With my brother visiting, we ventured out beyond our safety zone.  There are many one-day trips we can make beyond the city, yet we enjoy our backyard so much it’s hard to get us away.

Lake Tana in Northwestern Ethiopia, collects water from that area of the country and the Blue Nile drains it into the Nile (White Nile).  It is one of the two major tributaries of the Nile.  About an hour and a half drive from Addis, a section of it runs through a gorge, aptly called the Blue Nile Gorge.  My brother and I drove there and took a mess of pics along the way.  Below are a few.

sIMG_1548sIMG_1561Below is a picture of the gorge.

sIMG_1579Along the road, we encountered many of these laborers.  Where they were taking their load, we do not know.

sIMG_1537Another scene we saw everywhere outside the city, are the donkey drawn carts.

sIMG_1576We stopped at one location and was surrounded by people selling.  Not begging, but selling.

sIMG_1586The area has many of the Gelada baboons.  Unfortunately, we had a vehicle about to crawl up my bumper, so we were not able to stop and take better pictures of the little heathens.

sIMG_1601It was amazing to see so many people walking along the roads so far away from the city.  Walking sticks and something on their backs, was the norm.   Many times we saw a small herd of animals, cattle & sheep, which had a lone individual watching them.  Most of the time it was young kids.  Male and female.

sIMG_1643One day, Terese joined us for a trip to one of the nearby craters.  We did not have time to actually get to the site before we had to be back at the city before sundown.  But the drive was incredible.  I never realized how beautiful Ethiopia was.

sIMG_1875sIMG_1882On a Friday afternoon, several people from the Embassy decided to go to the top of Entoto mountain to watch the sunset.  My brother has two passions among many, sunrise and sunset.  We went with them and again, the beauty was priceless.  Addis is about 8000 feet.  The top of the mountain was 10,375.  It was a bit windy on top as you would imagine.  The pictures below are from the sunset side.

sIMG_1669sIMG_1700sIMG_1704My brother and I ventured to the other side of the mountain and took these pictures.

sIMG_1705sIMG_1713Then the sun slithered down leaving a smear in the sky.

sIMG_1738sIMG_1750sIMG_1761sIMG_1776Then a quick picture of the city of Addis below before heading down.

sIMG_1809And to keep you in love with Africa, nature gives us little critters that make you smile.  Here is a picture of a little bird in our backyard.

sbird Okay.  Kick butt and don’t stop.  Until next time.  D.