Photos : Ethiopia, Bahar Dar
Farewell Addis and hello Little Fokker
Another day another jittery flight however at least this time the little aircraft did not mean little leg room.The plane might be small however the view is anything but, for outside is the Ethiopian plateau in which Mrs N (Mother Nature) has carved for herself deep and long running gorges. The view is spectacular and it does help to take the mind off the Little Fokker and its small rubber band powered propellers doing their best to keep on turning and keep the aircraft in the air. With a thud we arrived in Bahar Dar, a small but steadily growing town on the shores of Lake Tana.
Lake Tana is the source of the Blue Nile that is the lifeblood of much of Ethiopia and beyond. From Bahar Dar it’s a relatively short distance to the panoramic lookout of the area that overlooks the Blue Nile feeding the Lake Tana. Aside from that the viewpoint didn’t offer much however we were lucky enough to have a majestic sky offering great changes in colour with the setting sun and majestic clouds.
An intriguing and somewhat annoying aspect of this viewpoint was the young hawkers trying to get signatures and money for the local soccer club. From what we could understand they were trying to get enough money together to get international players, can you say Beckham or whatever his name is, to come to the country or more precisely their area. Dubious would be a word to describe first impressions however it soon became overbearing as they were like a dog with a frisbee. They circled us like hyenas waiting for one of us to separate from the herd and then they pounced shoving their petition in front of your face whilst asking for money to assist in their quest. As final photos were taken we retreated to the sanctuary of our bus. Sensing this the young soccer pack made its final attack latching on to any of the herd on the periphery and in an almost frenzied attack tried all manner of persuasion to get money and signatures. Our escape vehicle, aka our bus, slowly bounced its way over the rough ground heading back to town with a few extra attachments. Not getting their kill, the more persistent hyenas actually ran after us pushing their pedigree details against the window in a vain bid to encourage us to become a member of a new pack.
Blue is god/good
A great part of the day was when we got to visit a local market. The market was a local market and didn’t cater for the tourists tastes at all except for photos. There were so many interesting sights it’s hard to know where to look. Unfortunately some tourists in their infinite stupidity, had decided at some point to pay people after taking their photos. Today this means that you’re risking forking out 1 BIR per photo. There are some kids that are happy just to see their photos however as soon as another kid sees this they jump in front of the camera demand a photo with BIR. Pretty soon the kid who just wanted their photo taken for interest sake now has learnt to ask for money.
The market has grains of all sorts, metals, plastic containers, vegetables and all manner of household goods. So it’s really much the same as other markets except for the people and setting. The stores aren’t always fixed structures and are often people sitting on the ground. Interspersed with the kids playing, people shopping. you get donkey carts, cars, trucks and one sign that really impressed was the current exchange rates in the world being displayed on a small board supported by wooden uprights.
It’s always a worry when the tour leader describes the hotel as “it has a nice garden”. Well we’ve had both hotels so far described in such a way although to be fair the second hotel had a great view of the lake. They’re tourist hotels and not great and not bad. The first hotel had the shower head that was made for a very small person as all the jets seemed to converge into a tiny trickle that alternated between luke warm and hot/scolding. Still after our flight it was a welcome relief to be somewhat clean. This hotel had a shower head that sometimes spewed hot water in a fairly random fashion from the showerhead but at least it was high enough for me to stand under.
Early start to the day had us on a bus heading for Tississat Falls located about an hour out of town. The bus drops you at the main entrance to the walk that leads to Tississat Nile falls. It’s a very easy walk and the surrounding landscape on the walk is not awe inspiring however the falls are certainly worth the short walk. Often the falls are very small or dry as the river is dammed for hydro electricity however luckily for us the dam had a malfunction and the water was flowing quite well. Along the way we were unwontedly serenaded by all manner of people with a variety of instruments. We had home made flutes that seemed to play the same cat strangled tune or we had the ‘saw’ box guitar. The seranaders would join the walking party and commence playing or singing and playing until you either took an interest or until you had become fed up and paid them to go away. Be wary of taking photos as you may have to pay for photos or for the privilege of listening to the playing of dead cats being strangled concerto number 7. With ears bleeding from the audio delight, finally we reached the end if the walk and finally the playing stopped but not before hassling each and everyone one of us for money.
As we arrived back in town we had a mini traffic jam. Fuel in many parts of the country is a very hard to come by commodity and the traffic jam was actually the queue for the petrol station. The queue was such that our bus driver queued for over 5 hours to get within arm’s length of the pump only to have the station close. Ouch….glad it wasn’t me having to wait but now all of us had the concern we were going to run out of fuel. The guide and leader assured us that all would be in order so we took it on face value all was under control.
