December 5 Gondar (or Gonder or Gondor) Ethiopia

We had a 3 hour ride in a local bus. We thought we were going to be in a tourist van but no this bus stopped and picked up people along the way, packed into the van, with the top piled high with bags. Just another example of paying way too much for something as a foreigner!

A bit stiff once arrived but survived. The trip was very interesting. Lots of farmland along the way with farmers cutting and harvesting the grain. There is also a lot of rice here (I think). This they seem to pile up on round stacks with the heads of the stocks pointed inwards, and then the walk on the middle to separate the kernel. Then they throw off the straw. All done manually.

There also seems to be some sorghum grown. We drove through mountains for a while. Very nice, and some very flat areas that are littered with large black volcanic type rocks. How they farm this land I do not know!
Once we arrived, we went to hotel we thought we hoped had been reserved. There was some problems with the reservation but that was with the online stuff.

We went to the Berhan Selassie church. We took a tuktuk, up the hill. The church is an 17th century stone church surrounded by a wall with 12 towers. Very nice and in great shape. The paintings inside were great, and very similar to the monastery painting.

Went for a walk around. This is a much quieter city than Bahir Dar. Nice. Stopped for coffee at a small coffee place that serves it the traditional way. Prepared over a charcoal burner, with incense burning. Very good and the price was right 10 Bir for 2 cups ($.50)

Dinner at hotel and to bed.


December 4 Bahir Dar, Ethiopia

Today off for a tour of Lake Tana. It is a fairly large lake with about 35 islands. Several of these islands have monasteries. We visited 4 of the monasteries. They are at maximum 900 years old to about 400 years old. Every one has many very colourful paintings but most have been redone. The first one was the oldest and even had a small museum. Amazing as the deacon said they were 900 years old, but the books, made of hides, were in a glass doored book shelf and a robe, also 900 years old (although I am not sure about this) was just tacked to the wall, under plastic.

Each of the monasteries had a trail to them which you had to run the gauntlet of souvenir stalls... not too bad as they were not that aggressive. But still 'no shopping' for me!

On the lake it was nice to see men fishing in boats made of a large reeds. We also saw lots of pelicans, usually hanging around the fishermen and a large fish eagle.

This area is so much more green that the area around Addis, yet the farmers are still harvesting their grain in this area. It seem that there are little shops everywhere that will sell almost everything.. I have not figured out what is missing. On the street there are many shoe polish spots as well as shoe repairs done on the spot! The people are all very friendly and helpful... although there still are the guys that are trying to sell you something...bus or boat tours, city tours. But even they are fine.

A late lunch and we hired a tuk tuk (there is an Ethiopian name but..) to go to the palace of Selassie. On the return we got dropped off on the bridge over the Blue Nile River and walked across. Stopped to take pictures but a couple of young guys said no stopping on bridge. Once I got to the other side I got called over by the Military guy! No pictures of bridge... I had to show him my pictures, I had not taken any so he was happy!

Power out at hotel, but they are running a generator. It has been running for about 5 hours so far. Many places seem to have a generator so I guess this is a common occurrence. The power came back on about 11 pm.




December 3 Bahir Dar, Ethiopia

Caught a 45 minute flight to Gondor. The plane was a Bombardier and it was full.
I was surprised that the Addis airport was not that busy, but the Gondar airport was even quieter. We were the only plane. Also visas were checked both on departure and arrival.

We met a guy at the airport that is now living and Atlanta but has family in this area. Nice as we shared a taxi into town.

The hotel is old, but lots of character. It needs some work. The location is great, you can see the lake from the restaurant terrace.

We arranged to have a tour to the Blue Nile Falls. This is the Blue Nile river and it is the start of the Nile river. Amazing the distance it travels... some 5000 km.

The ride to the falls took 1 hour to cover 30 km... the road was very rough going! Lots of pot holes and even 1 spot where the road was completely flooded! We arrived in a village and then a bit of a hike across fields. Some was chat, the leaf that you chew. Lots of green onions as well.
The falls were very nice, but not that big.

On the return, the van blew a tire but he kept driving on it until he found a tire shop! We walked the rest of the way....only about 20 minutes.