SUDAN 'Oh, that the desert were my dwelling place.' Byron 24th February As anticipated, our visas at the Immigration Office at Gallabat caused problems with an unsmiling official, who declared that they had expired and we would have to return to Addis Ababa to apply for another. Pointing to all Moona's tippexing on the visas, we tried to explain that she had mixed up the 1 month length of stay and the 1 week validity of the visa and that when we had queri...

ETHIOPIA 'A traveller without knowledge is like a bird without wings.' Mushariff-Ud-Din (1184-1291) 7th February We nearly drove through the police post following our entry into Ethiopia. It was just a simple hut surrounded by local people and two guys in T-shirts and shorts who rushed forward beckoning us to stop. They told us they worked for the Border Police and that we had to come and talk with them to make sure our journey was legal. ...

KENYA 'Treat the earth well. It was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children.' Kenyan Proverb 13th December Mount Elgon was still hidden by cloud when we crossed into Kenya from Uganda and headed for Naiberi Campsite at Eldoret in the Western Highlands. Naiberi was 5 star luxury for rooms or camping, in a beautiful setting by a river. Natural, local materials had been used for all the buildings so that they blended with ...

UGANDA 'The future depends on what we do in the present.' Mahatama Gandhi One still perhaps associates Uganda with the dreadful atrocities of the Idi Amin years and one wonders how the country and its people, could ever recover from such horrors and instability. Bearing this in mind, Uganda turned out to be our big surprise of all the countries visited so far. It was incredibly green and very beautiful, with fantastic, natural scenery. Wherever we visited...

TANZANIA AND ZANZIBAR 'As wide as all the world, great, high and unbelievably white in the sun.......' Ernest Hemingway on Mount Kilimanjaro 18th October And so into Tanzania which appeared lush and green with rich, dark soil full of banana trees, tea plantations, fields of maize, potatoes, beans and even sunflowers. Huge sacks of potatoes lay on the grass verges for sale and stalls were laden with tomatoes, onions and cabbages. Densely wooded areas str...