Krakow: a city of dreaming spires, ancient castles, dragons, myths, cobbled streets, cosy bars and coffee shops; an intellectual hub, a university town for seven hundred years; a must-do on the stag night circuit and the biggest tourist pull in Poland. Surely saturated as far as tourist ideas go? Well, since 2004, 'Crazy Tours' has thought otherwise. Intended as an off-beat but viable alternative to the usual historical circuit trudge, this Michael Palin - endo...

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...

Feeling a little bit like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, I woke up at an ungodly 3.30am on Saturday with the tune 'Marrakech Express' locked into my head. I was so paranoid about missing the flight that I set three different alarms, but ironically I woke up before they had a chance to go off and was ready to leave about an hour before I needed to be. Anyway, I got to the airport with plenty of time to spare and my passport, and went through the rigmarole that flig...

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...