My African Days - by Indira Palasubramaniam |
| Lake Tana, the Blue Nile |
One of the main tourist destinations of Ethiopia, Bahar Dar or Bahir Dar has attracting sites like Lake Tana, Blue Nile River and Blue Nile Waterfall. On the other hand, Bahar Dar is connected to many historic events and also home to ancient monasteries with marvelous wall paintings and illustrated manuscripts and it is the capital of Amhara region. Approximately 578 kilometers from the capital Addis Ababa and has daily flights to and from Addis Ababa and Lalibela, also around three hours drive by road from another historically well known city of the Amhara region, Gondar.
The City: I spent two days in Bahar Dar in 2013, and again enough time needed to explore the city in 2015 and 2016. The city has many good hotels and restaurants, an old church known as Giyorgis, a busy city center with so much activities. Once you pass the city center, you will get into the lower downtown area which is locally called as Gabayha/Gabaaya with handicraft market, vegetable market, spice market and many other shops. The city is also has an old University of Bahar Dar with four campuses, traditional music and dance places, a very tall monument in the memory of the dead soldiers, the Little Nile River and a bridge over it on the main road, southern shores of Lake Tana and so on.
Lake Tana: The largest lake in Ethiopia. I went for a boat ride on Lake Tana with four more tourists. I never saw a huge and deep lake like that in my life even though I had many lake boatings before. It was so magnificent, and, there were so many water birds including ibis, ducks and pelicans, and, hippos in the water. The hippos were seen pulling their heads inside the water while our boat was passing by them. There are number of islands in the lake. We visited one of them, it has an old monastery and local shops which sells Ethiopian coffee and fried lake fish. The fishermen there use locally made canoes which made out of lakeside reeds. The boatman pointed his hand to one place and told that it is the place where Blue Nile and Nile rivers join together, I had no idea how they make it out as I could see only water everywhere. At a point, we felt that the lake gets bit wilder and we turned back where it is more dangerous to go further. I could not see the shores of the other sides, I could see only water in wide area like sea. Actually, the lake is stretch up to the north of Gondar. One should get on to a hill’s top to see the most part of the lake. If you are hiring a boat for a ride, make sure the boatman has life-jackets inside the boat. Our boatman assured before we got in, but we came to know that he did’t have any, in the middle when the boat went wild.
Eventually, the lake became my favorite place and I used to frequent, during my stay in Bahar Dar. You can find a nice view at any of the left side hotels or resorts, or else, on the right side of the lake. On the right, you can find a concrete path alongshore to almost more than a kilometer for a nice walk, which is starting near to the Lake Shore restaurant. On this way, there are small jetties and cafes, and very close to the middle you will get the spectacular view of the sunset. In addition, there are numerous types of waterbirds, which adding a lively environment. A white face fish eagle in the surroundings, a group of black and white kingfishers swoops down into the lake from the lakeside reeds, the dabbling sort necks teals and other pintails feeds on the surface, one type of long neck waterbirds always hiding into the water and peek out in between like snakes. A pair of small birds slowly walk on the shallow water of the banks, by making small ripples. A flock of parade-like white egrets fly across the lake, you can clearly listen their fluttering wings and you may wonder how they learn the parader discipline. The African great white pelicans, roam around every part of the lake, as though the lake belong to them. I used to surprise by the flocks of white herons, small to medium size of black cormorants, and green wings big ducks flew over my head to their roosts just after the sundown. Importantly, the lake and the surroundings are very clean. Since Ethiopia is a land locked country, the lake is attractive to local tourists too.
Blue Nile Waterfall: In 2015, we had a half day tour to the Blue Nile Waterfall, by bus from the city. It also known as Tis Issat Waterfall, and I must truly say that I was disappointed. I had an imagination of somewhat a mini Niagara after watching the local TV’s earlier footage. But it was not like what I was imagined, a little water was falling from the wide cliff even though we went in August, during the rainy season. We were told that huge amount of water has been diverted to a newly built dam, which supposed to be the largest dam in Africa. But the local people have told us that the authorities used to divert some more water to the waterfall during the weekends. Anyhow, we almost 40 - 50 minutes trekked up to the waterfall on a rocky way on the hills. The scenery was very pleasant with full of green and valleys. We passed a very old Portuguese bridge and another very long chained bridge over a big valley. On the way back, we had decided to take a short way by passing the Abay River by boat, which was a wrong decision during the rainy season. The path was full of mud and water and we had a difficult time there. Surprisingly, we saw a small Alligator on the riverbank while passing by the boat. Finally the day turned out as a mini adventure for me.
Accommodations and Restaurants: There are many good hotels and resorts around the city. Avanthi Resort Hotel (the Blue Nile), Kiruftu Resort and Grand Hotel are located in the shore of the lake with nice lake views. Homland Hotel is also a good hotel and less price than above all, located around 10 minutes drive from the city center. Another choice is NGG Hotel, a low budget hotel around the city center. There also many good restaurants around the city. Desset Lodge is a garden restaurant with colorful flowers and so many birds, one of my favorite place for a meal or drinks to watch the birds and the lake before dark.
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| Some of my Bahir Dar photographs on Instagram: | |||||
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| Lake Ialand's Jetty | Local Canoe | Nile | Old Bridge | Pelicans | Lake Tana |
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