3 - 8 March 2020

The contrast between the dusty, gritty alleys of central Bahir Dar and its modern, high-rise, tourist hotels is reminiscent of many cities in the Ethiopia, and indeed in Africa. But there’s a third dimension to Bahir Dar that gives the city its special character - an undercurrent of mysticism that is intimately entwined with its position on the shores of Lake Tana, at the source of the Blue Nile river.

In Bahir Dar, religious fervor is literally in the air. From the moment we arrived, and every day thereafter, we were enveloped by the nearly constant, wailing, chants of the priests as they broadcast services from the nearby Cathedral of St. George. The cathedral’s loudspeakers are most definitely loud, ensuring that the exotic-sounding cries can be heard above all the other sounds of the city - easily passing through the walls and windows of our hotel. The cathedral hosts several masses each day, and they can last 4+ hours. Some of them start during the night, well before sunrise. For residents and visitors alike, it is a constant reminder that Lake Tana is still an epicenter for Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity, as it has been for at least 700 years.

Discovering the Mysteries of Lake Tana

On 3 March, we set out to explore this mystical land via a boat tour of Lake Tana. It’s the largest lake in Ethiopia, dotted with nearly 40 islands that range in size from small, rocky outcrops to the 16 square kilometer (4,000 acre) Dek Island. The relative isolation offered by the lake fostered the creation of more than 30 monasteries on its islands and shores, dating back to the 14th century. And although the city’s waterfront is lined with restaurants, marinas and resorts, the areas near the monasteries remain forested and full of wildlife.

No matter where you walk in Bahir Dar, as a foreigner you will attract the attention of men eager to sell you a boat ride on the lake. As would be expected, these can vary widely in quality, with some being mere rip-offs. We really wanted to pick a boat with a captain who knew the area well. So we invested a bit of time researching our options with hopes of find a guide who spoke good English, was knowledgeable about the area’s wildlife, and who would be patient with our desire to linger, while watching and photographing the many wonderful birds and animals found on the lake.

In the end, we reached out to Birhanu Yihunalemu (who we found via TripAdvisor), and he was wonderful. Not only was the price less than we would have paid if we had booked through our hotel, but Birhanu was also deeply knowledgeable about the animals found on the lake. He knew where to look, and he patiently helped us search for the most interesting species. We never felt rushed. Birhanu even keeps a couple of bird books on board the boat, to help visitors learn about the species that they see.

Conditions on the morning of our boat tour were perfect. The winds were calm, the lake was smooth, and a layer of light clouds made spotting birds and photography easier. Birhanu met us at the hotel, and walked with us to where he had anchored his boat near the rocky shore. Along the way, we passed by a marshy area. To our delight, a Black Crake and an African Jacana were stalking through the mud along the edge of the grass, and easily seen from the foot path.

We clambered into the tour boat. It was typical of the boats used to ferry tourists around Lake Tana, with padded benches that could seat at least 10 people along each side, and a full canopy to provide shade. The new boat was spotlessly clean. And since it was the off-season, we had the whole boat to ourselves. It felt positively luxurious.

The trip quickly exceeded our expectations. Birhanu took us to all his “secret places” to see specific bird species. He would let the boat idle for a long time, giving us plenty of opportunities to enjoy the birds and take photos. Fish are abundant in Lake Tana, supporting a tremendous variety of fish-eating birds, including four different types of kingfishers - we saw three. (Click on the photos to see a larger image.)

Many fishermen on the lake still use homemade papyrus reed boats. These boats are believed to have been in use on Lake Tana since the 9th century BC, when the building technique was brought here from Egypt. Lake Tana is now the only place in the world where these once widespread boats are still used for commercial fishing and hauling of goods. An estimated 2,000 papyrus reed boats are still plying the waters of Ethiopia.

Roughly 5 km (3 mi) from the Bahir Dar waterfront, we reached the outlet where the Blue Nile is born. From here, it flows for 1,450 km (900 mi) in a wide arc - first heading southeast before making a sweeping U-turn to the right that takes it back to the northwest, and its union with the White Nile in Khartoum, Sudan. At its source, the river’s marshy shores are cloaked with reeds, providing cover for a variety of ducks, geese, and wading birds.

