So caught the flight to Lailabela, the whole reason I wanted to come to Ethiopia in the first place. Id first seen pictures of the rock-hewn churches when I was first planning my round the world trip. At the time Ethiopia seemed like a far, distance scary land. However now know it to be a warm, friendly and very welcoming place, full of weird and wonderful sites that really test your preconceptions. The Lonely Planet says that 'you don't go to Ethiopia for a holiday, you go to be moved and moved you shall be!!!! I've been in Africa a couple of weeks now and this isn't my first time. The one thing that always makes me laugh is that any problem can always be sorted with one phone call. If you ask for something, your man will get on the phone, call a guy and it's sorted!!!! I did try to get the weather sorted but the guy said his battery on his phone was dead!!! You can't describe how excited I felt when I landed in Lailabela, id been waiting 3 years to go here. As usual it was raining and the roads were literally washed away. We had lots of fun getting to the hotel and when we got there, things didn't get much better. This was pretty much the only hotel we could afford in town and when I sat on the toilet, I had water dripping on my head!!!! Water came through the light fittings; I turned the lights on and never dare turn it off again for the next three days I was there. However it didn't bother me in the slightest after I had my first glimpse of the churches. To describe Lailabela we have to go back to the 12th century. Christianity had arrived in Africa and the then king, had a commandment from God that he must carve these churches out of the bedrock. The designs came straight from God and in total 11 individual churches were created. What makes them special is that every church is carved out of one piece of rock. There were apparently 3000 workers and when you see the scale, it's hard to imagine how long it took. We were walking through one section of which we thought was a natural valley. Wrong, it had been carved out; the size was about half the size of a football pitch and about 100ft deep. As we looked closer you could see the chisel marks in the rock. Most of the rock is Limestone so it is quite weak which would have been an advantage. I'm getting ahead of myself here. We firstly had to arrange a guide and id met a woman called Sophie who had given us a recommended guide. The guy was a priest, the only priest it turned out who was a guide. The price seemed a little high but we were splitting it between 5 people so it wasn't so bad. The guide said he would meet us at 9am and show all of the 11 churches. It turned out to be a good decision hiring him; he was the best guide id ever. Funny, passionate about his subject and kept your interest as we went round. The colours of the churches are the first thing that really strikes you. Most of them have a pink colour, mixed with a green moss that has built up over the years. But it wasn't until the end as the guide summed up the churches that he explained the unique quality of Lailabela. It's a simple notion that of the ancient wonders of the modern world, it's the only one that is still living today. If you take Machu Pichu, The Giza Pyramids and The Great Wall of China all these civilizations have died out. This point was proved and probably will be the one memory I will never forget from all my travels. As we arrived at the 5th church we made our way through, the guide explained the paintings and the significant of them. When we got to the back you could hear screams coming from behind a curtain, we entered to find a young girl on the floor with a priest over her and her parents holding her down. The priest had a bronze cross in his hand and proceeded to jab it into the young girl's lower back. It was quite disturbing to see and all 5 people looked very uncomfortable at what we were seeing. I looked to our guide to see his reaction, he seemed unfazed. In factor he just carried on with the tour, explaining away. It wasn't till we left that church that we got answers as to what we had just witnessed. The guide, who of course is a priest, explained that it was an exorcism and the young girl had some kind of mental issues. So the parent had brought her to the priest to release the bad sprits within her. Apparently it's quite common to see this sight and the priest seemed very calm about the whole thing. That night our group discussed what we had seen, it was clear it had had an effect on everyone who was there. We came to the conclusion that was why everyone who travels ultimately wants to see and experience things outside their comfort zone. Finally although it may seem very strange and in many ways disturbing, you have to remain respectful of the faiths of the local people. Two of the people who were in the group were journalists and they have set up a website dedicated to their travel through. Steve wrote an article on what he had seen that day; it's really worth a look as it is written in way that I could not express myself. The website address is www.itbeganinafrica.com . That day has really stood out on this trip and for me is and probably will be the most extreme and wonderful travel experience. Lailabela stands in a league of its own for me, Number 1 Worldwide site to see. It's a must see of this crazy world!!!!