Ethiopia - Searching For The Source Of The Nile

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To Bahir Dar

A Tarmac Road!!!

Another fairly early start as we set out at 8a.m. for the drive from Gondar to Bahir Dar. Bahir Dar is going to be our base for the next couple of days as we explore Lake Tana and The Blue Nile Falls.

We are promised that the drive will be just 3 hours and we make good progress with the luxury of a tarmac road. There are so few bumps in the road that I can even write down some notes for this blog in the minibus!

We stop to take photographs of a dog and some vultures with some roadkill - I think it's a donkey - at the side of the road.

We arrive at Bahir Dar at the promised time and head straight for The Blue Nile Falls. The falls are a short walk from the town of Tis Isat. The falls themselves now carry a lot less water than they used to since a lot of the water in the Blue Nile is now diverted through a hydro-power scheme. I still find them quite impressive although some of our group are disappointed.

Lake

Tana



We get to our hotel in mid-afternoon. The Hotel Tana is part of the same chain of hotels we've been staying in - the rooms are identical to the last two hotels and the standard of service and facilities are similar, right down to the swimming pool with no water in!

Like the other hotels they have managed to acquire a prime location, in this case right on the shores of Lake Tana. We had anticipated a problem with mosquitoes here, but there are far fewer than we expected. Some people in the group have got a couple of bites but it's not a major problem.

We spend the rest of the day relaxing in the hotel or by the lake. Apart from Sandrea who has resourcefully found her way into town to stock up on fruit and biscuits for tomorrow's boat trip - she's going to be the most popular person on the boat!!

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