A major highlight of any boat trip on Lake Tana is the opportunity to see wild hippos. This population is one of the most northerly locations for hippos in Africa, and they can be reliably seen near the outflow of the Blue Nile. A slow cruise past 15-20 hippos left us speechless. You can’t help wonder what they’re thinking, as they stare intently at the boat while it floats by.

After a couple of hours enjoying the wildlife, Birhanu revved up the boat’s engine and we headed out across the lake. Even out in the middle of the big lake, we passed fishermen precariously balanced on their pint-sized reed boats. It was probably helpful that the waters were calm. The boats seemed awfully small to be used out there, several miles from shore.

Our destination was the Zege Peninsula, a densely wooded tongue of land that juts into Lake Tana northwest of Bahir Dar. The Zege is famous for its monasteries - there are seven of them. And while quite a few of the monasteries are only open to men, there were two on the peninsula that do permit visits by women.

Birhanu did not join us for the walk to the monasteries. Instead, we toured the peninsula with the help of a local guide who had special expertise in the history of the churches. As we pulled up to the dock, we were met by our Zege guide. He wore spotless white jeans, a bright, scarlet-red jacket, and a Bob Marley t-shirt - not exactly what we were expecting for a church tour. But Ethiopia’s monasteries, like many things in the country, will frequently surprise anyone who’s expectations have been set by Western-style churches.

The well-worn, dirt path leading onto the peninsula was densely lined with vendors’ stalls, but less than half of the rickety, wooden structures were occupied. The vendors who we passed offered greetings, and requests to have us look at their handicrafts, but they didn’t hassle us when we declined. Our guide told us that in the high season (the months immediately before Christmas), there are many more vendors, and hundreds of visitors each day. As it was, we only saw a couple of other visitors. It’s probably fascinating to visit the peninsula when it is crowded with pilgrims, but I confess that it was very nice to be able to explore it in relative peace and quiet.

The first monastery we visited, Azwa Maryam, had a humble but visually pleasing exterior. The round, wooden structure stood in the center of a grassy enclosure. A thickly-packed, thatched roof sloped down to where it overhung the rustic church walls. Lining the outer perimeter was a tidy fringe of thin poles, creating a barrier that was more like a fence than a wall. There was space between the poles, and a gap between the top of the poles and the roof, providing for the free flow of air through the outermost ring of the church’s interior spaces. The cross on the crown of the church has a halo of seven ostrich eggs, representing the seven days of creation.

Led by our guide, we removed our shoes, stepped over the wooden door frame, and entered another world. Once inside, the guide spoke to us at length about the many components that make up the church. Every single thing, from the dimensions and shape of the building to the decorations and the instruments used in religious ceremonies, is infused with layers of symbolism. Everything ties back, in some way, to Ethiopian Orthodox religious beliefs.

The interior was comprised of three, concentric spaces. Stepping onto a pathway of colorful rugs, we passed through the plain, outermost circle. Within that space, the majority of the mass takes place. Men and women stand in separate areas, as ministers chant hymns and sometimes dance among the crowd. The mass can last 4-5 hours, with no sitting allowed. Participants, who can number in the hundreds on Sundays, carry prayer sticks that are used to make gestures during the chanting, but also serve as something to lean on for a rest during the mass. Our guide told us that you can get in a lot of trouble if you sit during a mass, unless you are very young or old. The outer wall, with its loosely aligned sticks and large gap between the wall and the ceiling, seemed like a practical way to keep the air flowing among the crowd in the hot, Ethiopian afternoons.

We followed the rugs past the outer ring and entered the second ring of the church, where radiantly-painted murals depicted scenes from the Bible and Ethiopian religious traditions. This is where churchgoers who have regularly fasted to make themselves pure take holy communion. The feeling that emanates from the paintings is strikingly medieval. As with stained-glass windows in Europe, these images were purposely designed to convey Biblical stories for illiterate members of the congregation. One thing we couldn’t help but notice was that many of the images dwelled on violent and gory scenes, including a whole wall devoted to the martyrdom deaths of important saints.

