Lammergeyer Hotel Gonder

... me:

4 stones (1 at helmet)
1 stick (wood)
1 peace of sugarcane (yummie)
1 thong (the other was still in use)
1 widow (thankfully refused)

To round this list up I can confess, that all other 3'471 kids while traveling in Ethiopia were simply friendly smiling, running towards me and waving a lot, being very ...

... but that may be because it's almost zero visibility. Apparently the winds that clean up the air in Addis make it really bad out here. The path to Dire Dawa and Harar seemed much nicer, shades of Guatemala, but so was the weather that day. Nevertheless this northern part of Ethiopia seems heavily deforested, hardly a square inch not under the till or the hoof, barely a five o'clock shadow of cover. If it weren't so deforested I ...

... of building is going on in Gonder at the moment), we settled in and watched the sunset - our hotel was perched on a huge hill, with incredible views of Gonder, the royal compound, and countless birds riding the thermals. The next day, we drove with our guide, Johannes (we'd met him the night before) to the Simien Mountains for a short hike. Johannes is studying Ethiopian history and tourism, like many of the young guides we met along the way ...

... most of them were full, but we found what seemed a reasonable one, close to the centre of town, for USD 75 each - score! I'm on the floor on a mattress but the real bummer is that the apartment has unreliable electricity, fleas and water only about twice a week. So I'm covered in flea bites and I smell. I've been working the weekends to rack up days so I can get away for a trek in the Simien Mountains. The weekends are great ...

... we saw in Egypt, plus a Christian section of icons and murals, which we found hard to put into context. On our way out of Khartoum we stopped at a large and unexpectedly well stocked supermarket, where we indulged our western tastes for the last time in a while. Driving out we were amazed at how modern this supposedly safest capital ...

... what has been described as the most dramatic road in Africa, crossing at least 5 half kilometer deep valleys and finally climbing up some 1500 meters into the Simien Mountains from Adi Arkay to Debark. Again we passed several destroyed tanks, one was upside down under a bridge, another one half buried in the opposite bank. Easy to see that all of this hardware was lost by the Dergue. The position showed that they were to block the Eritreans and Tigrayans campaigning towards Addis ...

... is HIV/AIDS. Ethiopia has one of the lowest rates of HIV infection in sub-Saharan Africa, with 4.4% - and according to some it is lower now at 3.5% - but because of the nature of the disease around 50-60% of medical patients have it on the wards. In the UK when someone comes in with something a little odd, or perhaps a little rare, you may think "oh that's a bit odd and a little rare" but here immediate consideration is given to retroviral ...

... finish time. Midnight. Wonderful, a seven hour delay. There was nothing we could do about it so we cooked, ate and read. In the end it was about 1230am when it was ready. The mechanic then invited us over to his desk to discuss finance. The price had gone up by over 1000 on what I believed he had quoted as the full price in the morning. So, with the bus blocked in and 1am approaching we were locked in discussions and the mechanic was suggesting we ...

... t think they are reading anything as they do not speak English. This is a tiny little one room airport which only has a few flights a day, so everyone who is there is going on the same flight. Because of this, there is no need for there to be staff at the counter all of the time - just when they're ready. I forgot to empty my nalgine of water. Even though they saw it, I was not asked to empty it (water is too precious). The ...

... was a wonderful assortment of chambers, breweries, and prayer buildings (the most important) overlooking the city. Unfortunately, much of it had been bombed so there was not a lot remaining. Ethiopians function on a different calendar than we do. They have 13 months - each with 30 days, and the 13th has 5 (or 6 in a leap year). They are also approximatley 8 years and a few days off of the Greek calendar, so this ...