Sudan into Ethiopia

Steaming house

 After too much heat in Sudan we drove Km to Ethiopia in one go. As you get get closer to Ethiopia the scenery becomes slowly tinged with green eventually turning into rich pallete of greens I had forgotten existed.
The border was a fairly painless process here and the Ethiopians very easygoing.
Once over the boarder it the road carried on through the much cooler air before rising steeply winding up to the highlands.

Before long we had climbed to over 6500 feet and the air was damp with mist and later heavy rain. It pours out of the hillsides all over the place and rivers spring up over the roads. The ground here is already saturated from the daily downpours.

Blue Nile Falls

We camped just of the road for the night as it was getting late.  The following day we carried on some 50 odd miles down the very muddy road to Lake Tarna the source of the Blue nile and stopped at Tim & Kims campsite. A lovey  clean and tidy place by the lake with possibly the best toilets I have seen in a long time and since.

Carrying on south to Addis we made slow progress through the mass of people constantly walking the road. Its true what people say that you cant really go anywhere fast here there are always people wandering about. And of course a lot of livestock.
Added to this the roads are not great in places especially the tar ones going up and down in the mountians where the land has slipped creating big drops that are hard to spot. The old landy puffs a bit as at time we are over 10,000 feet.

People

Massive grasshopper thing

Local Canoe

Guy nearly sinking in canoe

Overloaded Donkeys

Tim & Kims

Almost all the work we saw was done by hand or animals

We are now south of Addis heading for the Omo Valley which is supposed to be spectacular. We will be glad to get out of the rain which at first refreshing is now less welcome.
In Addis we stopped for insurance and to fix the alternator which had started to whine. While staying there a lady invited us in for a coffee and showed us how they roast and prepare the coffee for their coffee ceremony. It makes delicious little coffees.
Last night we splashed out a whole £9 on a realy nice hotel it has hot water! something we have not had for a while.