Blue Nile Falls

I just visited the blue nile falls which is the largest I've ever seen or heard and one of the most spectacular sights in Ethiopia. The Blue Nile comes from Lake Tana. In the beginning it is like a creek that meanders  past huts and along papayrus plants and grasses along the outskirts of Bahir Dar.  Then it hits the falls of basaltic rock. The water drops 150 feet down and spreads across a high mile. That is what makes it so huge and loud to me is how wide the falls are.

What is amazing is that right before the falls, the country has built a hydroelectric plant called Tis Abay II. It takes the water from the Blue Nile and generates 450 megahertz of power  with it then put its back into the river right before the falls.  Unfortunately, I think the falls would have been much more beautiful the construction of the plant. They actually take 75 percent of the water and send it into a canal and use the water for irrigation.  So now we only see 25 percent of the water in the Falls.  It is kind of surprising that  environmental activists didn't stop or fight this.

The locals call the Blue Nile Falls "the water that smokes" or the "smoke of the Nile" because the mist rises 45 meters above the water.  I hiked to the falls and it was not the easiest place to get to or hike to do. That is true of most beautiful places. We took an early ferry ride across the river to reach the falls trail. It was rough terrain and some of the hikers used local guides, but I didn't. Good pair of vibrums and  a lot of band aids make any hike possible!

There was a loop trail that allowed us to get close to the falls. From this trail you could see some of the rock cliffs that don't have water pouring down them any more from the hydro electric plant and canal.  This was a shame to me, but I guess the people who now have electricity due to the power plant and the farmers who can grow crops from the river water might not be so sad about it.  There is always a mist or spray from the water crashing and this is enough to create a little rain forest ecology that we walked through. That was pretty neat.