EA III: Blue Nile Falls + Gondar

The next day we woke up before dawn and headed back to the previous day's hotel restaurant to have breakfast and watch the sunrise over the lake. (The hotel is on a peninsula so you can enjoy both the sunrise and the sunset!)

On the lake a man in a papyrus boat, likely a fisher, had attracted a crowd of pelicans. Very scenic:



After breakfast we travelled what I at that time considered the world's bumpiest road for about half an hour to see Blue Nile Falls, which flow out of Lake Tana and form the beginning of the Blue Nile, which joins the White Nile at Khartoum in Sudan and flows north into Egypt as the Nile. (See map)

We're told the falls are locally known as Tis Issat, "the water that smokes." You can see why:



From a tourist brochure: "Four hundred meters wide in flood, the Blue Nile plunges forty-five meters down a sheer chasm to throw up a continuous mist that drenches the countryside up to a kilometer away. In turn, this gentle deluge produces rainbows that shimmer across the gorge under the changing arc of the sun - and a perennial rainforest."

We missed "the flood" after the rainy seaon by a few months, but we thought the falls were pretty damn impressive, even if they're not at their MOST impressive. From our vantage point high up across the river, the view was spectacular.



To get to and from the car-park area to the falls, we had to hike about 30 minutes along a path still used by local people in their daily life of hauling water, wood and goods on their backs and with mules.



Lots of people use mules and donkeys in Ethiopia, for carrying stuff, or for riding, or for pulling carts. That's in contrast to Ghana, where we've never seen a mule or a donkey. Another difference in carrying: in West Africa, everyone carries things on their heads -- trays of food, or bolts of fabric, pails of water and even heavier loads like cooking-gas canisters. But we didn't see anyone carry anything on their heads in Ethiopia.

After we sat by the falls for an hour or so, enjoying the view, we got back into the van and started off on the road trip to Gondar, several hours to the north, more in the mountainous area of Ethiopia.

Along the way we stopped in a small town, where we were totally mobbed by people everywhere we went. We went for an Ethiopian lunch at a tiny diner (more on the food later!) where Jason ordered a Coca-Cola.

It seems it's pronounced the same in Amharic, but . . .



GONDAR

Gondar. It was totally amazing; one of the highlights of the trip for Wendy.

The city was once an imperial capital of Ethiopia, founded by the Emperor Fasilides in the 1600s. He built a palace and seven churches there, and several emperors who followed him also built their palaces in the town, all mostly in the same area.

We're told during the 1600s, the city was the second-largest in the world. It lost its status as capital in the mid-1800s, and then later the city was attacked during several wars -- notably, our guide said, it was bombed by the British during the Second World War, when the Italians occupied the city and used some of the palace buildings as their military headquarters.

Numerous buildings and some ruins remain, most found in a walled compound in the city's centre. It was SO remarkable and unexpected to see these castles in the middle of Ethiopia. I spent most of the time wandering around speechless, so I think the pictures will speak for themselves better than I could:





We arrived just as the sun was beginning to set, and the light was gorgeous:



One of the best things about travelling with a guide was the constant availability of someone to take photos of us. We have more photos of us together from our two weeks in Ethiopia than we have from the previous five months in Ghana!



Wow! What a day! My eyes were practically sore from an overload of stunning sights.

Little did I know that more was to come! Stay tuned!