Bahir Dar and the Lake Tana monasteries...

Day 27 Nov. 2

What a day! It started off early in Addis at 3 AM. I had booked transportation to Bahir Dar the day before with the hotel mananger. He basically laid out a travel itinerary with guides and hotels recommended.

I went to the hotel gates to wait for what I expected to be a minibus. A toyota truck was already there loading gear. After a while I was approached by a man from the truck who told me it was my ride. I cautiously piled in and we raced around the darkened streets of Addis with the men inside chattering away in Amharic. I felt like Kapuscinski in the middle of a situation that excited me but whose nature was beyond me.

We picked up an Ethiopian woman and an Israeli man whose name I would later learn was Adam. With all passengers on board we raced out of the city and into fertile farmland dotted with large green trees.

It was quite cool and mist was in the fields. The road was filled with people and animals. Most people had their heads wrapped in blankets for warmth while carrying walking sticks or switches (if they were hearding goats or cows).

If cars have the right of way in Ethiopia, there'd be no way of tellling it. The roads teemed with people and we had a few near misses with people and animals.

Of the people: There were shepherds, old women, girls carrying firewood and large gourds of water, groups of children (some tending animals), and the occaisional individual with an AK-47.

Of the towns along the way: true Africa - naked and unwashed. Dirt streets with ramshackle shacks serving as stores and restaurants. People swarmed through the streets and herds of animals shared the road with trucks.

At one point we emerged from the rolling, tree-covered hills and the cultivated valley floors to find ourselves climbing down the side of a massive gorge. The Blue Nile snaked its way along the bottom.

It took us the better part of an hour to descend into the gorge and easily an hour to climb out again. It was hazy from the heat but still a magnificent sight.

We stopped for a drink and a bite to eat after the gorge. I was treated to injera (Ethiopian flatbread - kind of like a huge grey-coloured sourish-tasting panacake) with lamb by one of the passengers.

We continued to drive through the fertile fields of sunflowers, tef, and even canola with shacks and peasant huts dotting the expanse.

The whole drive was quite the experience and a clear exposure to the Africa I've come to see (especially the towns).

Day 28 Nov. 3

This morning I was awakened by a host of birds outside the hotel room. I decided I wanted to see the monasteries of Lake Tana. After some negotiations with a guy I had run into yesterday I was on a boat with a guide and another Ethiopian.

The boat was fairly slow as we motored into the lake. Pelicans we present as we a few fisherman paddling about in small reed fishing vessels. After half and hour or so we arrived on a jungle-covered island. a set of stone stairs led the way through the foliage and past huge spider nets to the monstery of Kibran Gebriel.

A local monk hosted us in the monastery museum. It was filled with relics from the 13th Century - when the monastery was built. He showed us intricate crosses and ancient texts (some with pictures) written in Ge'ez (the Ethiopian equivalent to Latin or Sanskrit).

The monastery itself was a cylindrical stone building with a conical grass roof (which was protected from erosion by sheet metal). Inside was a huge cube-centre painted with various religios scenes.

On the way out we stopped and ate some injera with spice provided by another monk. The monks hovered in the background on the island. Our guide greeted many of them.

Back on the boat we headed to two more island monasteries. The monk of the final island showed off a 900-year-old text written on goatskin.

The feeling of history in this part of Ethiopia is palpable. Robed monks share the sidewalks with beggars and pedestrians.

It was a fascinating day and the first taste of the history I've come to see in this part of the world.

Day 29 Nov. 4

Today was a do-nothing rest day. One venture bears mentioning though.

I went out into the town in search of a telecom to call my folks. I was soon approached by a man who introduced himself as John and started talking. He said Ethiopians think of Canada as being "the moon" ("very peaceful"). With his help I was soon down a dirt road at a shack with 3 beaten-up phones. When the number didn't work I soon had my own entourage of Ethiopians leading me to another store. John and Ephrim went out of their way to help me and asked nothing in return. It was quite the heartening experience.

