Tuesday, 21 Jan 2014 (13 Tir 2006)

The alarm was set for 3:30 AM. We were up at 3:20 AM. We showered, finished packing and dropped off the key at 4:00 AM. The office is staffed 24/7. A Lado taxi for 150 birr gets us to Meskel Square at 4:15 AM. There are already some 30 others waiting. They are overwhelmingly Ethiopian. We talk with some Polish girls who flew in on Turkish Airlines. At least 5 buses are leaving at 5:30 AM. A man wearing a Selam Bus uniform starts herding the crowd into various areas. We are getting on the Gonder bus, and so we wait where we are told. A fellow from Bermuda is going to the Simien Mountains. He talks of his many travels all overs the world. Our tickets are checked. Our packs are weighed, and then checked in the baggage space under the bus. Many people in the crowd carry their belongings in burlap bags tied with scarves. We get on the bus and grab the front seats, until someone points out that all tickets are for numbered seats. Out seats are 45 and 46, way in the back. This suggests that we were lucky to even get on the Gonder bus. Our Bermuda guy insinuates himself into seat 1 (next to a very attractive woman), even though his ticket is for seat 44. Thus he got great photos as we crossed the Blue Nile later that morning. It is dark when we leave, and the sun rises about 6:50 AM. It takes a while to drive out of Addis. North of Addis is a high plateau, so we climb, then level off in rolling fields and countryside. Three hours in we pass a small town, and then look down into a huge canyon. It is time for a "necessary stop" for the passengers. 10 minutes by the side of the road. What can you say about a 10+ hour bus ride? We saw many things that we expected to see: people tending fields with scythes in hand; sheep, cows, and goats being herded by young boys wielding sticks; kids in uniform going to school. Everyone and everything that uses the road would like to travel or walk in the center of the road - something which is not possible. Our driver uses his horn loudly and often. Lighter, faster vehicles jockey to pass slower, older transport. There are almost no private cars on the road. We pass many small communities along the road where there are no private cars at all to be seen. There are big scheduled buses like ours, smaller 18-22 passenger buses, minibuses, a few tour buses, and trucks. It appears that people walk fairly long distances on a daily basis. Cattle, goats, horses, etc., are commonly on or near the road. The driver routinely swerves and sometimes slows to avoid them. We understand that Ethiopia law puts the burden on the driver to avoid injuring people and striking animals, even if it is clearly not the driver's fault. There are also trees that look exactly like the symbol for "Nature" on PBS - acacia trees, with broad flat tops. We begin a long drive downhill with many switchbacks. At the bottom are two bridges over the Blue Nile - the old one and the new one. As we climb out to the north, Carol spots some baboons. About 6 hours in, we have a 30 minute lunch break in the town of Debra Markos. We ate shiro wot (chickpea and spices) and a scrambled egg dish. On our bus was an Italian passenger. It turns out that he had never tasted injera, so he sampled some of ours. As we drove along, we noticed a great number of signs for sponsored programs and initiatives, some from the Ethiopian government, many from international organizations, such as Save the Children, US World Relief, USAID. Toward mid-afternoon, the roads are more crowded and slower, and we don't get to Bahir Dar until just before 4 PM. The bus slows, we hop out, grab our bags from the underbus baggage area, and the bus continues on to Gonder, presumably getting in after 7 PM.