Thursday, December 3rd - Addis Ababa  to Bahir Dar, Ethiopia

We didn't have to leave the hotel until 9:30 so it was an easy morning of getting ready, packing, enjoying breakfast and visiting.  We got to the airport around 10 and were in the departures lounge by 10:10 for an 11:45 flight wondering what to do - so I am blogging.

As we have only a domestic flight we are in a different terminal than for the international flights.  This one is much smaller and mainly it is full of Ethiopians.  There re very few non-Ethiopian people around.  As you enter the airport you show your ticket and go through full scanning including taking your shoes off.  You don't have to take out your liquids or electronics but water is allowed through so the requirements are slightly different.  After that you check in and we were early enough that we really didn't have to wait at all.  Then we went to the departures lounge which is a reasonably large area with lots of seating including some very comfortable looking lounge chairs.  There were a few souvenir shops around and a food location.  We stayed there for a while and then decided to go through the next screening to the actual gate departure lounge.  Again shoes were off but water went through.  Randy's pocket knife and lighter got confiscated though.  The lighter was a new one to him but the pocket knife was just forgotten.  He took it yesterday in case we had to peel anything on our picnic lunch, and just forgot to take it out of his backpack.

Our plane is now ready for boarding so i guess I have to shut this off for now and move on.  Okay, I'm back.  The flight was great - only 40 minutes and they still managed to serve lunch.  The folks at Ethiopian Airlines put the Canadian airlines to shame.   It was a new Bombardier 400 (or at least it looked new), just a prop but fine anyway.

Bahir Dar is definitely warmer.  It is also definitely greener here.  They have had some rains and there is water lying around.  The city has a population of about 200,000 and it is very green with lots of trees and grass.  The animals actually have something to graze on!  There are more carts here - horse or mule drawn - and fewer cars which makes traffic much less hectic than in Addis.  The lake is right at the edge of town and you coulld see it at times as we drove from the airport to our hotel.

Our hotel is interesting.  It was cheap and that's one reason we booked it.  Another reason was because the pictures online were so interesting.  The interior of the hotel has a lot of carved wood all through it in the reception area, lounge and restaurant.  The ceiling and soe of hte pillars are done in tiles and if they are not wood carvings then they are leather of many different colours.  It's quite an interesting place.  

The rooms are nothing spcial but they are reasonably big.  I have a double bed in mine as well as two night stands, a two-seat couch with coffee table, another high small table and a TV.  I also have a small balcony.  The bathroom is pretty old looking but it has the essentials.  However, the first time I used the toilet I pulled the string to flush it and the string came off in my hand.  It was just sticking out of the top of the toilet so obviously broken to start with and not really connected to anything.  So I removed the cover and tried to flush it manually.  That was a mistake because before long I had water running everywhere.  I went down to the front desk and told them I needed someone right away to fix the toilet.  One of the guys who was standing there came up and tried to fix it but couldn't.   He did know how to shut off the water though.  He then went down and found another room for me to move to because the maintenance man was away for several hours.  I looked at the new room and said, "no thanks."  It had no outdoor windows.  The only window was in a wall that had the conference centre directly on the other side.  There was a door to a small patio but it didn't really close and was held shut by a piece of string so not very secure.  The bathroom wasn't much different from my original room except that it had no toilet seat, which is a rather important feature in my mind.  Anyway, I stayed in the original room and hoped the plumber would be back before I was.

We went down to talk to the tour desk about a tour to the Blue Niles Falls.  They were trying to sell us a whole lot of other things.  They did eventually give us a price and it was way too high.  We then went back up to my room to call someone who had given us his card at the airport.  After a bit of haggling we decided the 3 p.m. group tour.  Well, TIA (this is Africa).  We stood around for quite a while and finally left about 3:20, but then we had to pick up some other people and one couple made us wait for a while.  By the time we started on our way it was 3:45.  That wouldn't have been so bad except that it takes an hour to drive to the falls and the same back, and you have a half hour walk both ways to get to the falls, and the sun sets by 6 so we were quickly running out of time.

The drive to the falls was along a dirt/stone/gravel road that was incredibly bumpy and uneven.  We had been told to sit in the second seat from the back and that was fine, except when you got on this bumpy road you were really bouncing around.  Everyone else got on and sat in front of us.  At one point there was a large patch of water on the road and a bus was coming through it coming towards us.  It was on an incredible angle as it passed through the water and it was obvious that some of the holes were very deep.  Stones had been thrown into the water but they were not staying in place.  It seemed to be a bottomless pit but we did make it through.  And the amazing part is that this is still dry season.  The rains don't come until later.  One has to wonder what the road will be like then!  The area was very green though and very lush so it was very nice to drive through and there was water in most of the rivers we crossed.

