Archive for February, 2015


Our Ethiopian odyssey (14): conclusion

February 20th, 2015 by Roger Darlington

Our flight back to London was an overnight one, so Dawit took us out for our first non-hotel meal. It was to a place called the “2000 Habesha Cultural Restaurant”. In fact. It was not like a restaurant at all: a large rectangular room had buffet food at one of the narrow sides and a […]

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Our Ethiopian odyssey (13): back to Addis Ababa

February 19th, 2015 by Roger Darlington

Our last day in Ethiopia – day 13 (Thursday) – started early with the alarm at 5.45 am. Vee & Roger found that, in spite of mosquito nets in our four-poster bed, we had been bitten on face, arms and hands. The group left the hotel at 7.30 am and proceeded to the airport at […]

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Our Ethiopian odyssey (12): Blue Nile Falls

February 18th, 2015 by Roger Darlington

Day 12 (Wednesday) was our penultimate day in Ethiopia. Our morning excursion was to the Blue Nile Falls. Leaving the hotel at 8.40 am, we were soon onto yet another unmade road all the way to the falls. Although the journey was only 30 km, it took over an hour because it was so bumpy […]

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Our Ethiopian odyssey (11): Gondar and Lake Tana

February 18th, 2015 by Roger Darlington

Day 10 (Monday) and it was time to leave the Simien Mountains and head back to Gondar. We set off at 8.40 am on what was going to be our last long road journey of the holiday. The first 40 minutes of our ride was a bouncy time back down the unmade road to the […]

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Our Ethiopian odyssey (10): Simien Mountains

February 17th, 2015 by Roger Darlington

Day 8 (Saturday) was always planned simply as a travelling day with no sightseeing at all but, when one is visiting more exotic countries, one has to be ready for things not always to go precisely to plan. So we left our hotel in Lalibela at 10 am and set off for the airport for […]

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Our Ethiopian odyssey (9): another day in Lalibela

February 13th, 2015 by Roger Darlington

Day 7 (Friday) proved to be the most strenuous so far and hopefully we will not have another day as challenging. The programme was a morning trip to a church on a local mountain top, so we were up at 6.15 am and off at 7.30 am. Our guide Dawit had given us three options: […]

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Our Ethiopian odyssey (8): rock churches of Lalibela

February 12th, 2015 by Roger Darlington

Day 6 (Thursday) saw the departure from Axum of nine of the group. The woman who was the first to be ill had chosen to fly home, while the second woman to be unwell had decided to press on with the trip. We left the hotel at 9 am and were soon at the airport […]

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Our Ethiopian odyssey (7): Axum

February 11th, 2015 by Roger Darlington

Day 5 (Wednesday) was a non-travelling day with all our time spent in Axum and environs, so it was much less challenging than the previous day – but now two of our group were too unwell to come out. The Kingdom of Axum arose in the 4th century BC, grew rapidly to be a power […]

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Our Ethiopian odyssey (6): slices of life and a treacherous road

February 10th, 2015 by Roger Darlington

Our evening at the Gheralta Lodge – which is owned by an Italian but named after the nearby mountains – was rather special. First, we were given complimentary cocktails: Vee & Roger had the house cocktail which was honey wine with campari and a hint of something local like mint. Then we all had a […]

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Our Ethiopian odyssey (5): our first rock churches

February 9th, 2015 by Roger Darlington

Day 3 (MondayOur ) actually began in the night when the alarm in our hotel room went off at the crazy time of 4.30 am. It was a case of wash, dress, pack and have a “grab and go” breakfast before the Cox & Kings group boarded our minimbus at 5.30 am. We were soon […]

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