Photos

A view of the Ethiopian hills to the north of Gonder on the road to Sudan.

The story behind this pic is quite funny. A group of us decided to make the road trip from Khartoum to Gonder. It's a pretty rough journey, though quite poular with overlanders who are going north or south across the continent.

Anyway, it was an action packed trip as one of the car kept breaking down. Finally on the trip home we broke down and a friend and I volunteered to stay with the car whilst the others (who included a family with three young kids) went 120km back to Gonder.

So we set up camp, my friend built a fire and got out a sheesha (water-pipe) and we settled down to watch the sun go down. Suddenly over the horizon appeared a german cyclist, Ralf, who was making a 12 month journey from Munich to Namibia for charity. When I asked him how much practise he had put in he said 'Europe was my practise'.

So Ralf joined us. Then a local farmer came along and began to complain we were using his wood, so we offered to pay. Obviously we were too generous because he was delighted and returned 30 minutes later with one and half litres of the local hooch. Half the village decided to join us and the sunset passed wonderfully.

Hopefully next month Ralf will finally make it to the orphanage in Namibia. Best luck mate!

Everybody (including me) thinks of Ethopia as a place of famine and drought. It is in areas, but the hills are wonderfully fertile land. If only the transport system could get the food to where it is most needed.