Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
short walk from the landing) were stolen in the 1990s, and the church is ordinary, few
people visit, though the setting is attractive.
OUTLET OF THE BLUE NILE
You don't visit the outlet of the Blue Nile to say hello to the river. You visit to say good-
bye to Lake Tana's water and wish it well on its 5223km journey to the Mediterranean. In
the morning you'll see lots of birds and maybe a hippo or two. It's only 20 minutes from
Bahir Dar.
Many people will tell you Lake Tana isn't really the great river's source, but, since
some 60 rivers feed the lake, picking just one is meaningless. However, somehow a spring
called
Gish Abay
(the village of Sekela near the spring is 39km east of the Addis Ababa
road; the turn is signposted at the village of Taleli, 15km north of Kosober) has earned the
local vote as the 'real' source and it's now a holy site where people come to bathe away
their sins, though it's hardly worth the long trip. It feeds the
Bikolo Abay
(Little Abay)
river, which the Addis Ababa road crosses on a two-lane bridge 45km southwest of Bahir
Dar.
JAMES BRUCE: IN SEARCH OF THE SOURCE
Half undressed as I was by the loss of my sash, and throwing my shoes off, I ran down the hill towards the little
island of green sods, which was about two hundred yards distant...
…It is easier to guess than to describe the situation of my mind at that moment - standing in the spot which had
baffled the genius, industry and enquiry of both ancients and moderns, for the course of near three thousand years.
James Bruce, Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile (1790)
One of the first European explorers in this part of Africa was a Scot named James Bruce. After serving as consul-
general in Algiers, he set off in 1768 in search of the Nile's source: a puzzle that had preoccupied people since the
time of the Egyptian pharaohs. After landing in Massawa, Eritrea, he made his way to the powerful and splendid
court of Gonder, where he became close friends with Empress Mentewab.
In 1770 he reached the source of the Abay, the main river that empties Lake Tana. There he declared the mys-
tery of the Nile's source solved. He dedicated his discovery to King George III and returned home to national ac-
claim.
In fact, Bruce had traced only the source of the
Blue
Nile River, the main tributary of the Nile. Not only that,
but he'd been beaten to his 'discovery' (as he very well knew) over 150 years earlier by a Spanish Jesuit, Pedro
Páez.
Of greater interest was the account of his journey,
Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile,
published in
1790. It remains a useful source of information on Ethiopia's history and customs. His contemporaries considered
much of it a gross exaggeration, or even pure fiction. Given his earlier claims, it's no wonder.
