Day two down lake Turkana. We took the west side, thanks to the new bridge over the Omo. First non bike travellers for a while, and folloiwable track on any […]

This was always the will we/won't we part of the trip.... Returning to Kenya from Ethiopia via Lake Turkana. Search any nder site and the is the bit ( apart from " how the hell do we get through Syria/Egypt, Saudis Arabia") and this the common question. Its pretty epic , but epic isn't not enough with a five year old ( and a distict lack of mechanical expertise) . so we'd decided to go for only if we had company...

Bahir Dar is fun and slightly frothy, though also home to the worst pizza ever. Cabbage on slight stale bready disks. The Lake Tana monastries are less stale though i find their systematic roundness less photogenic than the northern churches...

South Omo has a reputation for being a little commercial, and zoo-like ( but for people). Spending time at the market in Turmi didnt feel like that at all. Yes, […]

Even as a fairly interested traveller and reader – and with a degree in Afrcan history – I had very little sense of the Ethiopian Aesthetic – even though its at […]

Every afternoon Fasilides and entourage loitered down to their baths..

though I think i'd prefer a lazy Tolkien reference if any are necessary. You can see the Portugese/Indian influences, but like everything else in Ethiopia, simple comparisons fail.

...are hard and magnificent…

Axum was our most northerly point. Also apparent home to the Ark of the covenant.

This is one of the most beautiful rural places I have ever been; Gascony & Languedoc included...

Because one Oromo sheetee is never enough...

OK, so grandmothers, please avert your eyes. Also anyone involved in child protections services, and people who don't believe in feeding wild animals. You're all correct, but Harar - like Ethiopia as whole - seems to beg to be the exception to a whole lot of perfectly good rules...