An Ethiopian Tour

Travel Memoir

An Ethiopian Tour

We went on a 4 day trip to Gondar and Bahir dar in North Ethiopia. Apart from the two towns we also planned to visit Simien mountains, Lake Tana and Blue Nile falls (considered to be the origin of Blue Nile). Earlier we had moved into Addis Ababa in February 2017 from Blantyre, Malawi. Jaychu was expected to be in Addis for a minimum of 5 years. However it was a bolt from the blue for us when Jaychu announced his decision to switch jobs the very same year he had joined Addis. He worked out our move to Bangkok from Addis in late October 2017. So along with the move to Bangkok he also planned a whirlwind tour of North Ethiopia during the Meskel (Ethiopian festival) holidays in early October since we hadn't seen any of Ethiopia . We wanted to have a flavour of this country before we moved out. So began our trip to parts of Ethiopia in Gondar and Bahir Dar. It's been a good close to 3 years since we made that trip as I write this blog. I have made an effort to recollect and pen down all those engrained devoured moments and memories. While some of it seems so fresh in memory others seem sketchy and frail.

We flew from Addis on a Friday morning to Gondar. It was a small flight, took us around an hour to reach Gondar. I could feel the cool fresh air on my face as we were escorted from the airport to the hotel. Gondar is also a high altitude area much like Addis. It was a pleasant season and time of the year. We could see those tiny yellow coloured flowers known as the Meskel flowers in bloom by the roadside as we made our way around Gondar after checking in to the hotel. Some of those blooms on the mountain slopes extended to the horizon. It was such a pretty sight. We stopped by the roadside and Abijit jumped and dived into the Meskel blooms filled fields for some photographs. I just adore Abijit for complying with our requests to pose for pictures. We visited the Gondar fort in town before settling in the hotel for dinner and rest.

The next morning we began our journey to the Simien mountains. First our vehicle was checked at the entry to the mountain game reserve area. We were provided with a gunman as an escort. It was interesting to see the skinny emaciated gun man in his fatigues. He drove with us and was silent throughout. We were asked to alight from our vehicle after we traveled some distance into the mountains. The escort told us pointing to a spot on the other side of the mountain that our vehicle would fetch us from that spot. Jaychu, our children Abijit,Abiram, my father and me began our trek into the mountains. I began to have doubts about if I could make it but we kept walking. The escort was encouraging and took us through the bouldered ups and downs. At one spot he urged us to be careful , to my utter disbelief and fear we found ourselves walking by the side of a ravine. I held onto the branches of trees, roots and walked cautiously not looking over to the sides for it was a deep ravine by the side. Jaychu and my dad along with the children seemed not to be in the grip of fear as much as me. After we trekked past this fearful stretch, what lay in store for us was even more deadly. We reached a plateau of grassland and saw what we thought was a monkey but found out from the escort that the animal was not just a monkey but a Simien. The escort asked us to stop there. As we stood there we saw hundreds of brown coloured Simiens on that grassland. Something must have struck Jaychu. Apparently he was terrified by this sight of we standing amidst hundreds of wild creatures with just our dada escort and his ?deadly lethal airgun there to save us. So he said it's enough and we need to find our vehicle. The escort was least worried and asked us to follow him slowly away from the Simiens after clicking a couple of photos. We trekked for another hour and reached our vehicle safely. It was past one in the afternoon and all of us were hungry. We had packed Injera, tibbs and shiro before the trek. So we stopped by a stream within the game reserve area and had our fill. It was an enjoyable experience sitting on the boulders by the stream, having our lunch and listening to the sounds of the wilderness. 

From the Simien mountains we continued our journey the same day in our vehicle which was a rickety van with sunroof and more than enough space for five of us, to Lake Tana. We reached Kuriftu, a resort by the side of lake Tana, late after sunset. While Jaychu and Abiram made use of the complimentary spa at the resort, the rest of us took rest after freshening up in our rooms. I was successful in uploading two or three photos onto Facebook. Our internet experience in Ethiopia had not been that great throughout since we shied away on using VPN for access. I could never access the videos on whatsapp and there were internet shutdowns in the country for many reasons. So it was impossible to upload the photos onto a cloud or store it up in some easily available methods. We had to rely on the harddisk for storage. After Jaychu and Abiram returned from the spa all five of us went for a quiet dinner at Kuriftu by the lakeside. 

Next morning we readied ourselves and took a boat on LakeTana to visit the monasteries found on the islands dotted in and around the middle of the lake. The boat, a fairly large one which could seat 7-8 people, anchored by the island as we trekked up the island to the monasteries. They were Christian orthodox monasteries dated back to the fourteenth century and afterwards. Most of the monasteries had grassreed roofed tops and the sidewalls had biblical paintings. One of them had an old bible , the old testament written in geez. Inside the monasteries resided the monks and some of them were found praying feverishly with a staff in their hand. Their prayers reminded me and my dad of Hindu mantras recitation. The tone of the prayers went up and down and we were told by the guide that the tone corresponded to the swaying of Jesus Christ while climbing up the mountain holding the cross just before crucifixion. We stopped at two monasteries in two islands. When we came to the third we were told that women were not allowed into that monastery and I had to wait in the boat. So we skipped that one and made our way back to the resort. 

After Lunch we decided to visit the BlueNile falls. Some of the information about the falls was so exciting. It was considered by some to be the origin of the Blue Nile. We had been told that it was not going to be an easy trip but still we wanted to make it. So we took to the muddy dirt road , with boulders on and off , in our rickety van. The dirt road went on and on for about 30 kms. We feared that the van might seep in and get stuck in the dirt road as it had rained just recently and the road was soggy. But fortunately we chugged along well and clambered down at a point which said Blue Nile falls. With no any water fall in sight or sound we started walking and a small man approached us to be the guide. Jaychu struck a deal with him and the man was ready to walk us to the falls which was about 3-4 kms away. We had to walk through a sugar cane field. Since it had just rained the field was soggy and had many puddles of water. Our guide suggested that I may need some help in negotiating through the puddled sugar fields and so he asked a teenage girl to help me. She would hold my hand and walk through the puddles as I walked on the mud topped bunds by the puddles without dirtying my shoes. She held my hand until we reached the waterfall. Children, my dad (despite his 77 age) and Jaychu were all sport at walking carefully on the dry mud bunds through the sugar cane fields without falling into the muddy water filled puddles. The waterfall was a sight. Because of the recent rains the water was muddy but there was enough water gushing and falling. This place didn't seem like a major tourist attraction . There weren't many tourists around. Maybe the distance and the difficulty in getting to the place deterred many away. We stopped around at the waterfall for some time, savoured the site and air and then returned. I won't shy away from admitting how clumsy I am. Despite the helpful girl holding my hand on our way back through the fields I slipped and fell into one of the puddles ! I was glad that we reached our van parked on the main dirt road. I sat inside the van with dirty shoes and pajamas. Jaychu tipped the girl generously as she seemed to be uncomfortable about having seen me slip into the puddle. Jaychu teased me that I could have at least spared the girl her shame to see me fall. What can I do with my clumsy traits!! We returned safely back to Kuriftu by late evening. 

We packed back to Addis from Bahir dar airport next morning. We had successfully made another memorable tour of Africa.