The afternoon was spent getting to and from the monastery in the middle of the lake. Ordinarily it’s a 40 minute ride however in our case it was a 90 minute boat ride away. Most boats had good seats and powerful motors however in our case we had 2 stand-in boats (our usual boat was in the shop) that were not the most powerful crafts to grace the lake. We had 18 people in the group and both boats relatively full. Our boat had the 85HP motor whilst the other had a 35HP. We had to travel in tandem therefore we managed to whiz along at a turtle pace aka keeping pace with the 35hp boat. Whilst it’s a casual ride, there’s nothing to see! Just lake, lake, lake, lake…time seemed to stand still.
The island seems to have only 1 thing and that’s the monastery. Almost as soon as you start your short 10-15 min walk to find the monastery, you find kids playing foozeball under the shade of a tree. Another thing you find is friendly locals, mostly young kids, welcoming you to the island on one hand whilst asking for BIR to take a photo of them or a pen or candy on the other. As you walk up the hill you have the kids attach themselves to your being and almost no amount of persuading will remove them. They were like leeches however even applying salt failed to remove them! The monastery is a round building made from cane. Inside it’s adorned with walls brightly painted with all manner of religious depictions in a graphic and somewhat unsubtle way. For example you can see decapitations and people engaging in all sorts of bodily functions.
On the road to Gondar
About 3-5 hours drive is the city of Gondar. In the morning we were told our fuel supplies were low but we should be able to get fuel at the next town or on the black market. This should be interesting but the danger isn’t so much being caught by the police but the fact the fuel is mixed with kerosene therefore can damage your vehicle. We didn’t find black market and were forced to gamble we would have enough fuel to make the next town and hope we could then find fuel in that town. If we couldn’t get fuel there then we would have to wait for fuel supplies or attempt to find an alternative means of transport….the camels may be an option 🙂
Either by good fortune or otherwise we made it to Gondar safe and sound. Again the hotel was described as ‘Good Location’. Thanks for the heads up. New city, same hotel. The hotel is near the top of a hill and its vantage point gives you a sweeping view, although through a haze, of much of the city. In the distance you can see the ruins of the castles once home to Ethiopia’s kings from the 17th century.
We spent the day getting a tour of the castle then off to the Debre Birhan Selassie church which apparently has “a sensational angelic ceiling”. I don’t know about that but it had stuff painted on the ceiling but it wasn’t angelic enough to make me drop to my knees in reverence of the sheer ‘angelic’ beauty.
Shaken but not stirred
Early start today, 5am wake up, as it takes around 12 hours to drive from Gondar to Axum. The road is unmade and varies between average to poor. The bus rattled from the first kilometre to the last. The route snakes its way through the Simien mountains, weaving along ridges with dramatic escarpments on each side. No photo would do the view justice but I did take a couple purely for posterity. In sections you are presented with an array of mountain shapes that rise from the earth as if jettisoned from the earth’s core like a missile.
The bus rattled and bounced, and I mean rattled and bounced, for the entire trip. Sitting at the very back you felt the effects of the bounce almost twofold to those in the front and on many occasions we were almost catapulted upright. The bus is equipped with air conditioning however for reasons of extra fuel or power or maybe it didn’t work, it was not used therefore as the temperature of day increased the only way to remain semi cool was to open the windows. For the entire trip we were bathed in sunshine and dust. My suntan was to be washed away at the end of the day. I hadn’t planned my wardrobe well and wore a white T-shirt that showed exactly how much dust in which we were immersed.
40% of Ethiopia is classified as highland and 80% of the population live there. The higher you go and closer to Axum, the towns and the people change. The first stop was for brunch in a small town at which we were again the focus of attention. The small coffee shop was part of the hotel and when asking for the toilet you are directed upstairs to use any open room! Interesting idea but also one that proves efficient. 🙂
We had time to walk around the market here and it was brilliant. We were warned before going to the market to be careful with your valuables as some ferengi (white foreigner) had their video camera stolen. As soon as we started to walk to the market it became obvious that we were the main attraction. Being the center of attention and attracting the stares of all and sundry, it’s very difficult to get a natural shot of people although we were very persistent and managed to get a few. It’s a substantial local market like most others but it does have an interesting donkey tethering station…a tank from the wars. Riddled through the country are the empty shells of military vehicles rusting in the farmers fields, the roadside or even markets. Some good might was well come out of man’s creations of cruelty and this seemed fitting.
Two stops later were in the next town where we stopped for ‘lunch’. We’ve been hassled at the other towns however in Adi Arki the kids were more overbearing and aggressive than others. Nothing where you feared for your life but you didn’t get any peace and quiet and their demeanour wasn’t as open or friendly as other towns. If you have to stop here then do otherwise, as the saying goes, “get the hell out of Dodge”.
The “around 12 hour” trip estimate was optimistic as there are road works taking place in the last section of our drive and this adds about an hour to the drive. The road works run by the Chinese are a huge exercise, and I mean HUGE. The workers start at first light and continue until after dark. I assume the local workers are paid a pittance but it’s a job. Much of the work is done by hand or what the West would consider antiquated machinery. For kilometre after kilometre we saw the roadworks and the Chinese management overseeing the road construction.