Just another Ethiopian rest day!

Well here we are chilling out in the elegant lobby bar of our hotel in Bahir Dar, on Lake Tana enjoying a nice cold beer.  The last 2 days of riding have been absolutely stellar!  Some fun climbing, speedy descents, incredible scenery and moderate temperatures - finally.  Yesterday was my favorite day so far; rolling hills, a few higher passes to go over, some amazing rock formations, roundish African mountains covered with lush green vegetation and our first MONKEYS!  The only thing missing was our pal Sandy, who was miserably sick with some nasty stomach bug.  She is much better today, but still opted to ride the truck which was a wise decision.  Today's ride was a short, fun 60 km cruise into Bahir Dar, tomorrow is our rest day here, so it is smart to take it easy in preparation for the next 5 days riding into Addis Ababa.  There are things to do here, but we may just relax (again!) tomorrow.  The beautiful waterfall is just a trickle right now ( wrong time of year, which makes sense, as it is the dry season) and the lake cruises to the monasteries sound like a long time in the sun in an open boat.  Hanging out by the lake, which is right across the street sounds appealing to me!

We went for coffee (Ethiopia is where coffee first came from!) after we arrived here, then for a market visit.  Wayne was on a quest for a hammer for pounding in our tent pegs.  Lots of our fellow campers have rubber hammers but we need a metal one for our tent pegs.  For some reason, all the plumbing stores on the road to the market were open but none of the tool shops were, but would be later in the day.  Then, we picked up a fixer kind of guy who led us to the tool section of the actual market where we found the best hammer - handmade from reclaimed metal of some kind.  Wayne also had a brilliant idea - he bought 2 inexpensive soccer balls so we can make friends with the small army of children at our campsites.  What the staff do is put up the "Magic Rope", a red string and short stakes which magically becomes the impenetrable perimeter wall between camp and the rest of the world.  So as we set up our tents, we have a huge audience of children watching our every move. They are very good, although we are cautioned not to leave stuff lying around which would be a temptation.  One soccer ball will be left at each campsite if we can get this idea to catch on with the other riders.  The African guys who are part of the staff though this was a very good plan and suggested whistles would be good as well, as they will stop and listen if someone blows a whistle to get their attention.  So now we can stretch our legs with a bit of soccer after our rides!  On the way home from the market, we stopped for a delicious juice - I had avocado, pineapple and mango, served in 3 colourful layers - delicious!