Bahir Dar

When we visited Ethiopia we made Bahir Dar our first stop. The city is at the southern end of Lake Tana where the lake feeds the Blue Nile. It’s known for the various bird populations that live on Lake Tana, for providing nearly 80% of the water to the famous Nile, and for the many churches that require a boat trip to see.

After flying 13 hours from Toronto we hopped on a smaller plane for the one hour flight north to Bahir Dar. We had booked a hotel with the Unisom Hotel, which provided a shuttle from the airport. We arrived early enough in the day, despite being dead tired, that we walked to the water to see what we could.

We found a great waterside bar with inexpensive local beer. We planned to visit the churches in the morning so we asked around to find a boat.

After a few beers we decided to ask a tuk tuk driver to show us around for about 20 minutes. We agreed upon 100 Birr, which is about $3.12 USD.

He drove us around and suggested we see the city from the view on the mountain. We agreed, then requested we return to the hotel since the beer we drank earlier had been fully processed.

You’d think the driver had a taxi meter the way he wove through town letting all the other tuk tuks pass us by, despite repeated requests to speed up. He tried to extort 300 Birr out of us when we finally got out. Are you kidding? We’re not that naive. He got 200 since we agreed to extend the drive.

The next day we booked a boat ride to three of the island churches. The cost was 1500 birr for the two of us.

The first one was called Ura Kidanemihret and it’s been there since the 14th century. We had to walk nearly a kilometer through some very uneven trails lined with stalls selling souvenirs. Every vendor had nearly the same items and, when we said “maybe on the way back” they would say “do you promise?”.

Admission was 100 Birr.

After removing our shoes we were able to wander around taking photos of the ancient religious paintings.

When we retraced our path back to the boat we encountered a number of the vendors who played on our guilt. “You promised! You gave your word! I’m a student and you need to set a good example”. We did buy a few trinkets but we had to make sure we had enough cash for the rest of the day.

A short boat trip took us to the second one. This monastery had a number of worshipers arrive just as we did. Another 100 Birr later were adding our shoes to the entrance with the locals.

 

Our captain took us to the last church since we decided we didn’t want to climb to the next one in the series. The entrance sign said it was founded in 1314. The entrance fee was another 100 Birr.

The next stop was the mouth of the Blue Nile. The captain said we would probably be able to see a hippopotamus there. He wasn’t wrong.

We returned to the port and had some time to kill before meeting our driver who we hired to take us to Gondar. We sat at the bar in the little port and drank beer, enjoying the sights.

The drive took about 3 hours and the sun was setting when we arrived.

We were happy to check into the hotel and grab a bite to eat before starting the next busy day of sight seeing. That story will have to wait, though.

~ Freddy