Only priests are allowed to enter the third, central core of the church. As in all Ethiopian churches, this sacred space houses a replica of the Arc of the Covenant beneath the altar. According to Ethiopian tradition, the original Arc was brought to Ethiopia before the fall of the Temple of King Solomon, and is guarded by priests in the town of Axum (in Northeastern Ethiopia). Whether you believe that the Arc is really housed in Axum is a matter of faith, because no one is allowed to lay eyes on it except for one guardian monk, who lives in the tower where the relic is kept until his death. Ethiopians’ role as the chosen people to host the Arc is one of the strongest and most deeply-held beliefs in the country.

Our path to the second church led through a pleasant forest of shade-grown, coffee. The coffee trees grow wild here, and the beans are harvested by a cooperative based in the local village. The understory of coffee bushes are sheltered by a tall canopy of larger trees that creates ideal conditions for producing several coffee crops per year, and also nurtures the germination of new coffee plants. It is easy to find the coffee plants since they are consistently under the largest, emergent trees. Most of the coffee had been recently harvested, but we were fortunate enough to see some of the bright, red berries near the path.

After walking for about 20 minutes we entered the enclosure for the second church, Ura Kidane Mihret. It’s larger than Azwa Maryam, but very similar in construction. Besides admiring the paintings in this church, we also learned from our guide that the ministers who chant during the mass will often play drums. And like so much else in the churches, the design of the drums is heavy with symbolism. I can’t recall all of the details about the religious significance of the components of the drums, because there were so many. But there were multiple references to heaven and hell, the blood of Christ, and how all aspects of the church are tied together through the strings on the sides of the drum. No detail in the design of the instrument is accidental - everything has meaning.

As we passed one of the large wooden doors inside Ura Kidane Mihret, we could see an image drawn in charcoal - much rougher than the colorfully rambunctious images that decorated the interior of the church. According to our guide, the church artists would sometimes practice in charcoal on the outer walls, before attempting to paint the final images inside. Usually the charcoal images were then washed away - but this one was preserved for some reason, and now serves to illuminate a part of the church’s history.

As we walked through another gauntlet of vendors on our way back to the boat, we passed one artist at work. Near his paint jars, he had small piles of the natural pigments that were traditionally used to give color to the paint. Seeing the neat little piles of brightly-colored flowers, seeds and leaves brought the process to life.

Settled once again in the boat, we motored our way back towards Bahir Dar. As we neared one of the smaller islands, Birhanu slowed the engines. We were approaching a nesting colony of African Darters. But as fascinating as the colony was, it was not actually the main attraction. The stars of the show were under the colony, waiting for a hapless young bird to lose its footing, fall out of a nest, land on the ground, and become lunch. There were 4-5 Nile Monitor lizards lurking among the tree roots. At first they were hard to spot because of their cryptic coloration. But once we got the hang of it, we saw lots of them. Actually, the darters weren’t entirely safe, even up in the tree. We watched as one of the monitors climbed up into the lower branches. According to Birhanu, they’re excellent climbers. The darter’s best chances for survival involved staying way out on the smaller branches, which were too thin to hold the weight of the big lizards.

Our last stop before heading back to shore was at the Bahir Dar fish market. The highlight of this locale was an impressive congregation of Great White Pelicans, attracted to the small bay by the promise of an easy lunch. In fact, there are so many pelicans gathered where the boats are hauled out onto the sandy shore that they can be seen on the Google Maps satellite image for the area - as a packed group of white smudges lingering near shore. From the lake, Birhanu was able to glide his boat into the mass of pelicans so that we were literally surrounded by these hefty, prehistoric-looking birds that are equal parts goofy and majestic at the same time.

As a bonus, a group of Hamerkops was hanging out on the tin roofs of nearby fish shacks. Even though we’d never seen this species before, we recognized them instantly because of their uniquely triangular heads. Many African cultures believe Hamerkops are omens of evil, and that it is bad luck to kill them. Best to leave them alone.

