After Lalibela we had a road trip of around 320km to the lakeside city of Bahir Dar, a regional capital (and somewhat of a resort town in this land-locked country) on the large lake Tana - source of the (blue) Nile. For this purpose rhe locally-hired bus was replaced by a fleet of 4 Toyota LandCruisers (200 series wagons, ideal for the job). These had been driven the 800km up from Addis for our use and are to stay with us until we are ready to fly from Gondar back to Addis on Friday.
The drive was a mixture of bad roads and good, rough and smooth, mountains and flat... but with one constant: there are always people on the road, walking with family or donkeys or horses or cattle, sheep, goats. They can be well dressed or ragged, in school uniform or church-going robes. If you stop in the bush for a quick roadside comfort stop there will be kids there within minutes asking for money, pens, or anything else they can think of.
Our dinner last night was at an interesting restaurant on a cliff-top owned by a Scottish lady who came for an aid project some years ago and never went home. During dinner our guide Elias had a discussion with our Scottish host which has resulted in her providing picnic bags for each of us for lunch today.
So, as we drove along, past villages and rural or wild countryside, Elias had numerous discussions with our driver, usually involving unexplained slowing down and speeding up, as they were obviously trying to locate a suitable picnic spot. Eventually they agreed on a space in the shade behind the inevitable scrawny eucalyptus. It turned out that the driver "thought" they had agreed on the shady spot but Elias had other ideas. He went through the first row of trees, over a rough stile set in a fence of thorn bushes and sticks, and into the yard of a very simple cottage made of mud-daubed sticks and with a thatched roof.
After some discussions with the lady of the house, we were all invited over the stile and into the shady yard, with our drivers hanging around the stile to discourage the neighbourhood kids from following us in.
Our brand new hostess brought out a couple of very low stools and then a number of skins (cow, goat) for us to sit on as we ate our lunch.
The family willingly gave us a thorough tour of their very humble home, consisting of three rooms. The central room with both fromt and back doors served as a sort of living room and also hsd one small bed - for Mum and the daughters, and then there was a sort of storage room with a bed for Dad and sons, and the 3rd room had a high platform for more storage together with several sheep/goats penned in below.
The kitchen was outside in a separate traditional round hut with central cooking fire and no chimney of any sort.
After lunch we were treated to a coffee ceremony, which began with one of the local women (cousin/daughter/neighbour?) roasting beans on the kitchen fire and then hand grinding while the water boiled. A call out to neighbouring houses resulted in enough china corree cups being produced and we were served from a large tray.
The local children were then invited into the yard and we were soon swamped with little faces and hands, arms and legs, as they crowded round us cocmpeting for attention (and presents!). Small Australian souvenirs and trinkets were magically produced from our day-packs and soon the kids were running around with bouncy balls, koala and kangaroo toys, Australian flag stickers on foreheads and arms, pens and notebooks for school, and balloons blown up and being tossed around. Some of our group felt moved to dance, so with iphone speakers trying to compete with all of the local noises the gathered locals were entertained by such traditional Australian dances as "dancing queen" and "nutbush city limits".
Back to the cars we continued on to Bahir Dar and our hotel by Lake Tana. We got there after dark and dined in the hotel, while outside on the lake-front lawn was a big local wedding taking place. This provided considerable interest to us with the local music, dancing, and general festivities.
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