There's something quite heavenly about waking up underneath a mosquito net. Either that or you've managed to knock yourself out whilst getting your pen under the table at the bingo hall and woken up underneath aunt Maggie's dress!
My day started with a "special breakfast." I was intrigued to find out what made it so special and twice as much as anything else on the menu at a whopping £1.30!
I waited at least 25 minutes for it as I'm pretty sure the waitress forgot to order it but I didn't mind, I was in no rush. I only had around 50km to do today so I just relaxed at my table and watched the business of a Woretan morning unfold on the road outside.
When it arrived I was given three plates. One with injera, bread and curry on, one with a tomato and green chilli omelette and one bowl with what looked to me like chicken soup. I was pretty chuffed, I know its breakfast but I could do with some protein and I had eggs, chicken and some carbs to go with it, happy days!
As always I was watched by a few people that decided that they didn't want to work today, they wanted to go and sit in a cafe and stare at white man instead. I tucked into the soup first with the bread, it was nice and hot and the bread was soft so I really got stuck in a scooped up alot. As I did this the consistency did not remind me of a regular chicken soup, it was thick and lumpy. Probably just chicken bits and a bit of skin I thought, as I devoured the bite in one it became immediately apparent that it wasn't chicken soup at all, it was rice pudding and I had just covered a big lump of bread with it. What the locals thought I don't know but I didn't actually care (disgusted/confused looks come as standard). It turned out tasting pretty good, both were definitely edible and they were right in front of me so I continued to dig in.
After a decent feed I was ready for my speed section. I wanted to get to Bahir Dar as quick as possible so I could have a look around first and then decide if I wanted to do a day trip tomorrow.
Despite the short distance there was still a lot of begging. Today the begging styles varied somewhat and as I've said, there is no fool proof way to handle all of them but i find singing is more successful than most methods (it also maintains high spirits) Some of the kids start with a smile, gesticulate they want money then end with a smile. Some start with a smile, gesticulate they want money then get nasty. Some start nasty and shout and others ask for different things like pens or my t-shirt.
Some of the kids are an absolute delight and I would love to stop and take pictures to show everybody at home what I'm experiencing. I don't feel right doing it though. I don't like the way it would seem to the locals that a foreign man just comes, takes a picture of them either working hard or playing and then leaves as if they were some sort of exhibition. I made reference to Jurassic park before and its exactly like that with the tour buses as well. It seems to me like the tour buses stop at certain villages so the foreigners can get out and take pictures or just snap away as the bus is still moving. This maintains the divided mentally as the young child sees this and so will never improve the begging problem.
I don't have many pictures of the locals but I do have some incredible landscape shots. Today was surprisingly quite hilly but it didn't deter me from pushing hard and bringing on the burn!
I arrived in good time at the Ethio Hotel, it was the first one I found and it overlooked the lake so I thought I would give it a punt and see if it was as cheap as Paradise. I knew it wouldn't be as Bahir Dar immediately struck me as more of a tourist town and the busy road running through the centre of it added to that assumption.
I walked into the reception and first impressions were good. There were a few people sat on sofas on iPads which suggested to me that it had free wifi so already I was praying the price was right. "It is 400birr per night" the man at reception said. Oooo, i was gutted, the wifi was neccesary for the blog updates but 400 was a bit steep considering I only paid 90 last night. I asked the man if there was any other cheaper hotels, "ok, 300 per night" he said. Well that was easy! 25% off just for asking! You don't ask if you don't get I suppose and the price included a buffet breakfast which to me meant, a meal for a tenner and free accommodation! I didn't bother trying to get it below 300 and so gave him my details.
That was that, Nigel was in my room and I was showered and changed by 2 o'clock ready for a wander. I had a good walk along the road that ran around the edge of the lake but couldn't really get to the lake due to luxury resorts or restaurants. Lake Tana is a big tourist attraction as its supposed to be the source of the Nile but I have to say I was a little disappointed with how scrappy it was around the edges. This maybe on purpose as it homes some of the rarest birdlife in Ethiopia and so some of the restaurants and the areas in between are quite overgrown with nature. I wish I knew more about birds because I'm sure I saw a few hidden gems but I wouldn't have a clue what they were if they walked up and pooed on me so I just continued to wander around.
During my walks I have a tendency to find the poshest hotel and despite looking like a poor caveman, the colour of my skin allows me to enter the hotel with no questions asked and use their facilities. (This means nice shiny toilet and free wifi) Today was no different and I sat out on the restaurant balcony and overlooked the lake with a beer. The beer was 3 times as much as I've been paying previously but in Ethiopia that meant it was still only £1.20 so I sat there in rare silence and soaked everything in.
I had no clue what Bahir Dar had to offer so I did a wee google search and found out that the lake was very famous for its island monasteries and there were boat trips that visited different islands and also an area on the lake where you may spot hippos! There we go then, that's tomorrow sorted.
I got some food in a nice restaurant on the lake and continued some pointless bird watching and as I got about 200m from my hotel I was stopped out of the blue by a nice young lady named Lidet. Lidet was a boat trip organiser and she was offering me a half day tour with a group and all I had to do was meet her at 7am tomorrow. It seems now, that if I want something, I don't have to go looking for it, it'll just come to me! I could get used to that.
I got back to my hotel and confirmed with the man at reception that Lidet was offering a reasonable price and she was so I sat and watched the Champions league football very happy and content with my productive day.
A good ride that Nigel completed with no further spoke issues and good prep for hopefully a enjoyable rest day tomorrow. Happy days indeed.
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