Last Day in Bahir Dar - our pilgrimage draws to a close

the boat display on Lake Tana outside our hotel

This is our last day and we fly back to Addis Ababa at lunchtime. But first we have the morning for a little last minute savouring of the culture of Bahir Dar.

It is a big day in Bahir Dar. The Amhara National Democratic Movement (ANDM) are celebrating the 35th anniversary of their foundation with a variety of proceedings and celebrations and the closing ceremony will be held in this town, capital of the Amhara region.

the kingfisher we rescued that flew into the
hotel window

We noticed some of the preparations in the hotel last night and the high security all around town and in the hotel gardens this morning - soldiers and police. There was also a crazy display on the lake early this morning of boats, of all sizes, circling around with increasing speed in ever decreasing circles - quite a stir on the water and quite fun to watch! Perhaps this is also for the benefit of the ANDM. There is also the unveiling of a new statue on a roundabout near the hotel - perhaps part of the same celebrations I suspect. There are crowds of people all around it as we drive by - with all the photographic paraphernalia of the media. On our return it has been unveiled and the crowds gone.

Before going to the market, said to be one of the best in Ethiopia, we drive up to the top of Bezawit Hill, about 2.5km out of town, for the view of the town and the Blue Nile below. Here we see the hilltop palace which was built for Haile Selassie, heavily guarded with no entrance allowed. We can pick out hippos wallowing in the shallows of the river near a sand spit.

the Martyrs Memorial Monument

On our way down we see massive plastic sheets laid out by the side of the road on which seeds, pulses and spices are being dried in the sun. Just past the bridge over the Blue Nile we see the large Martyrs Memorial Monument that is dedicated to those who died fighting the Derg.

panoramic view of the Blue Nile below Bahir Dar
We spot hippos wallowing in the shallows

After a stop for a coffee and cake in a local café we are soon heading for the airport for our flight back to Addis Ababa, where after a rest and supper at the hotel we head back to London.  

Lasting impressions of our trip:

There is much poverty but also much happiness.

Bahir Dar market

Lives in rural areas at least are simple but the diet seems nutritious, making for lovely teeth and smiles. There is a very strong Christian faith - the people often walking miles and miles to attend churches and festivals, often barefoot. Children can walk for many miles to school each day. They invariably want money and pens from us. But such begging, we are told, can divert them from education which is becoming much more widely available and so very important. There seems to be very little obesity. They are very friendly. The strong faith underpins strong moral values and mutually supportive communities and families. It seems to me that there are so many lessons for us to learn here.

spices for sale in Bahir Dar market

And the countryside: sometimes words seem inadequate to describe some of the views. Dramatic, spectacular, beautiful, stunning, breathtaking, awesome…so many superlatives are appropriate.

Of course the country has its own problems to find if we scratch below the tourist veneer. No place can be perfect. But we had a wonderful time and I feel sure that given the opportunity many of us would wish to return.   

My blog for Ethiopia has come to an end. Thank you for staying with me to the end and I would love any comments.   

view of Addis Ababa from my hotel balcony

Before taking a break for a while from posting here - until the next pilgrimage perhaps - I would like to thank Rosemary and McCabe Pilgrimages for such a well organised trip, The Revd. Canon Adrian Slade who with his wife made such a good job of leading and spiritually guiding us, our excellent guide Johannes with his encyclopaedic knowledge of just about anything we wanted to know, and our drivers who transported us safely and cheerfully throughout the journey, always there to meet us and look after us. And thank you to all my fellow pilgrims for being such good company. 

The Fasil Ghebbi compound in Gondar

The Egg Building in the Fasil Ghebbi compound Gondar

We are on a Christian pilgrimage to Ethiopia with McCabe Pilgrimages. To quote from their website, "as pilgrims, we travel to discover more about our world, the peoples who inhabit it and the faith which shapes our understanding of life."

the fireplace separating male and female rooms and note
the holes for horns to hang meat

In Ethiopia, we are discovering more about the largest Oriental Orthodox church in the world today… and as with all McCabe pilgrimages, we try to engage with the local Christian community and return home with fresh insights into our own faith, enriched by all that we have experienced as we journey together.

one of the lions' cages

We are nearing the end of our visit to this fabulous country, and have already enjoyed many extraordinary experiences. But we still look forward to much more. Today, after visiting Debre Birhan Selassie (or Mountain of the Enlightened Trinity) we visit the Royal Enclosure or Fasil Ghebbi compound in Gondar, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979, enclosing six castles and related buildings over an area of 70,000 square metres in the heart of the city. This is a great fortress-city, residence of its founder the Ethiopian emperor Fasilides and his successors.