There were lots of pedestrians and herds along the road but luckily not much vehicular traffic.  We passed many small villages and the road was so narrow that you seemed to be right on top of the action and almost in their homes and shops.  It didn't seem like they had electricity and their water came from a communal tap or from the nearby stream.  There were lots of donkeys and carts around and herds of sheep, goats and cows.   In several places there was a larger wood building that had a lot of donkeys out front.  I wasn't sure if you could rent a donkeys there of if it was a type of stable for them while they were in town just to keep them off the narrow road.  The homes, while still small, seemed a bit larger than in other places and nicer or at least homier with a verandah out front.   Perhaps that was in place of a yard because they certainly didn't have much of that.  Out of the villages a bit, the houses sometimes had fences around them and actual doors in the front gates.  There was a drainage ditch running down each side of the road and there were rickety wooden bridges crossing into each home.  

There were some sugar cane fields in the area and the locals were loading up some trucks when we drove past.  The whole area looked very fertile with some fields ready for harvest and some just being prepared.  One man went past carrying his plow but I didn't see any oxen nearby.  Several men and boys were out ploughing their fields.  One little girl was looking after a small herd of cattle, all so much bigger than her.  Some boys were playing soccer in an empty field and some were playing around a hay stack.   Ladies were drying spices and grains on blankets in the sun.  And, as almost always, there were rolling hills in the background to add to the picture.

Once we got to our destination we paid our entrance fee and picked up our guide and then drove back a couple of kilometers.  From there we had to walk to the falls.  We were originally told it was a 30 minute walk but we had to do it in 15 minutes because the sun was going to be setting soon and we had to get back.  The walk was between some of the buildings and then through the fields.  We were greeted by many people who were very friendly but almost all of them were trying to sell something or just wanted us to give them something.  Even the kids were well trained on the art of selling to visitors.  Their English was great, which is ironic because when you want to talk to someone they say they don't speak English but when you really don't want to talk to them they all speak English.  Convenience I guess.

After about 10 minutes we came to water and there was a small boat waiting for us.  Ten or twelve people and the driver could fit in for the very short journey across the river.  I didn't see any life jackets but then the crocodiles probably get you before you have time to drown so the life jackets might have been useless anyway.  ;-)   On the other side of the river we continued our walk.  Again there were children and ladies selling things along the way.  I was probably appearing pretty rude to most of them but I had to keep up with the others so I definitely did not have time to look or I'd be left behind.  We even had some cows and goats and sheep out to greet us - not really but they certainly were in our space.  The baby goats and sheep were adorable, some just new borns and all pure white.  The human kids were the only ones asking for money and although they were cute they were still annoying.

Eventually we reached the falls.  I stayed up on higher ground while the others went down closer to the bottom of the falls.  I knew I could probably get down but I wasn't sure I'd get back up as it was not exactly a well beaten path and my climbing over rocks is not that great.  Besides, the view from the top was just fine.  

The falls are sometimes quite heavy and sometimes quite light.  It depends on the rains and on the damn not far above.  Apparently for our visit it was quite full.  I call this the Blue Nile Falls but there is another name for it, perhaps the name of the nearest falls.  It is quite a drop but perhaps not as much as Niagara Falls.  And right now it is not as wide either but there were smaller falls out to the left of the main falls so if in heavy season it fills in the whole area it would be quite impressive.  There is a lot of greenery around as well as the cliff and rocks so it is quite picturesque.  Unfortunately the sun was starting to set and it was right about the falls so picture taking was tricky.  Just below the drop of the main falls there is another falls but we couldn't see that from our vantage point.

From there we walked around to what they call the Portuguese bridge which is a long suspension bridge with people and donkeys crossing over the deep narrow gorge.  The bridge is very sturdy and has very little sway, and instead of planks on the bottom it has a very tight steel pattern which we assumed made it easier for the animals to cross.  It also made it quite easy for us to cross as well.  

We walked back to the river to take our boat across and the sun was just starting to set.  I got a couple of good pictures with reflections in the calm water.  As we finished the walk on the other side we also got some pink tones in the sky for another picture.  Then we drove the hour-long journey home in the dark, which was even worse than in the daylight hours.  People had fires going and were outside cooking their dinners.  That's when we realized there was no electricity at all in this area.  It really is quite remote and undeveloped despite all the tourists who are visiting the area.

We got back to the hotel, had dinner and called it a night, although I certainly tried to do some computer work over the very slow internet.  The bumpy ride had just about done me in but I'm sure the couple who ended up in the very back seat on the way home felt the bumps more than I did so I shouldn't complain.   The falls were great but considering it was a 3 p.m. tour and we didn't get back until 7 p.m., our 15 minutes at the falls didn't seem like all that much.  They may need to fix the road and the access once there if they hope to get many more tourists out to the area.