Home » Ethiopia » One Year Africa: Swimming in the Blue Nile, Walking Abay-avenue

There is one particular river crossing I will relish forever, not only because it is a famous river, but because I did it in the most beautiful way one can imagine: I swam.

One Year Africa: Swimming in the Blue Nile, Walking Abay-avenue

Maarten de Boeck
2006-05-01 17:28:33

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evening.
We had meant to sleep under the lean-to, but fled to one of the huts when it started raining.
The next morning we departed quite early. Our host escorted us and showed us the right way.

We were not yet out of the Blue Nile-valley and started where we had ended the previous day: working our toilsome way up on a steep pathway, ignoring the painful cries of stiff muscles.
I saw the edge of the valley above us. I knew it would become easier once passed there. I carried on going through it and all at once we reached the edge of the canyon. The sharp-edged valley gave way to gentle rolling countryside. For the last time I turned and looked back from where we had come. There in the east, somewhere in the distances flows the Blue-Nile. I felt melancholic: everything goes by.

We proceeded our way. Soon we met the first farmer ploughing his land with his oxen. Mertule Mariam was still many kilometres away, though we were to see literally hundreds of farmers ploughing their fields with oxen before we would get there. A view as old as centuries. Before long we were walking on a broad dirt track flanked with big leafy trees and homesteads. I baptized the place 'Abay-avenue!'

Soon we got to the first village. In no time I was surrounded by people. It struck me how densely populated this land is. Except in the canyon, people were seen everywhere. Seldom there was a sight of a horizon without people, seldom we were alone.
Especially the youth was eager to accompany us. As we proceeded to Mertule Mariam we were joined by a dozen of followers, mostly young boys.
I passed a primary school. The children were playing in the yard but as soon as they got me in the eye, ran on to me and swarmed me altogether. These kids went absolutely crazy, steaming with excitement, like they had an epileptic attack altogether. Among them there was a small girl with polio, limping along to get a glimpse of me. For these children, ...