We are spending the day today in Bahir Dar in order to rest a little after yesterdays ride. Bahir Dar is on Lake Tana, a 3600 square Kilometre lake that has 14 islands on it.
We were up relatively early to explore the area as Bahir Dar is the beginning of the “historic route” of Ethiopia. Northern Ethiopia has an incredibly rich and old religious history with some Monasteries dating back over 1500 years and in Bahir Dar, the vast majority of them are on the islands in the middle of Lake Tana.
We caught a boat at 8am from the hotel to see the 3 most important monastery’s on the islands, Kebran Gabriel, Entos Eyesus and Debra Maryam. This proved to be an incredible experience as they are holding original books and artefacts as old as a thousand years old and the monks on the islands still live the way they did a thousand years ago. In all 3 cases, the original structures which are all approximately 1000 years old have been surrounded by newer structures in order to protect the integrity of the older structures within. On Kebran Gabriel there are no woman allowed in the monastery.
On our return, we decided to take a 30 km ride to go see the Blue Nile Falls which necessitated a 30 minute, 1 kilometre walk down and up the gorge and back in full storm trooper gear in 30 C heat…Not Fun, but the falls themselves were worth seeing, although they are nothing as spectacular as the Vic Falls.
If you are in Bahir Dar, we recommend that you get in touch with Beb (+251 (0) 918 764708) who showed us around and was incredibly helpful with all sorts of things including where to get welding done for a broken topbox bracket!
The rest of the day has been devoted to TLC for the bikes, Food, Beer and R & R.
Kebran Gabriel on the right and Entos Eyesus on the left in the middle of lake Tana.
no re-decorating been done here for 1000 years!
New structure on the outside protects the old inner structure.
The 1000 year old inner structure.
Preserved old Books and artefacts.
Student Monk.
Ceremony to celebrate Saturday, the religious day.
Elder Monk on Debra Maryam.
Papyrus reed boats, still a common method of transport on Lake Tana.
On route to the Blue Nile Falls.
The Blue Nile Falls.
Iain and Matt Banner
August 3, 2010 at 4:48 pm
Hi Rui and Dale
Matt and I have just spent a fabulous half hour reviewing every days entry from 29 June. What an awesome journey it has been this past month, still with a really exciting two and a bit weeks to go. You are looking tres slim and fit Rui! Keep trucking… errr… biking that is, and continue safely on your marvelous journey.
With best wishes from all the Banners.