Back safely

Its been over a year since I got back and frankly, its taken me that long to feel ready to write about the rest of the trip.  After getting up to Addis we ended up returning south to the Omo valley which was both interesting and challenging but disappointing.

• Roadworks for miles putting in a highway for air conditioned tourist buses to visit the locals like a trip to the zoo - end of remoteness
• Extreme commercialism of the local tribes way of life
• Robbery - (ground tent was slit with a knife and stuff taken while someone was asleep inside)
• High hassle factor from everyone you met

It just left me feeling deflated and very disappointed.  I wish we could have gone ten years ago.  It was beautiful though.

Then we had a traffic adventure on the way to Lalibela where although we were going extremely slowly due to the high number of people and animals on the road and old man ran across the road right in front of us.
Duncan swerved but we knocked the man with the wing mirror and he fell.  I went with the old man to the local UN medical clinic and Duncan went with the Landy and rest of the village to the police station where he waited.  Once the old man had been seen by the medics (some grazes and a sore hip) I found the police station and a Saudi bloke was fetched from where he was praying at the mosque to translate.  There was the scary bit where we were told we had to go to prison (I wasnt even driving!) and that one cannot just be disrespectful of people and animals when one visits another country.  Then once I was translated explaining what had happened and of course that is why we stopped and why I went with the man to the medical clinic to make sure he was okay and pay any medical costs they changed their tune, told us to be careful as the road was new to the area and most people hadnt much car/road crossing experience.  That we were lucky it was a Moslem village and no money was required as the community take care of our own and they send us on in peace.

Lalibella - really interesting and a gorgeous drive but high hassle factor.

The Priest at Lalibella

We spent a couple of days resting at Lake Tana near Gondar but by this time I had a constant temperature - just low, but it drains all my energy and is typically a sign that I need to rest.  I couldnt even muster the enthusiasm to take a look at the Royal Enclosure in Gondar and it astonishes me now that I passed up that opportunity.  I napped in the Landy while Duncan went.  So once we got to Khartoum in the Sudan I decided to take a flight back to the UK and get some proper rest.  Note flights from Khartoum to London are the same price on 20th December with 1 day advance purchase window as they are in the middle of January with a months advance purchase window.

I slept for a week at a friends place, found a flat and started a new contract in January.

Duncan continued up through Sudan, Egypt, Libya and Tunisia to get the ferry over to Italy (with a surprise stop in Malta) and arrived back in London just in time for record snowstorms in mid February.