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 to the junction of the main Addis to Djibouti road, we turn west. This road is the definition of traffic chaos - it is a single lane each way, and is full of container trucks to and from the port at Djibouti - as well as livestock, people, tuk-tuks, you name it, it is there. Our speed slows to a crawl whenever we approach habitation.

About 20kms out of Addis, our 4WD conks out - it starts blowing white smoke and loses traction on the hills - and finally rolls to a stop. At first I am sure that it has blown a head gasket, but our driver assures us that it is only the build-up of dust. He tinkers around under the bonnet for a few minutes, and finally gets it fired back into life - the engine is running and the white smoke is gone.

We make it back to the hotel in Addis shortly after 2PM - just enough time to check in our bags, grab a bite to eat, and shuffle off into town in a new 4WD that has been pressed into service.

The Meskel ceremony is a full-on affair. Ethiopia is seriously and devoutly religious - 40% Orthodox Christian, 30% other Christian denominations - and Meskel (Amharic word for "cross") is one of the significant festivals on the Orthodox religious calendar. In spectacle, it sort of resembles the Moomba procession (but without the floats). They have a roving TV camera crew in the tourist/VIP area, and we are both inteviewed on camera - basic questions such as: where are you from, what do you think of Ethiopia, what do you think of Meskel, do you have anything like this in your country, etc.

At the end of the evening, there are literally thousands of participants in the main square, and at the end of proceedings, the bonfire is blessed and lit. After the bonfire, we (like most of the other tourists in the VIP tent) start to make for the exit before the hundreds of thousands in the stalls start to pour out.

Our driver has managed to find a parking spot about a kilometer from the exit, and he drops us back to the hotel. We grab a quick meal and turn in, as we have to head to the airport at 5:30AM tomorrow to fly to Bahir Dar.

The final thing we do is check the odometer. We have covered 3270km in 11 days around the south. And we're only half way!