The theft occurred last night when Mayke made a terrible error and left her backpack outside her tent for about an hour after we set up camp and it was stolen! She had decided that she would organise her stuff and get a 'tent bag' sorted for campsites and so had taken her big bag off the truck. The police were called, the security guard who was sitting about 3m from the bag was arrested and put in jail and she was amazingly calm. The group is now in the process of determining what fits her and outfitting her in a whole new wardrobe from our limited supplies. Mayke and Lotte spent this morning at the market with 2 undercover policemen trying to see if any of her stuff was already for sale - unfortunately they didn't locate anything.

Today was rather busy. This morning started with a visit to the Blue Nile Falls which are featured in the picture. We were expecting to see the picture recreated, but unfortunately as Ethiopia gets more environmentally aware more and more water is being diverted to enable hydro-power and the falls were about a tenth the size of the picture. But I saw the Blue Nile Falls in Ethiopia so it is not all bad.

Bahir Dar is famous for the monasteries on the Lake and so we decided that we best do a boat trip which resulted in a promise being broken. The whole group set off in a boat that apparently would easily sit 20 but at a push we squeezed in 15 people with 40 beers. The Lake was rather choppy so we were a little over ambitious on the beer count, but better to have too many than not enough… and we had the promise of Hippo sightings so spirits were high. We left the campsite at 4.30pm and so thought that we best rush to get there before sunset. Upon arriving where we thought we were going to be spotting Hippos we were eagerly staring into the water and mistakenly identified a log and some birds as Hippo ears, so we decided to ask our captain where exactly we should be looking. It was at this point we got a little annoyed as he said 'Hippo's, oh no, we only see them in the morning, they dive in the evenings and we never see them!' the mood got a little shaky at this point. We said, 'ha ha, really which way are the Hippo's?' Conversation between ourselves at this point was to the tune of - 'why are we circling?' 'they did say Hippo's didn't they?' 'Does anyone really want to go to the monastery cause I am really just here for the Hippo's!' You have probably guessed by now, but today was not the day that I saw Hippo's in the wild or at all for that matter :(

Laura and I got dropped at the market on our way back to the hotel and to the amusement of the locals we decided to have a wander in the livestock market. It was really rather interesting and to this minute I am at a loss as to why children were wandering around with handfuls and bowls full of animal poop, hot and steaming… guess they had a use, just couldn't imagine what it might be. There were goats, sheep, donkeys, cows, bullocks and mules all of varying ages and levels of healthiness. We decided that we were not yet ready to kill and cut up our own dinner to quite that level so we headed off to wander the other markets which were a little more ready made. It is so nice to wander markets outside of Egypt as you don't leave feeling violated and exhausted, instead you leave with 100 photos of the locals who just love having their picture taken and then viewing it on your camera screen to ensure that you got their best side. They don't even ask for money for their photo which has not been uncommon in some parts. Another long drive day tomorrow headed for Addis Ababa.