We continue our drive north from Bahir Dar, to Gondar - one of the three ancient capitals of Ethiopia, and in its heyday around the 15th century. Our drive takes us along the shore of Lake Tana, and we see some unusual scenery. For a start, rice-growing is big in this area - something that was only started a few years ago on otherwise useless low-lying land close to the lake. We stop at one point to take an iconic Ethopian photo - rice fields, a grove of Eucalypt...

Our driver picks us up at 5:30AM for the short drive to the airport for a 7:30AM flight to Bahir Dar, on the shore of Lake Tana - the largest lake in Ethopia, and the source of the Blue Nile. A local driver and guide pick us up at the airport in Bahir Dar and drive us to our hotel to drop off our suitcases. From there it is a short walk to catch a lake boat that takes us across the lake to visit the 14th century monsatery of Ura Kidane Mihret. As usual we are im...

After solving the problems of the world the night before, we have to drag ourselves out rearly for the long drive back to Addis. The objective is to be back at our hotel in time to leave for the Meskel Square by about 2:30. The drive back north is uneventful, althoug the traffic is getting worse the farther we go. Again we drive past the hectares of greenhouses that have been set up to grow flowers that are airfreighted to Holland to be sold there. When we get ...

Today we continue the drive north - we are travelling up the eastern side of the Rift Valley, and it takes us through coffee country. The landscape is practically subtropical, and coffee trees grow everywhere - right up to the side of the road. Along the way we stiop at a couple of the establishments that process the coffee beans - but it is too early in the season. Harvesting doesn't start for another couple of months, but finally we find one where there are so...

Today we head south from Yabelo towards the Kenyan border to a little fly speck of a town called El Sod to see the meteor crater and the singing well. The drive is a bit of a chore - the road we drive on is part of the trans-Africa highway, and a large part of it is being rebuilt by the Chinese. They are doing a proper job of it, and part of this means keeping the traffic off it until it has been completely finished. Accordingly, they have build a temporary hau...