Going Home On the last morning I have a few hours to kill before I have to go to the airport. I have not yet seen a fridge magnet or a local football shirt anywhere so I set off into the center of Addis (by turning left out of the hotel!!) in search of these. I think it's a sign that the Ethiopian tourist industry is only just starting that they haven't started making tacky fridge magnets yet. I think I do really well to eventually find one. I've wandered around a lot of shops and been led on wild goose chase by someone who tells me he knows where all the fridge magnets and football shirts are and it's always just around the next corner. I eventually get offered three identical fridge magnets in one ... read more

Harar Again This morning Lishan joins us again for another walking tour of Harar. We walk around the city walls for a while and take in a traditional Harari house and the house of the famous poet, Arthur Rimbaud - OK. I actually know nothing about poetry but I've vaguely heard of Rimbaud from a reference in a Van Morrison song Rimbaud never actually lived in Arthur Rimbaud's House! The house is built on the site of the house he used to live in. It does, however, have a good collection of old black and white photographs of Harar - I'm a big fan of old black and white photographs. We are really taken with the Traditional Harari House, it is really cool inside and we could relax there all day. The main room of the ... read more

Lake Tana, the Blue Nile and Hippos Stuck Stuck Tuk Tuk We are near the end of our tour now. We should be flying to Addis Ababa this morning but our flight is cancelled and we choose to stay in Bahir Dar and try to reschedule things. Myself, Clarry and Jane are scheduled to go on from Addis Ababa to Harar tomorrow and we are not looking forward to the 13 hour drive after the flight to Addis! Jane has come up with the idea of getting an internal flight to the nearby city of Dire Dawa and then taking public transport to Harar and Baty has been looking into flights for us and trying to organise things with the tour co... read more

To Bahir Dar A Tarmac Road!!! Another fairly early start as we set out at 8a.m. for the drive from Gondar to Bahir Dar. Bahir Dar is going to be our base for the next couple of days as we explore Lake Tana and The Blue Nile Falls. We are promised that the drive will be just 3 hours and we make good progress with the luxury of a tarmac road. There are so few bumps in the road that I can even write down some notes for this blog in the minibus! We stop to take photographs of a dog and some vultures with some roadkill - I think it's a donkey - at the side of the road. We arrive at Bahir Dar at the promised time and head straight for The Blue Nile ... read more

To Gondar Leaving the Mountains You always tend to wake up early when you're camping. Chef has somehow managed to make pancakes for everyone for breakfast this morning. We're out of the campsite by 8 a.m. and trekking for a couple of hours to the spot where we will meet up with the minibus. Just like yesterday, at this altitude any bit of uphill walking knocks me out. We trek for a couple of hours, again seeing some spectacular views and panoramas and passing through some large groups of baboons. The baboons seem completely unconcerned by us and ignore us passing through their "territory". After meeting the minibus we drive out of the park back to Debark where we drop off our guides, cook and scouts (the three guys with guns). We hang around here for ... read more