This is an old postcard I wrote, I thought I would put it on for your interest now we have internet again.

Well chaps, we have finally got the internet to work and I hope you appreciate our huge new selection of photos, especially the ones of Henry and my facial hair, comments on which we await with bated breath.

            We are presently in Addis Ababa after a marathon drive to get here. Having gone east from Lake Tana to see the rock hewn churches of Lalibella we were treated to a 650km drive to Addis on the worst road any of us have ever driven on. The road varied between hugely pot holed tarmac to volcanic rock that bumped and jolted our cars to near submission. Having decided to go for it as camping seemed out of the question, we finally arrived in Addis at 1.30am 17 hours after setting off. In a straight line on a good road we could have done the drive in four hours, but as we continually crossed the 1500m high flood plain and ascended the sides of the valley up to 3000m before winding our way back down again, we managed to average a speed of 25mph.

            To confound our misery, the campsite we had been recommended was a nightmare to find and once we had found it we drove through the gates to discover it was a black market taxi car park during the night and any thought of finding a space to open our roof tents was out of the question. Instead we took rooms and found them to be flee ridden and dishevelled. The mirrors on the walls at bed level combined with the selection of condoms on the bedside table told us that we had inadvertently booked into a brothel. As it was 2am we slept there and moved away sharpish in the morning.

            We have now found a better hotel with a shaded car park so we have our roof tents up. We have once again bumped into our Belgian friend Martin who I don’t believe you have been introduced to yet, but you can see a picture of him on the boat on Lake Tana, as he is the man bottom right of the picture of the whole boat. We first met Martin on the ferry from Egypt. He was sitting under the lifeboats on deck smoking a joint. In the course of the ferry journey we discovered he was hitch hiking from Belgium to Zambia with nothing more than a reasonably sized rucksack. He seemed to be on a mission to exchange a lute he was carrying for a Sudanese model in Khartoum. We also discovered that he had done something in Belgium which meant he couldn’t return and after telling us a story of how he was taking a s*** in a field next to the Nile in Aswan when a farmer and his boy pulled up in a boat and started hitting him with a stick (not entirely unfair upon finding a foreigner relieving himself in his field). Martin told us that he grabbed the stick from the farmer and started beating the son with it whilst telling them that if he ever disturbed him again whilst crapping he would take the stick and shove it up a place where the sun doesn’t shine. The look of anger in his eyes as he told the story made us realise that he was slightly unhinged and we tried not to think about what he might have done in Belgium. We bumped into him again in Khartoum where he was having a war with some cats that seemed to have taking a liking to his tent. We saw him cooking later and wondered whether it might have been one of the unfortunate cats. Luckily he had got his new lute which seemed to put him in a better mood especially after a few more joints.

            We met Martin again at Lake Tana and were treated to a story of one of his excursions further north in Gondar. Apparently under the influence of alcohol he had finally submitted to the attempts of a local prostitute to get him into bed. Worse still he had failed to use any kind of protection and was now unsurprisingly extremely worried. We also met a French doctor and her husband in Tana and she told him where to go and what to do.

            So imagine our surprise upon arriving in our more upmarket camping spot in Addis, to discover a Dutch girl asking if we had seen a short guy from Belgium. Sure enough later on we were greeted to another sighting of the now infamous Martin. He doesn’t seem to have too many more stories other than the fact he doesn’t feel safe in Addis and has taken to walking around with a knife in one hand and pepper spray in the other. We feel sorry for the unknowing beggar who pesters him one too many times!

            Anyway enough about Martin and instead I will talk about our trip. Lake Tana was good fun, we visited the incredible Blue Nile falls as well as taking a boat ride on the lake and visiting the ancient Monasteries on some of the islands, as I mentioned in my last little extract on the message board. After that we had a reasonably good time in Lalibella, however, if we had known the gruelling drive we would have to take from there to Addis, we may have decided to miss it out. Still the 11 churches that were literally carved out of the rock over 23 years were very impressive. It was a shame that many had corrugated iron coverings to protect the stone, but I am sure you can get an idea from our photos of what they were like.

            We are leaving Addis tomorrow and heading down South. The plan is to spend a couple of nights in the Bale Mountains National Park for our first proper game viewing, although we have already seen three hyenas on our drive from Lalibella. One villager who came and visited our bush camp informed us that one person per week from their village is eaten by a hyena, which made us feel rather grateful for our roof tents.

            We have two South Africans who are travelling up the other way. They are really great guys and have invited us to come and stay when we are in Joburg or Cape Town. They also told us that the road from Moyale to Marsabit, which is potentially the most dangerous stretch of road in the entire trip, is very safe at the moment. There is a military presence there which has hugely deterred the ambushers and carjackers. So fingers crossed we should make it to our first Tusk project in Lewa safely.

            I am sure we have bored you enough already with this postcard, so all I will say is enjoy the photos and keep filling the message board with amusing anecdotes and gags and we will report back once we are in Kenya.

Lots of love etc etc