into a region where the moorland broadens and the escarpment takes a different character. At the main escarpment route the cliffs are dramatic but familiar — you’ve been walking alongside them for days. On the eastern approach, the plateau edge has a series of distinct formations where the basalt has fractured into steps and towers, creating a layered cliff architecture that’s different from the sheer drops at Geech and Imet Gogo.

Amba Ras itself is a high point of land that extends above one of these layered sections, a natural balcony above a drop that I couldn’t estimate with any confidence. The park ranger at the small post here — one man, one shelter, a logbook that had maybe forty names in it from the last year — was visibly pleased to have visitors and offered tea that I accepted immediately.

The View East

The view from Amba Ras looks east and south into the lowland transition zone — the escarpment falls away and the land below becomes progressively drier and more eroded, losing the highland green and heading toward the arid zones that eventually connect with the Afar region. It’s a landscape that tells you where you are in the larger geography: the Ethiopian Highlands are a plateau that rises steeply from every side, and here you’re at one of those edges, looking down the drop.

Lia had joined me for the eastern section of the trek, having come out from Addis Ababa while I was doing the summit. She stood at the Amba Ras overlook for a long time, not taking photos, just looking. When she finally turned she said something in French that I won’t attempt to translate because it would lose something.

The Quiet End

The return from Amba Ras toward the park exit at the eastern side or back toward Chenek is the quietest part of any Simien itinerary. The trekkers doing the standard route have gone. The path is yours. The moorland in the late afternoon of the eastern plateau has a particular amber quality in the dry season — the everlasting flowers catching the low sun, the sedge going golden, the lobelias casting long shadows that make the ground look like a study in geometry.

There are gelada troops out here too, smaller than those at Arkwasiye, moving across the plateau with the particular serenity of animals that see very few people and have learned nothing about fearing them.

When to go: October through February for the dry season and passable paths. The eastern circuit requires at least two extra days beyond a standard Ras Dashen trek, additional food and camping equipment, and coordination with a guide experienced on the eastern route — arrange this explicitly in Debark before starting. March is also viable; avoid the long rains from April onward.