We had a fabulous time on our boat tour of Lake Tana, and would recommend a boat trip to anyone spending time in Bahir Dar. With a terrific guide like Birhanu Yihunalemu, it’s possible to really get a sense of the many different treasures along its shores. Over the course of a few hours, we saw 40 species of birds, plus the hippos and nile monitors, while gaining a deeper understanding of the traditions of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

A View from the Lake’s Shore

A few days later we took a walk along the edge of the lake. There is a rough footpath that starts near St. George’s Cathedral, heading northwest past the main ferry terminal. Activity along the trail provided a fascinating glimpse into some other aspects of Ethiopian life. Since many homes don’t have running water, this part of the lake serves as a community laundry room and bath. Wherever the water was accessible, groups of women gathered to scrub clothes and lay them out in brightly-colored patterns on the boulders lining the shore. Not far away, men and boys stripped down to their shorts (and sometimes more than that), wading or diving into the cool water with a bar of soap for a public bath.

The draw for us along this trail was the fact that it’s largely enveloped by a strip of big, old trees that provide shade, and that attract quite a few interesting birds. We saw a number of species here that can be difficult to see elsewhere in Ethiopia.

The trail comes to an end about a kilometer past the ferry docks, in a lightly-used, urban park. We strolled along the flagstone-paved lanes, lined with ferns, and shaded by tall cedars, figs and jacaranda trees. We were rewarded with up-close sightings of a couple more gorgeous tropical birds. We also enjoyed seeing a statue commemorating the traditional reed boats still used on the lake.

Minivans in the Nile

One evening we decided to see if we could see a few more hippos from the shores of the Blue Nile. A young man we had met in town told us that hippos could sometimes be seen from a bridge where the main highway into town (A3) crosses the river. A quick internet search confirmed that this was a known hippo-viewing spot. It wasn’t very far away, so as the afternoon wore on, we hopped into a tuk-tuk, and headed for the bridge.

But when we arrived, it was hard to imagine any hippopotamus wanting to spend time there. Although there were lots of sand bars with tall grasses that looked like a good place for hippos to feed, they were mostly occupied by cows. Furthermore, the western bank of the river was pretty developed, with shacks and a cafe. Where a road led down to the river, five minivans had been driven part-way into the water, and their owners were scrubbing them down with river water. All of the oil and grime from the vans was washing into the channel. And upstream from there, dozens of women were doing their laundry.

In spite of all the activity, we decided to hang out on the bridge until near sunset in hopes of seeing the hippos. But they never came. People say that hippos can be seen there in the mornings and evenings, but mornings are probably better - at least there might be a little less hustle and bustle so that the wildlife could have some tranquility.

An Evening With Fellow Travelers

While in Bahir Dar we had been in touch with another group of cyclists who were traveling behind us - Stan and Marta (from Poland) and Nora (from Morocco). We planned to get together for a meal once they arrived in town. They caught up with us on Saturday, 7 March. But they had had a rough day.

By the time they made it to Bahir Dar, we already had heard that a group of Ethiopian kids had thrown stones down on them from above, on a section of road bordered by a steep slope. As they labored slowly uphill on their bikes, they were easy targets. Unfortunately, Stan was hit in the cheek by a large rock, which caused him to black-out briefly. For the rest of the afternoon, he suffered from dizziness and some difficulty concentrating. We were concerned that he may have had a concussion.

They stayed at a hotel next door to us, which fortunately made it easy for us to get together with them. Over dinner, they told us what had happened, and we could see the bruise on Stan’s face. We felt bad for them, because the experience had ruined their ability to enjoy cycling in Ethiopia. Stan and Marta decided that they would take a bus to Addis Ababa, where he could get a medical check-up. From there, they would bus to the border with Kenya, skipping the rest of Ethiopia.

It takes some courage and a thick skin to ride a bicycle across Ethiopia. There are many amazing experiences including spectacular scenery, friendly welcomes at cafes, exotic food, and opportunities to see the country’s rich and unique wildlife. But there’s frequently a sense of danger that we hadn’t felt in Egypt or Sudan. We will continue our bike ride through the country, but we will be extra careful as we go.

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