In 1975, Polish writer Ryszard Kapuscinski wrote in his book 'Heban' the following about traveling to Lalibela; "Travelling the roads of Ethiopia is arduous and often risky. In the dry season, the car skids over gravel on a narrow shelf cut into the flank of a steep mountain; the road runs along the edge of a precipice several hundred metres deep. In the rainy season, the mountain roads are impassable. Those on level ground turn into quagmires, in which one...

The area to the far north of Ethiopia, alongside the disputed border of Eritrea, is the ancient state of Tigray. Wild, mountainous, arid land which presents the traveller with a stark and barren view of Ethiopia, it is arresting scenery: probably more what you would imagine as 'typical' Ethiopian scenery if you haven't been there before. We had joined a group of travellers to do a two day trip around the so-called rock-hewn churches of northern Tigray. Here, in t...

The Simien Mountains receded into the background as our truck negotiated a serpentine and potholed road north out of Debark and in the direction of Axum, our next destination, 280km but ten to twelve hours distant. We had managed to organize the truck pretty quickly on arriving in Debark - someone found us eating our meal, still euphoric from our success in getting through the Simien experience with wallets intact - and acted as a go-between between us and the dr...

Arriving in Gondar by bus from Bahir Dar is a relatively straightforward task, in comparison to the majority of journies you need to do by road to get around the historical loop in Ethiopia. Three hours along a straight, and for the most part tarmacked, road by minibus at any time of day you choose. Ideally, this would be the case travelling around the rest of the country too, in which case it would be a travellers' dream instead of the almighty slog that it actu...

Leaving Addis Ababa after four and a half weeks of rain, power cuts, students going on strike, teachers constantly complaining and sniping, inane Ethiopian TV, cheap nights out in the local bar with bad live music, and the worst catering company anyone anywhere could ever imagine was a relief, to say the least. Our last days in Addis were spent counting down the days before we left. Or at least that's how it felt at the time. Most people on the teaching course I ...