Trip North, part 1

On March 12-19, 3 adventure-seeking ferengis set out on an expedition to explore the northern part of Ethiopia. We mapped out our route and rented a land cruiser (which came with a driver) to make our voyage by land. The 2 other ferengis were Lindsay, a girl who went to Messiah, but I didn't get to know until meeting her in Burkina 2 years ago; and Naomi, who moved to Addis with her parents at the beginning of this year.

Lindsay informed us that our land cruiser was coming at 5:30am, and we would hit the road by 6am. Many of you know that I'm a morning person…that was no big deal to me. However, for the other girls, this was a pretty tall order. However, lest we forget where we are…most people will tell you that nothing happens rigidly on time in Africa. And the way the trip got started really set the tone for the rest of the week. Lindsay and Naomi's dad went out to the main road to direct the driver to their house. They waited until about 5:45 before calling the travel agent. Oh, did you say 5:30?? We thought you said 10am!! Ok, we'll be there by 7am.

After 4 hours on the road, some steam began to appear from under the hood. Oh great…we pulled over and the driver opened the hood to find water spewing out of the radiator. No worries…we limped a little further up the road to where a water truck was settling the dust on the road. He hosed things down enough for us to get to the next town, about 20km down the road. The driver dropped us off at a restaurant and reassured us that after 1 hour, there would be "No problem." He had very limited English.

So after driving less than an hour, we realized that there was "problem." Our driver realized this too, as we became aware of what a devout Orthodox he was – he crossed himself a total of 72 times within the course of the first 7 hours of our trip! The temperature continued to hit the red zone due to a crack in the radiator. Every 10 minutes or so, we had to pull off the road, sending little children running to fetch us a jug of water. At this rate, it didn't look like we were going to make it to our first destination before sunrise the next day! In normal circumstances, this drive should take about 8 hours. 14 hours after setting out from Addis Ababa, and after demanding another vehicle be sent to pick us up, we arrived in Bahir Dar, dust-coated, exhausted and not eager to get back into another vehicle any time soon!

Bahir Dar, which means beach in Amharic, is situated next to Lake Tana, the largest lake in Ethiopia, where the Blue Nile River flows from.

It's a lovely town, very bicycle-friendly. We spent my birthday taking a boat tour of the many monasteries situated on islands and peninsulas throughout the lake.

The papyrus plant, used to make paper, grows along the shoreline of the lake…made me visualize what it might have been like to discover baby Moses hidden in a basket amongst the papyrus (see photo).

That evening, we enjoyed a nice dinner at an outdoor restaurant next to the lake. This was followed by a most memorable birthday celebration with a Rastafarian, the hotel/restaurant manager, a Chinese guy, a Nigerian comedian, and a bubble gum flavored birthday cake that said "Happy Birthday Syria". Yes, there's a story there, but I'll save it for another day…