10 November, 2012 Seven of us have thrown sleeping bags and day packs into the back of a minivan and are heading off to Mekele for the night. Tomorrow after breakfast, we'll be leaving for the Danakil Depression, the northern part of the Afar Triangle near the Eritrea border. The highlight of the four day trip will be to stand on the edge of a lava lake on the active ErtaAle volcano. To say we're excited is an understatement. To heap praise on Toni who wanted to go there and introduced the idea while most of us didn't know it existed/ was possible is necessary. It takes us about six hours to reach Mekele and the company we're using, G.K. Adahu have thankfully organized rooms for our arrival. We gave them a budget per person and ... read more

6 November, 2012 We arrived in Bahia Dar, met the truck and made for a campsite on the edge of Lake Tana. Over the next couple days, we made the most of the wifi, the bar with a large selection of drinks, the television and the rooms that some decided were worth the upgrade from the tents. The truck was parked in a large open space where we could set up the kitchen and chairs and it was a walkable distance into town. A café across the road served great coffee (so I'm told!) and Ethiopian dishes but Kevin and I found a pizzeria on the second floor of a building in town and settled on that instead. Nico and Alexis also had the same idea. I think the last time I'd had pizza was in ... read more

29 October, 2012 We in stopped in Shashamane, home to the Rastafari movement, for an afternoon en route to the capital. The population of the town is approximately 100,000 of which nowadays only 200-300 still call themselves Rastafarians, though numbers were as high as 2,000. The truck was parked at a café and we went out to the road to hail tuk tuks to drive us out to the area. I wasn't sure what I had been expecting and wouldn't be a fan of reggae and things I guess I consider to associate with them and although we were invited into a gated community, brightly painted in the red, yellow and green, no one was really able to explain anything to us. I wandered through the rooms with Bob Marley painted on the walls and articles ... read more

October 14 There's been so many amazing excursions in the past seven months but today was an unexpectedly brilliant day. Who knew that there was such a thing as the Nairobi Goat Derby?? Not only that but it's so well organized and all in the name of charity. Here we were thinking we'd go take a look for an hour and we shut the place down almost ten hours later... Most of the group came along for a look and we pulled some tables together with prime viewing of the starting line. A few goats munched happily on the grass and bushes, seemingly unaware of what was in store for them. The hilarity began when the teams tried to dress their goats in t-shirts. Obviously the goats weren't overly keen and it took several people per ... read more

Thursday September 27 After two nights in Uganda's capital Kampala, we drove north to Kibale for a night and then onto Kisoro. Lying in bed at Gorilla's Backpackers, it's like the night before Christmas when you're a child. The excitement and anticipation mixed with relief that it's finally here. Except it's not Christmas. It's far, far better than that. I'm going to meet the mountain gorillas tomorrow and I. Can't. Wait. Well I can wait, actually. I've waited a really long time so a few more hours is okay. But at 6am tomorrow we'll drive an hour and a half to the check in point, be split into groups and begin the trek to the family we're going to visit. No bright colours, no flash photography, no standing taller than daddy gorilla and definitely no looking ... read more