Bahir Dar, Blue Nile Falls and Lake Tana Monasteries

The mountainous drive from Addis to Bahir Dar was stunning and the very steep s-bends made the drive even more incredible.

Farmers were using cattle to plough their fields and goats were sitting in the middle of the road, oblivious to the vehicles that had to take a wide berth around them.

In the afternoon of the day we arrived, some of our group went to see the nearby Blue Nile Falls (Tiz Abay – ‘water that smokes’). We were taken to see the first bridge built over the Nile by the Portuguese in the 17^th century before seeing the falls themselves.

Upon seeing my photos, Jo aptly described them as being like a ‘mini Victoria Falls’ (mini as they are only 400m wide and 45m high).

Once we got a good overview of the falls, we then went over a bouncy suspension bridge accompanied by locals and their goats, to get closer to the falls.

Here it started to get muddy, slippery and wet. Everyone, except for Dom and I, did the sensible thing and stayed at the top of the last viewpoint. The two of us instead decided to get drenched at the foot of the falls and that we certainly did.

I had to walk back up barefoot as I was slipping out of my muddy flipflops. Young kids trying to earn a living wanted to wash them so I let them but they were only to get muddy again a few minutes later.

The following day we organised a boat to take us to three monasteries on Lake Tana. I didn’t realise how big Lake Tana is and/or how slow the boat would be as it took us 1 ½ hours to get to the first monastery on what I thought was a ‘nearby’ peninsula. Local fisherman passed slowly by on straw boats that reminded me somewhat of Lake Titicaca (although the boats here are about the size of a canoe).

We visited three monasteries: Beteremariam, Azwa Mariam and Ura-Kidahnemihret. All of the monasteries had very rocky, muddy paths so we had to be careful not to slip. Kristy was well-prepared in her trusty gumboots and some wore hiking boots – the rest of us struggled in flip-flops.

All of the Ethiopian Orthodox monasteries are circular with 3 sections – chanting on the outer, communion in the middle and the ‘Holy of Holies’ (said to contain a replica of the Ark of the Covenant where only monks and priests can enter) in the centre.

The paintings are done on hand-woven canvas as it absorbs colours well, and are then attached to the walls with natural glue. They mostly depict scenes from the New Testament but also contain scenes from the Old Testament and 44 extra biblical books, such as ‘Miracle of St Mary’. They are designed to teach people who can’t read the Holy Bible.

One painting I found particularly interesting was of ‘Belahe-Seb’ meaning ‘eating man’. He was a cannibal who ate 78 people including his family.

In exploring the town of Bahir Dar itself, we came across ‘Delicious Juice Bar’ where I had a fresh mango juice and a 4-layered ‘Spris’ – mango layer then guava then avocado then papaya – incredible! I am going to miss the fresh (and cheap) fruit juices in this country.