The Emperor was tired of the pattern of migration that had characterised the lifestyle of so many of his forefathers, so he moved his capital here in 1636 AD. It is a photographer and tourist paradise, with great historical significance, as well as a place where locals also like to come to stroll and relax in a green haven of peace away from the city bustle and noise just the other side of its high stone walls.

The locals call the first castle we come to the Egg Building, because of the domed tops of its watchtowers. Inside the main hall is split into two, segregating the men and the women, sharing only a fireplace built into the wall between the two rooms. We are shown holes in the wall where meat was hung on horns because metal hooks would spoil the flavour. These horns are also seen in the Turkish Baths on the site, in this case used to hang clothes.

horn hooks for clothes in the Turkish Baths

Three of the castles are interconnected by trenches. We see the so called Window of Love, where the Emperor and his wife would apparently like to sit enjoying the pleasant view to the bridge and the people going about their business outside the castle.

A beehive high up in a tree is wrapped in savannah grass to protect it from the rain. Honey is introduced to attract bees and there can be as many as four harvests in one year if conditions are favourable.

the Mentewab Castle

We also see the old lion cages - where the poor beasts were kept until as recently as the 1960s - some guidebooks say the 1990s - to entertain the residents of the castles and their guests. There are stables and a stable yard to accommodate the horses of guests as well, and a banquet hall.

The sixth and last castle we visit was the only one commissioned by a female, Empress Mentewab, acting as regent for her young son, Iyasu II. It is the most impressive and well preserved of them all, decorated on the outside with Gondarine crosses. We can only view from outside the gates - we are not allowed near. 

entrance to the King's Baths

the channel to fill the King's Baths

We drive back through the town towards the King's Baths, also attributed to the same Emperor, and the site we are told of one of the best Epiphany festivals of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Here 10,000 or more pilgrims will gather annually and the huge reservoir is filled up from the local river for this occasion. It takes a month to fill. The Ark of the Covenant is brought from the local church in procession and the water is blessed. Everyone will try to be sprinkled with this Holy water, and many will swim in the water as well. There is song, dance, and a great mixture of religious and secular activity. Having experienced the recent festival in Lalibela we can well imagine what an incredible sight this must be. Scaffolding is erected at the far end of the bath for tourists - everyone else has to join the milling crowds, no doubt many climbing any available trees for better views of the activities. Johannes tells us that this festival of Epiphany is also a traditional time for dating. Boys would buy lemons and throw them at the girl of their fancy. If she picks it up he knows he is in with a chance. Nowadays, he says, they expect Apple iPods!!

the King's Baths

It's been a full day 
and tiring. 
But we somehow find the energy at the Four Sisters restaurant to join in the dancing around the tables with the curious shoulder, neck and arm movements - even somehow employing bosoms and hips - which seem quite unique to Ethiopia. The dancers display incredible energy and flexibility which we cannot hope to achieve so soon in our stay - although some of us have a reasonable attempt in a day or so in a night club in Bahir Dar! Dancing and entertainment is good enough reason to come to this restaurant if you are in Gondar, but the food is also fabulous - many different traditional Ethiopian dishes, alongside some more westernised offerings, all very well labelled and very veggie friendly - and as much as you can eat - come and come again style. It was a very good evening out, a great way to unwind and relax after what have been some very full days.

The sun sets over Mayleko Lodge. Tomorrow is Sunday and we will return to the church we saw today to experience a service Ethiopian Orthodox style…

Ethiopia - a pilgrimage - Addis Ababa National Museum

giant tortoises at the museum

 Addis Ababa has so very much to offer the tourist and we can only scratch its surface. Do go if you can and discover more of this great destination for yourself.

National Museum interior

Pushkin

We are on a pilgrimage to Ethiopia in search of the Ark of the Covenant - and we spend our first day on arrival in Addis Ababa exploring that city before we set off North to Tigrai and the first of the rock- hewn churches on our itinerary.

If you are in Addis Ababa the National Museum of Ethiopia is a must to visit. It is set in pleasant gardens with giant tortoises crawling among beautiful hibiscus bushes and flowering cannas, and with plenty of inspiring statues and sculptures, (including a statue of the great Russian poet Pushkin) Once inside it is organised over four floors.

Lucy

naughty English!

Ethiopia hosts the most complete and richest source of human ancestry evidence - the Rift Valley has been a giant fossil trap for the last ten million years - and here is to be found the earliest record of stone tool making. This is admirably displayed in the paleoanthropology and prehistoric artefacts exhibition in the basement, where there is an excellently informative display of the famous Lucy, our earliest known human ancestor. This 3.5 million year old discovery has made us totally rethink the evolution of mankind. Basically our ancestors were walking 2.5 million years earlier than we had previously supposed. Lucy is so called because "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" was played in the archaeologists' camp when the discovery was made. She is known as Dinquinesh to Ethiopians - meaning "thou art wonderful".

but it came back to Addis!

