Karen in Africa: February 10th - 12th, 2015 - Gondor to Bahir Dar, Ethiopia

Left Gondor for a two day cycle to Bahir Dar for a 'rest day'. The Ethiopian scenery is rugged and beautiful. We are seeing more and more greenery and big beautiful trees and some rivers and lakes.

Kids line the street to greet you, yelling 'you, you, you' 'money, money, money' and 'where you go?' Then they pelt you with stones and occasionally they try to poke sticks in your wheels or hit you with sticks, pinch you or slap you...some times they push you up a hill while robbing you or grab the back of your bike. So far it is stressful but no serious injuries.

We arrived in Bahir Dar early in the afternoon, so had enough time to go to the Blue Nile Waterfalls. The trip there was so ridiculous that we couldn't help but laugh. They stuffed a dozen people in a rickety old van and drove us for over an hour down a really bad dirt road. The van was falling apart as we drove but the waterfalls was beautiful.

The hotel where we were staying was quite bad. Even with the lights on we needed to use our headlamps. One guy woke to see a rat on the other twin bed in his room (about a foot away). He screamed and it ran under the bed. He ran to the front desk and told the receptionist. The hotel guy got a broom and went to the room. He swung the broom under the bed and the rat ran out frightening the guy. He told the TDA guy to leave the room and he did but left the door open an inch or so, so he could see what was going on. There was a whole lot of running around and slamming of the broom. Finally, the guy came out the room carrying a large dead rat on the end of the broom. He told the TDA guy he could go back into his room. He said there was blood everywhere. The manager comped him for one night but not the two nights.