Exit Windhoek enter Addis Ababa...

*** Bakc in rainy and storm-ravaged BC, will continue posts and should have some pictures later in the week. ***

Day 24 Oct. 30

I'm sitting outside Windhoek international waiting to check into my flight and reflecting on my time in Namibia.

I went for a sun-downer with 2 British tourists and Mack, a black fellow of about my age who works at the resort. As we sat and watched the sun go down in a cloudless sky, Mack sang the Namibian anthem for us and said he was proud to be a Namibian. Reflecting, I remarked that Namibia is similar to Canada in the respect that the two are countries of shifting landscapes. The main difference is that in Namibia you can drive through four or five of these uniquely different landscapes in the space of a day whereas in Canada many more days are required.

My favorite landscape in Namibia would have to be Sesriem and the Sossusvlei. Sitting on the pink dunes of the Namib expanse and watching the sun's rays bring out the iron-red of the mountains and the radiant yellow of the grass plains and the deep green of the Camel Thorn trees was spectacular.

Also, the juxtaposition of the curved dead trees, the grasslands and the huge salmon-coloured dunes rising behind was quite striking and made for good photography.

Learning of the Bushman culture has stirrred me to learn more and one day visit the Kalahari desert.

The landscape around Sesriem and Sossusvlei screamed Africa to me and was unfortgettable.

My experiences in Etosha highlighted the otherworldliness of this place. Watching the African giants lumber about or group silently at the waterhole was amazing. It was a grand time I had in this country and hiking in the Tsaris canyons gave me more time to appreciate its hidden beauty. Now it's off to Ethiopia for Halloween.

Day 25 Oct. 31

I slept on the flight to Nairobi and I slept most of the way into Addis Ababa. Coming into the airport was amazing. Gone were the dry colours of Namibia, they were replaced with a broken and slivered chessboard of lush green farmers' fields. Olive, hunter, and saphire green fields as far as the eye could see. The city was hemmed in by completely foliated dark green mountains.

I changed my money at the airport and was ushered to a cab by a helpful man. Tipping was the norm.

You can feel this country's poverty from the start. As my cabbie drove through gridlocked streets my cab was approached by all ages of beggars: an old woman, a young woman with baby on back, and childreen selling kleenex.

The city as I have seen it is a hodge-podge of low rises, giant squares, and dillapidated shack stores that are the same in description as the ones in the Cape Town township tour.

This is the sub-Saharan Africa I came to see. The poverty is everywhere but so is the heart and the otherworldly beauty I've yet to fully come to understand yet appreciate a great deal.

I was a bit overwhelmed so I'm hiding in my hotel room at the old and basic but comfortable Itegue Taitu hotel.

I get the feeling that I'm one of very few tourists in this city.

Day 26 Nov. 1

I ended up sleeping off jet-lag and not exploring last night. Early this morning Shehebo Halil, my cab driver from the airport, showed up to take me to the Mercato (reputed to be the largest open-air market in Africa).

We drove straight into the madness and Shehebo offered his services as a guide. Donkeys laden with produce, herds of goats, lines of cars, and a roiling mass of people all shared the main thoroughfares of the market.

The ground was mud in some places and wet cobble-stone in others. We walked the narrow alleyways of the market through the used materials section where plastic containers, bits of metal, bits of leather, and rubber were all transformed from their prior uses into some new thing of use.

I didn't find the market intimidating by my guide advised me to keep a good hold of my camera.

In the cramped passageways of the marlet we brushed by men, women, and children all going about their business. We travelled through the woven district, the metalworks district (where nothing was heard save the clanking of hammers), and the leatherworks area. We also visited areas with sacks of coffee beans, spices, and garlic. At one point I was offered hashish.

It was an exhiliarating experience and in the cramped but alive alleyways and streets I got a taste of true sub-Saharan African daily life.

Tomorrow Shehebo is picking me up to take me to the mini-bus that goes to Bahir Dar.