day 15

Day 15 around Gonder and to Bahir Dir

Gonder is an amazing place. In part it’s just another busy little town, with masses of people, and the usual crime and refuse. However it has history going back to 1620 when a dynasty built a group of castles, a church and some baths. The castle sits on top of the hill above the town and has is a world heritage site. The Brits did there best to destroy it during WW 2 when the Italians were in occupation. The church was one of 44; the other 43 were destroyed in an attack by a group from Sudan, and is still used to this day. In fact there was a funeral in progress when we were there. There are beautiful frescoes on the walls and ceilings. The baths are filled each year in January when there is an annual festival.
Justin has been down with a bug so slacked out for the morning.
We left for Bahir Dir about 160km towards Addis, but the wrong direction for us, on Lake Tana which is the source of the Blue Nile. The road was black ytop the whole way with some quite steep passes. There are amazing fingers of rock, quite isolated, in different shapes.
Bahir Dir has many monasteries built on islands which we’ll have a look at tomorrow. Fuel has been a bit of a problem. It seems the whole of Ethiopia is in a power crisis. None of the towns have power during the day so no fuel. We’ve had to buy at black market prices to get here. Also no lights, coffee, washing, water, internet cafes etc etc.