Bahir Dar

 Bahir Dar sits on the southern end of a large lake called Lake Tana. The place is dotted with islands and peninsulas which hold monasteries in profusion, many of which were founded during the 14th Century. We opted to visit a monastery on the Zege Peninsula, which is famed for its incredible jumble of murals depicting bibical scenes. These are between 100 and 250 years old. The road out to the Peninsula was a fairly hairy dirt road, which went on for more kilometers than we had reckoned, and terminated in a small village from which a footpath led to the monastery. We had picked a festival day to visit and the place was crowded with pilgrims and vendors of a variety of souvenirs and tat, plus the usual suspects trying to sell us guiding services or anything else that human ingenuity can come up with. We were quite peckish by the time we reached the village so we picked a local eatery to have lunch in. This got rid of the touts for a while, as they had the good sense not to accompany us inside. The food consists of the main dish served on a bed of sour cooked dough called injera, made from tef. It is fermented for around three days before it's used. In this restaurant we had scrambled egg on our injera. You eat it with your fingers, wrapping injera round the meat or egg in the middle.This meal came with another type of bread as well, which you don't always get.

The circular church was "guarded" by a man toting a genuine rifle. We were of course pleased to pay the admission price and take our shoes off at his behest. Turned out he was a deacon in the church, but that didn't prevent him asking for yet more money at the end of our visit. Is this the way forward for our deacons? Kalashnikovs and entrance fees?

 Rush boats like these are still used by fishermen on the lake. On the return journey we got stuck for a while behind a lorry, and you can see the dust it kicked up on the road. We were glad to get past it.