Blogs from Amhara Region, Ethiopia, Africa - page 2

Today, I traveled further to Bahir Dar and therefore directly visit the Blue Nile Waterfalls in Bahir Dar. Simply named it, there are three top things to do in Bahir dar: The Blue Nile Waterfalls inclusive walking the trails, Lake Tana and the city of Bahir Dar itself (especially the markets). Therefore, Bahir Dar should be on every traveler list traveling north to Ethiopia. It is possible to drive in one day to Addis Ababa, but you can take your time and travel in a minimum of two days up to Bahir Dar. The distance is 320 km to Addis Ababa. At the start of the third day, it was time to leave our hotel from Debre Markus quite early at 7.30 am. Before leaving, a traditional Breakfast was served with injera, hot sauces and vegetables. ... read more

I leave Gondar the next day 25/12/15 on the 5am local service for 150 brr to Lalibela, meet four Belgium lads on the bus which ends up cram full, not a great deal of leg room for non Ethiopians hah but none the less we eventually reach Lalibela around 4pm, I track down the recommended Salem guest house stay for 300 brr which is very pleasant and near the main cluster of churches. I spend the next two mornings at the churches for mass, this can be from midnight onwards but I'm not that keen. I meet Baruch on my first afternoon after viewing the bustling Saturday "farmers" market and tag along with his guide for the second morning (a busier Sunday), I even manage to find the football on the Saturday via a football den ... read more

I decided to grab a bus towards the north. My bus left Addis Ababa at 6am so it was an early start of the day. The journey to Bahir Dar took 11 hours and on the way I was able to enjoy the beautiful Ethiopian countryside, including the spectacular Blue Nile Gorge! Bahir Dar has about 300 000 inhabitants and lies at an altitude of 1800m at the southern shore of Lake Tana. On board I started to speak to one “faranji” (white person in Amharic) who was also going to Bahir Dar. His name is Alex from Belgium. Neither of us had booked a place to stay yet but we had names of a few pensions. The moment we arrived, people didn't even let us get off the bus and they already started to ask ... read more

via GIPHY That's my first GIF I've ever made. Spending some time in the Simien Mountains was a top priority for me in Ethiopia, as it was the first thing a fellow traveler had told me about the country a few years ago. Unfortunately, late June is the beginning of the rainy season, so it wasn't the best time to go. Our group endured thunderstorms throughout the day, limited views of the mountains, and several river crossings, the last of which made it impossible to summit Ras Dashen. Below is a description of the five day trek to summit Ras Dashen. I highly recommend Bradt's Guide to Ethiopia for details and more description, but it pretty much follows what we did. Also, url=https://www.youtub... read more

The Journey After a day of walking around Addis second-guessing my options as to how I'd get to Bahir Dar, I finally found an Ethiopian Airlines office that would honor my discount without a round-trip ticket from and back to Canada. This meant that the flight to Bahir Dar would be 60 dollars instead of 150. After an hour delay at the airport and a somewhat stormy flight, I arrived in Bahir Dar at about 8PM. It was still much warmer outside than in Addis, and I was surprised to see that the streets were lined with palm trees. My guidebook (Bradt Travel Guide) didn't seem to recommend anywhere they had listed, but some Peace Corps volunteers recommended staying in this hotel: NGG Lounge While it's a large institutional-looking building, it's well constructed and the rooms ... read more