Bahirdar and Lake Tana

The funeral.

The hard working beasts of burden.

Our day cruise boat.

The exterior of the round monastery.

The paintings of the Kidane Mehret Monastery.

The young lads who followed us.

Our frankincense wild coffee bean service.

Tour leader Kaleb.

Blue Nile hippos.

A young man in a papyrus 'kayak'.

Sunday, January 21^st.

We left the hotel by 7 and drove north. A couple of hours in we made a bushy bushy stop. Like Madagascar, there are no available toilets and we have to stop roadside for pee breaks. Shortly after we noticed a large number of people in white, and men riding horses. We asked what that was, and Kaleb had our driver stop. He led us across the street to what turned out to be a funeral for an important local man. There were hundreds of people parading around while others were riding horses in colourful outfits. We were fascinated and watched for about twenty minutes before we had to move on. Many of the local people near us were fascinated by us and kept staring until we left.  

As we continued I listened to some music while watching the endlessly interesting views out the window. Today we saw two groups of road bike riders cycling along the highway. I don’t think I would want to ride here.

I love taking photos out the window and I saw a man standing on top of a large billboard by the road and took a photo out the back window. Kaleb saw me and got really mad, and told me that he had told us not to take photos of police or army personnel. I didn’t even know that he was a military man when I took it, but by Kaleb’s reaction it was obvious that there is a strong fear of the military here. John tried to explain that in our countries it is okay to take photos, but Kaleb just said ‘you don’t know these guys’. 

We continued driving (approximately 4 hours) and passed through the lush farmlands of the region in time for lunch at Bahir Dar, one of the most attractive towns in northern Ethiopia. The Blue Nile Hotel lies on the shores of the lush setting of Lake Tana. We had a Blue Nile Tilapia lunch. Then we drove to a little harbour where we boarded a boat for a ride across the lake to a monastery. Covering over 3,500 square kilometres, this is Ethiopia’s largest lake and is home to 37 islands, 20 of which house some of Ethiopia’s holiest monasteries. Many of these monasteries are believed to date back to the 13th and 14th centuries, and feature amazing ecclesiastical art. Legend has it that the Ark of Covenant (of Indiana Jones fame) was hidden here for protection during the times when Muslim forces invaded from the east. Our boat trip took us to the monastery of URA-Kidane Mehret, which dates between the 16th and 18th centuries. It’s renowned for its collection of crosses and crowns, and its incredible painted walls that offer up a virtual 'who’s who' of Ethiopian saints.

The monastery was a circular shaped structure made of wood and mud with grass in it. Inside the bamboo exterior was another building that was square and was the holy inner sanctuary. Between the two was the area where local people could worship. The inside walls were covered from ceiling to floor in beautiful paintings depicting biblical scenes. The people of the day were mostly illiterate, and paintings were a way of relating stories and messages.

When we left we had to walk by numerous tables of souvenir sellers. It is always really hard pass them when they are so desperate to sell you something, but I don’t want or need anything. One guy offered my anything off his table for my fleece sweater. On the way down four teenage boys walked along beside us and kept staring at us. If we looked at them, they looked away. They watched as we talked to the sellers and seemed to be following along with us. I don’t think they had ever seen foreigners before. We asked if we could take their photos and they were happy to do that and they loved to see themselves on the camera. John and I stopped at the bottom and had a coffee made from local wild coffee from a young man and his sister, while we waited for the others. Then we took the boat back. On the way, we powered up the entrance of the Blue Nile to see a small pod of hippos. On the way back, we saw a young man paddling a papyrus boat kayak style. 

We got back to the dock just as it was getting dark. We had dinner at the hotel. I had a fish goulash which was nothing like a soup, it was more like fried breaded chicken. John and I headed off to bed about 9:30.