Friday, August 13, 2010

Travel Day 6--Bahir Dar and Blue Nile Falls (aka July 20)

This day will be infamous in our trip, but we won't know it for another day or two.  It started out great enough. Good pancakes in the restaurant in our hotel---the Summerland Hotel.  The girls liked them and gobbled them down faster than you can say 'pass the syrup.'  We headed out then for our boat tour of Lake Tana.  Bahir Dar actually means next to the lake.  Lake Tana is HUGE.  It is the largest lake in Ethiopia and Bahir Dar is often referred to as the Riveria of Ethiopia.  It has many hotels, several on the lake, and many Ethiopians visit here during the year for vacations and weekend getaways.

It was raining this morning so our boat tour started late.  I had imagined pontoon like boats but NO.  They aren't bad...here is a picture of  a similiar boat...
This boat is nicer.  Ours had a blue tarp covering that had seen many better days as well as a motor that was severely underpowered.  Not bad but the motor kept sounding like it was going to die at any moment so somewhat scarry.  It took abut 30 minutes on the boat to reach our destination.

What destination you might ask?  The monastaries.  There are several monasteries that were built on the islands and coast of Lake Tana as early as the 14th century.  There were 4 stops with 5 monastaries to see.  We did not visit the first (as we were told the 3rd and 4th were the best).  Tony visited the 2nd (as men only are allowed there) and we all visited the 3rd and 4th.  The fifth was a brief stop and none of us saw that one.

Monastaries on Lake Tana
The Good---they are beautiful.  The artwork/paintings that depict the Word of God are very easy to interpret and I was fascinated how they transcended culture, language and generations.



The Bad:
This is the muddy rainy season.  It is wet, it is slick. Yes, I fell.  Luckily I was NOT carrying any camera equipment in my back pocket as that is what cushioned my fall.  It was a wet and slippery walk up hill and a trecherous treck down hill as the rain really began in ernest once we reached the top of our 20ish minute hike.


We were able to see where the Nile River starts at the outlet of Lake Tana....

and the boat we could have been riding on.....
After finishing our boat tour (in the driving rain) we got back to the hotel, had a snack and a brief rest then set out for Blue Nile Falls.  This was the highlight of the trip in terms of scenery.  The drive there was an hour on a VERY bad dirt road full of potholes and your teeth were rattling by the time you stopped.  But, the trip was well worth it. It was a 20 minute light hike to the falls.....




There are actually 3 falls, and they are NOT blue and rarely are.  Since this is the rainy season, there is a lot of runoff into Lake Tana from the higher elevations so the water is very churned up and BROWN--just like the lake.

We got back to our hotel and had a great meal of traditional Ethiopian food and Ethiopian Beer....St George's.  It was great. It was also the first time we had 'national' food since arriving to Ethiopia.

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