Bahir Dar

By Frieda

We went from Gondar to Bahir Dar by minibus. It took about 4 hours and cost us 200 Birr.

The road is apparently dangerous at night but we travelled during the day and reached Bahir Dar before nightfall.  We tried the first Hotel we saw when we got off the minibus. The hotel had a reasonable price (200 Birr) and the rooms were perfectly fine for us. Clean and with a working shower. It even had a TV.

After we checked in we strolled a little around town and found us a local place where we could get Shekelau Tibs. This dish is medium sized pices of beef served in a sizzeling pot with glowing coal under it so that the meat stays hot while you eat.

The next day we wanted to go to the lake Tana which borders the city. We took a boat tour to see a few of the monestaries located on islands on the lake and its shores. As almost everywhere in Ethiopia a ”guide“ found us in our hotel, offering exactly what we were looking for. He offered a reasonable price so we took his offer (200 Birr per person). We went with him to the lake but arriving there he told us that unfortunatly the boat was not full because he could not find other tourists to take the tour with us. Just one person and therfore it should be 200 Birr more for the two of us. We were not willing to pay but preferred to wait for more tourists. But after a while of waiting we agreed to pay the higher price. But we had not enough money on us so we agreed to pay the difference in the evening. In the end the boat was rather full but only one other farangi was on board.

The boat took us over the lake to a close peninsula for a visit of about an hour. The water of the lake had a muddy brown colour which is typical for lakes and rivers in Ethiopia. On the peninsula were three monasteries. The way up to the first one was clustered with stalls of souvenirs for tourists. They had scarfs, religious pictures, lunchboxes made of goat fur and some neklaces. Instead of having a look at the first monastery we headed for the second one further inside of the peninsula. But even though we followed the marked path we couldnt find it. But it was a nice walk in a jungle-like landscape. On our way we saw several kinds of monkeys and beautiful birds. When we came back to our boat everyone was already waiting for us. Apparently they had just visited the first monatery and went directly back to the boat afterwards.

We left the peninsula and the boat rode to a small island close by. Here women where not allowed to the monastery so I waited by the boat.  Our boat driver gave us some fruit he picked from a tree I had never seen before. It was small like a walnut had a lilac skin, white flesh a big stone in the middle and tasted  very sour.

From the island we crossed the lake to its right side where the Blue Nile flows out of the lake. This took us about half an hour. In this spot were supposed to live hippos. And really we could see the head of a hippo emerging from the water serveral times relatively close to our boat. The head was huge and i was surprised how long the hippo could stay under water without breathing. After that we headed for our starting point an the bank of the lake. The hippo was really my day’s highlight.