🎶 ‚Come to Blue Nile Camping‘, they said, ‚and sleep by the waterfall‘ 🎶
It’s the last day of the year and we spend these days at the Falls of the Blue Nile. We flew from the eastern part of Ethiopia over Addis to Bahar Dar, further northwest. A recommendation from a fellow traveler has brought us to Blue Nile Camping, a place directly above the falls. We stayed in a little hut, made out of dirt and straw, with just enough room for a bed, our luggage and one person standing. But we were only in there to sleep. The hut’s inside was covered with cotton sheets, making it comfortable.
We had arranged for pick-up at the airport, and this time it worked. The ride to the falls in a minibus over a dusty gravel road was bumpy. The road was surprisingly busy with lots of buses in either direction. On the road we could experience some African problem solving first hand: A bus stood on our side of the street making the way for the opposing traffic rather narrow. We arrived when an opposing bus tried to go through but hit the standing bus. After that the road was completely blocked and we were wondering why the standing bus didn’t move and if it was maybe broken. Meanwhile quite a few people had gathered, revising the damage to the busses, looking around them and doing absolutely nothing. Until the first, stopped bus just drove off. In the resulting traffic jam we could witness a few more curious scenes. Busses had moved to their left side of the road, presumably to pass the waiting vehicles or to see more, and other vehicles had moved next to them, causing another full blockage.
In the village next to the falls, many people were standing in a very long line to catch a bus back Bahir Dar. Judging by their mostly white cloths they were on their way back from church. Later we found out there was a religious festival, much like the one in Dire Dawa. During our days at the falls we say many of those pilgrims still in their way back from a monastery, so it must have been quite the event.
In order to get to the falls we had to walk for 10 minutes, take a boat across the river, and walk for another 15 minutes. We were glad about our backpacks and that the way was flat. The campsite is only 100 m from the edge of the falls and I believe during raining season even less. Since it’s dry season, the falls were nowhere near their full spade. If we had only done the half day trip out of Bahir Dar to see the falls we’d been disappointed, but staying in this beautiful surrounding for two nights was very special. After having been in busy cities and full busses it was a relief to arrive at this place. We went to see the sun set behind the river, and walked downstream the Nile. In the afternoon we had a bath in the refreshingly cold river, 200 m above the the falls. There were no sanitary installations other than a deep hole with a wooden throne on top, but it being in the fresh air it was very much ok.
Every night we had a campfire after dinner. We really enjoy sitting there with the others. Since the temperatures drop significantly as soon as the sun is gone, staying outside for longer is only comfortable with fire going or lots of blankets.
Dinner was Injera with different vegetables and sauces, and breakfast consisted of bread with eggs. It was all freshly made by the manager’s wife and cooked over a wooden fire or coal. She was the busiest person in camp, with the manager Thomas managing things (which he did well), she was always moving, cooking, making tea or coffee, doing laundry or getting water. There were some other people there, friends of theirs and neighbors who were hanging around and playing pool.
Wandering around the falls we saw many other visitors. Some were here for the religious festival taking the chance to see the falls. There were also quite few groups of white tourists, we heard a lot of Spanish, some Americans and some Germans. Overall we saw more white people within one hour than we had seen in the two weeks before. So almost 15! 😉 this was to be expected since we are now starting the rather touristic northern circle. For now it’s a nice change not to be the only ones to na standing out. We’ll see how long it lasts.
