The Source of the Nile
Trip Start
Oct 04, 2008
1
65
67
Trip End
Nov 04, 2008
Bahir Dar, Ethiopia
Friday, October 31, 2008
I got off the bus and saw we were in a small town. So much for the picturesque rural location I suggested to Eileen that we should find to spend the night.
One of the crowd was wearing a grubby blue coat and held a booklet of tickets. "Parking. Parking" he repeated. Oh hell, an Ethiopian traffic warden. I feigned innocence, confusion and French, started the engine, closed the doors and made off before he could explain Ethiopian parking regulations to me.
Ian attracted my attention an hour later by throwing up noisily in a bowl. He wasn't well it seems ever since the previous evenings meal, which unfortunately he cooked. He was looking pastey and unwell and he stayed that way for the rest of the day.
We found our way out to Tisissat Falls near Bahir Dar. This is classed as the starting point of the Blue Nile. Its a reasonable, hilly hike from the carpark and you have to run the gauntlet of gourd sellers and guides to get there, but the falls themselves are impressive. Helped by the fact that the hydroelectric plant wasn't diverting water away from the falls today.
For lunch we visited the Bahir Dar Hotel, which is apparently the 5th best restaurant in Ethiopia. Oh dear. One of those will be the Sheraton in Addis and I expect the next 3 are McDonalds. The food was adequate, the smell from the toilets gave you something to chew on between courses.
A boat trip on the lake was a fairly underwhelming experience. No hippos, the outlet from the lake and a monastry with a corrugated iron roof. This contained a shrivelled old monk who happily showed us his allegedly 900 year old hand written bible in Geez, the ancient language of the monks. The pictures in the bible looked like they were drawn in crayon.
We were on the road by 5pm with Rick taking us out of town. I'm sure most Ethiopians have a death wish and so do their cattle and goats. They saunter across the road in dark clothing, seemingly oblivious to oncoming vehicles. Driving after dark is a truly worrying experience over here.
A lorry overtaking a donkey cart approached us on the wrong side of the road, causing Rick to swerve late and we clipped mirrors. It could have been a lot worse. I was stood up downstairs in the kitchen area as I watched the rapidly approaching lights. It happened so quickly that I didn't have time to speak or react. If we had collided, I would have been straight out through the front windows, together with Sean and Jo who were stood with me.
Bill drove us up in to the mountains near Debre Markos and we pulled over to cook and sleep. I had just got in to my sleeping bag when a truck pulled up and 5 men all carrying AK47s got out. "Ethiopian Poleece" they informed me. "English Poleece" I informed them. Fantastic lime green wellies, something I'd never get away with wearing, especially not on duty.
This area is known as The Gojam. I'm not sure why it needed 5 armed police officers to patrol up here in the middle of nowhere. I wasn't sure if their presence made me feel safer or more nervous.
