We're beginning to wonder if we've ended up in some sort of strange Lord of the Rings allegory. Our first stop in Ethiopia is the ancient capital of Gondar. Later on we were scheduled to drive through a village called Shire. It's a shame that the Semien Mountains aren't called the Misty Mountains... Okay, I think the relation seems to stop there but it gave the geeks in us (...okay me) a bit of entertainment for a while. We immediately took a liking to this country. The food is excellent! They have teriffic pizza (Italian influence), tasty coffee (especially when instant Nescafe has been typical for the last 3 months), and cheap beer (about $0.75 per bottle). The local food is also very good - especially the food served on fasting day (ie: no meat allowed). ... read more

I think we have seen all the temples we can possibly handle at this point, hence, Temple Overload!! We took the various 'token' photos, but also tried to have some fun with it. These are mostly random photos from the temples at Naqa and Muskwarat. ... read more

We went and saw Jebel Barkal and we had so much fun we ended up taking 90 photos in 2 hours time. We climbed on top of a huge hill to take some photos, then jolopped down the sandy side. It was fun! This temple is the sister site to Karnak in Egypt. Look, no tourists!... read more

Upon arriving in Wadi Halfa we were immediately reminded that we were not in Egypt anymore when people stopped to greet us without trying to sell us something - how refreshing! After finishing laundry and exporing the town, there's not much else to do here in Wadi Halfa. So we climbed the hill behind the hotel and had a picnic lunch and took some photos. We are here until the Dragoman truck arrives, which ended up arriving almost 2 days after we arrived in Wadi Halfa. Interesting tidbit about this town: it was actually quite the place until its residents were told to relocate due to the flooding of Lake Nasser. Most of the original town is now under water.... read more

We got up super early (2:30 am) to catch the 4 am convoy to the temples at Abu Simbel which was 275 km or so away. We arived in time for sunrise and got some cool pictures, (well, we thought they were pretty neat). We stayed there for 2 hours then took the bus back, total driving time 6 hours. It was worth it though. Pretty amazing considering the whole site was relocated to higher ground to in the 1960s to avoid being flooded by the rising Lake Nasser. The artwork inside the temples is incredibly well preserved, but of course you're not allowed to take photos inside the temples. Once back in Aswan, we took an afternoon nap before heading out for supper with everyone. Love the afternoon naps!!... read more