Day 117 - 121 - THE OMO VALLEY The Omo Valley in Ethiopia is a very remote part of the country - home to many tribes and wild animals. We were therefore pleased to hook up with Peter and Gutrun in their UniMog and Darren and Ineka in their Nissan Patrol and go in convoy. We left Awassa and travelled about 100km towards Arba Minch when all of a sudden the car started rocking backwards and forwards as if we were riding a horse: both the back shock absorbers had exploded - the new $70 ones we had bought in Addis Ababa, only 200 km ago! We limped on to Arba Minch and arrived at dusk - and fitted the old shock absorbers back on which we had luckily kept as spares...yet another frustrating experience. Old shocks on, old clutch master cylinder on, welded fuel tank, exhaust and roof rack, Biggles was all set for the Omo Valley. - he made it and we arrived at Konso, the main town of the area. It was Friday, market day, where many of the tribes came from miles around to trade their goods - sometimes taking two or three days to walk to the town then the next two or three days to walk back to their village...only to turn around and do the same again the next week! We saw semi-naked men and women - men with braided hair and mini skirts, women with fur skins and shells around their necks, and most fascinating of all, a few people from the Mursi tribe - the tribe where the women pierce their bottom lip and stretch it around ceramic discs. The Mursi tribe live in villages a few hours drive from Konso in Mago National Park. We all decided to visit one of the villages to find out more about the tribe. Although only 35 km the road into the National Park was terrible but great fun to drive, with incredibly steep rocky slopes and several river crossings. It took us about three hours to reach a place to camp in the park, where we would set off the next morning for the village. We lit a big fire and baked bread for the first time - my amo box oven with a bread tin inside worked really well! During the evening vervet monkeys swung in the trees above us and baboons tried to steal our rubbish. The drive to the Mursi Village was fascinating - the first man we met at the side of the road was a guard with a kalashnikov. But unlike any other guard this man was stark naked! Young boys dressed in fancy head dresses with body painting on their naked bodies ran after the cars...Camilla was fascinated in their stripy willies!!! At the village we parked the cars and were effectively mobbed by the whole village - demanding we take their photo and give them 2 birr each (approximately 14p). It was extremely intimidating to have naked people, many with guns, jabbing and poking us shouting to have their photo taken. The village does not get many tourists but when independent travellers like us do turn up they take advantage of it... Seeing the Mursi people was an incredible experience - it was a National Geographic moment. The women's lip plates were fascinating - made from clay they were up to the size of a side plate: the larger the lip plate the more likely the woman is to find a wealthy husband. Day 122 - 123 On the way to Kenya We left the village and the violent, shouting people behind and drove back to Konso then on towards Kenya. We said a sad goodbye to Gutrun and Peter, two lovely travelling companions and we and Darren and Ineka headed towards Kenya. Although Biggles was now behaving himself, their Nissan Patrol "Brutus" had lots of problems. Firstly their extra wide Goodrich tyres kept getting punctures - they had had 18 before we met up with them and whilst we travelled with them this number rose to 29!!! The other problem was a leaking radiator which we temporarily fixed and hoped it would get them to Nairobi. The only snag that we were all aware of was that we were about to do a stretch of road from Moyale in Ethiopia via Marsabit to Isiolo in Kenya, known as "the worst road in Africa!" Not only are the road conditions terrible but there are bandits around called the Shifta, who regularly take pop shots at travellers for money or goods. We were glad to be two cars together, but worried about the Nissan's tyres - although they had brought one spare they had a blow out which ruined it meaning if they had any problems on the road we would be stuck...