This morning, 3rd January, my cunning plan to wear earplugs almost thwarted the 4am singing but Tiger woke up hot so I changed her nappy in the dark and put her back into her bed but without her sleepsuit. She then slept so soundly that I had to wake her up shortly after 8am, bless!
When we finally were ready to leave just after half past eight, we met up with our guide Eddie and the driver and drove the 38km to the Blue Nile Falls. The start of the drive was on a great road but most of it was on a very bumpy road where we ran into plenty of cows, mules, horse and carts, donkeys, motorbikes, bajajs (tuk tuks) and people who seemed to just like walking in the middle of the road! Tiger ate five bananas on the way!
The Blue Nile Falls are actually 35km downstream from Lake Tana. We stopped to pick up another local guide called Omara at the entrance then walked a short distance to take a boat to cross the river, then walked over volcanic rocks to reach the falls where the Blue Nile plunges over a 45m high rock face to form one of Africa's most spectacular waterfalls, known locally as Tis Isat (water that smokes).
It was lovely and fresh, and we were completely on our own. Omara told me though that usually in January they would have 350 visitors a day - many from Germany, the UK and France. I found it so hard to imagine, as he told me that busloads of tourists come every day, especially in the height of the tourist season in January. I was the first foreign tourist he had seen in 2 months. I well remember Robin telling me the best time to go anywhere was just before or just after a war (because you are warmly welcomed, it would be cheap, and you'll have the place to yourself). The same, it seems, can be said of traveling just after (if we can say this, as it seems to have passed in Ethiopia) a pandemic.
On the way back, we walked via a huge suspension bridge. I got a photo but was just too scared to go much further but Tiger walked the whole way across and back with Eddie - the little crazy kid!