As the sun set and the moon rose, Lake Tana glittered.

The hotel, known for its gardens, provided lighted pathways for evening walking.  The next morning as we sat on the patio for breakfast, company arrived.

We crumbled toast to see what would occur.  These weavers loved the treat.  A hotel employee, viewing them as pests, ran out and drove them into a nearby tree.

Fisherman still use the same papyrus boats used during the time of the pharaohs. The pelicans at Lake Tana display snow white plumage.

These fisherman customarily row two hours out into the lake to fish and when finished, two hours back.  Yes, I said row, no motors. Talapia is the primary catch.  After boarding at the hotel dock, we made our way across a tiny portion of the lake in a relatively small boat powered with a motor.

Lake Tana is huge.  The ferry that crosses from Bahir Dar to Gorgora takes ten hours.  When we boarded the motor boat, it never occurred to me that we would actually go to the place where the Blue Nile begins, but suddenly here we were.  Just thinking about it as I write this makes me shiver.  I am here again, where the river of all rivers, the Nile, actually begins.

And suddenly we are on the Nile, no longer in Lake Tana.

The light colored objects along the river bank are papyrus boats.

The tall plants in the background are papyrus.  In Addis I saw them used as ornamental plants in the gardens of the Sheraton.  Here they grow wild along the Nile exactly as they have for millennia.

Just past this point, we rounded a slight bend in the coastline.  A naked man bathing in the water quickly scrambled up the bank and pulled on a pair of pants.

We zoomed here and there so rapidly that at times I remained uncertain as to whether I was in Lake Tana or the Nile.  No matter, it was warm, the company was stellar,  my body smiled.  What could possibly be better than this!!!