Ethnographic collection in need of labelling

Moving up from the basement to the ground floor we find a pre-Axumite to 20th century archaeological and historical heritage exhibit, including 2600 year old pre-Aksumite fertility statues; there is a traditional and modern display of Ethiopian works of art on the first floor, which I thoroughly enjoyed; and on the top floor we found a fascinating ethnographic collection, suffering sadly from a lack of decent labelling but interesting none-the-less. Don't expect the usual razzmatazz of Western museums - café, shop and decent toilets - but be fascinated by artefacts of a totally different culture, one which we shall have the pleasure of exploring further over the next ten days.

Ethiopia - a pilgrimage in search of the Ark of the Covenant

Addis School children 

All my inoculations are up to date - hepatitis A, diphtheria, tetanus, typhoid, polio and yellow fever, and I've been taking the malarial tablets for a week. I'm ready to leave for Ethiopia "in search of the Ark of the Covenant" along with the other 13 in this party of pilgrims organised by McCabe Pilgrimages. So it is that after a busy Sunday in our local church I find myself at the airport in the early evening for the overnight flight to Addis Ababa, the world's third highest capital city - sprawling across the southern slopes of central Ethiopia's Entoto hills and reaching an altitude of more than 2600m at its highest point.

detail of the roof in Holy Trinity Cathedral
Addis

As we start the descent into Addis Ababa after a fairly sleepless night - why do airlines turn up the lights again and serve breakfast just as you are beginning to nod off from sheer exhaustion? - the scenery below us is stunning - the rock formations are incredible, and the mountains appear to be cut into huge slices of cake with precipitous drops from huge plateaus. I fear I see a little air pollution hanging at the base of the hills in the near distance though.

Addis street view on way to hotel

We arrive into a chilly dawn, staggering bleary eyed into an airport which is much quieter than I imagined. We are very soon being whisked off to our small coach and introduced to our driver and our wonderful guide Johannes who will accompany us throughout the trip. Although the air is brisk, the sky is a clear pale blue, tinged with the various hues of a pink dawn and promising a pleasantly warm day ahead. Already the streets are very busy with people scurrying to work, if they are lucky enough to have a job to go to. It is soon apparent that unemployment is a problem here, as we see scores of young men poring over the huge notice boards which we are told list work vacancies. The contrasts everywhere are stark: modern buildings tower over mud and corrugated iron roofed huts, beggars plead on street corners as children in their neat uniforms stride purposefully to their schools, bundles of books under their arms, and there are small flocks of sheep standing around for sale awaiting their fate - these are destined for private homes where they will be slaughtered by the family, skinned and butchered for the next few meals.

City of Refuge Church sign

bustling Addis early morning

We are glad to arrive at our hotel where we have a welcome breakfast. Eggs will be cooked however you like them as you watch - I particularly like the omelettes which incorporate finely chopped onions, tomatoes, peppers and chillies - very tasty. We have time for a few hours rest before we are taken on an orientation tour of the city. The National Ethiopian Football Team is staying in the hotel - there seem to be presentations going on and much noise in the room next to mine! I am reluctantly forced to ask a maid if they could please be quieter. Once we are suitably refreshed we will visit the National Museum of Ethiopia, a must to see on everyone's visit to Addis Ababa, and the Trinity Cathedral where Emperor Haile Selassie and his wife are buried, with its wonderful stained glass windows and wall paintings.More about that in the next post...

Ethiopian pilgrimage

The Google Doodle when I fired up my computer on 24th November celebrated the 41st anniversary of the discovery of Lucy near a village called Hadar in Ethiopia - the unearthing of skeletal fragments which were to rewrite the story of human evolution.

The National Museum Addis Ababa

Just a few days before that I had actually visited the National Museum in Addis Ababa where Lucy's remains now rest. We were on another McCabe pilgrimage, this time to visit the famous rock hewn churches of Lalibela and to see much more that this wonderful country of Ethiopia has to offer, over eleven amazing days.

reconstruction of Lucy

It is no wonder that in July 2015 the country was winner of the World Best Tourist Destination for 2015 award and  receiver of the Favourite Cultural Destination Distinction for 2015 by the General Assembly of the European Council on Tourism and Trade(ECTT).

So many of the sites we would see are listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Add to this the stunning scenery, fascinating culture and lovely people and this country should be on every traveller's list to visit.

one of many stunning windows in Trinity Cathedral
Addis Ababa

Over the next few weeks I will be sharing with you some of the stories of our travels illustrated as usual from my vast collection of photos from the trip. I hope you will enjoy!