More ups and downs. We go to a Sudanese free-party. Sascha communes with baboons and finally we are out of the desert after four months of frying. Ethiopia is quirky and wonderful.Fantastic as Sudan was in many ways, Ethiopia had been looming in front of us drawing us in as moths to the light with its promises of verdant pastures and cool mountain air. Despite forgoing the majority of attractions Khartoum has to offer (and actually that's not really many) we did manage to haul ourselves through the heat to see the weekly Friday evening Sufi ceremony at the tomb of Sheikh Hamad al-Neil. We'd been excited about this and it didn't disappoint. People begin to gather a couple of hours before sunset, a strange mix of onlookers and the devout. Some participants are deadly serious in expression, some are there for the party and there are a good number who are frankly completely out of it. The crowd forms into a large circle and the music begins. A few people come into the centre and start to fall into trances. Of these some spin round and round, one guy takes on glazed expression and starts biting his hand and one stands tranfixed on the spot dribbling and ranting. After a while they get the big base drums out and the music begins to get more intense. The whole scene begins to take on the air of a warped early 90's hippy-traveller free party. Then suddenly off goes the evening call to prayer and it all stops just like that and everyone drifts off home. It's kind of hard to put the whole event in words, but believe us it was an absolute highlight and if you ever find yourself in Khartoum with time to spare on a Friday evening make sure to visit....

Riding out from Khartoum we slowly, slowly gained height and the landscape began to change. Dwellings changed to circular straw built huts, there were trees and it was all begining to conform to our steotypes of Africa. For the first time in nearly four months we were not in a desert! Two days on and we reached the border. The entry to Ethiopia marked an immediate change, suddenly greenery was all around and every other shop seemed to be a bar or bordello, frequently both. Shortly up the road all manner of exotic birdlife appeared and monkeys sprinted across our path. Unfortunately slightly further up the road our German riding companion, Jason, having made it all the way through Sudan without dropping his bike, took a tumble on the fresh, deep gravel that had been laid along the road. We lost sight of him in the mirrors and doubled back to find him standing in the middle of the road looking dazed with his bike lying down the embankment. Damage to the shoulder was the diagnosis and there began a long saga to get him to hospital in the next big town, Gondar (180km away). The whole story doesn't warrant repeating but suffice to say it involved two trucks, much waiting and also much money but ten hours later Jason was experiencing the delights of Gondar University Hospital. A fractured collar bone was the verdict with two months recovery time needed so with this several days later Jason parted our company and flew home to Berlin to recuperate.

Despite the very inauspicious start to Ethiopia, as is often the way, there were magical moments to be had in the journey to Gondar. Sitting in the back of a cattle truck trying to stop an inadequately roped-down BMW and Royal Enfield from tipping over on a rough unmade road we slowly climbed altitude. The air got cooler and for the first time in a long time we did not feel too hot. This was a blissful ten minutes as quickly night drew in and the cool became downright cold. The mountains became greener and tighter and we passed simple villages with no electric lighting. In this complete cover of dark the stars were amazing and distant electric storms gave us a great light show. Dotted across the mountains were patches of fire where lightning had stuck and the flames slowly burned their course. Yes, it was all great for a short while but after 8 hours of being battered around in the back of a shitty cattle truck in the cold one begins to lose hope. If there was one thing that could have made the journey more miserable it would have been for one of the storms to pass overhead. Thankfully it didn't.

The next morning with Jason diagnosed and us well rested we were able to take stock of where we were. Ethiopia is truly a marvellous place. Defying sterotypes from it's recent long history of troubles it has an amazingly individual culture. It has its own calendar with 13 months in the year and this year is about to celebrate the milenium. Daily time starts at sunrise meaning that clcoks are about 6 hours out of kilter with the rest of the worlds time-keeping. The language, Amharic, has a unique script an ancient and individual form of Christianity is practised. There are even extra 'bible' stories like the picture below about the man who was a cannibal and ate everyone in his village, so in all he was a pretty bad guy. Then he met a leper and was going to eat him but decided he wouldn't be so tasty and then the leper asked him for a glass of water in the name of the virgin Mary, which he gave. Shortly after this the cannibal died and was sent to hell for his sins. However, everyone who gives a favour in the name of the Virgin Mary should go to Heaven; so up in Heaven Mary has an argument with Jesus and says that really the cannibal should be in Heaven for the favour he gave to the leper in her name. Jesus can't argue with that logic so up the cannibal is scooped from Hell and placed in Heaven. Go figure! and check out the monastery mural telling the story below....

A long stay in Gondar was split with a 5 day trek into the Simian Mountains. High altitudes, amazing scenery and hanging out with large troops of Gelada Baboons. These are unique to the Simians and hang around in large packs, eat grass and chatter to each other. They're not too shy and sitting in the middle of a couple of hundred of them gossiping away to each other was one of life's great experiences.

We loved Gondar, despite it seeming like a grotty part of Dickensian London. Beggars proliferated, street urchins abound and dodging gin-sopped raving lunatics was an integral part of a wander through town. All the same it had a character of its' own and amazing 'fairy-tale' 17th and 18th century castles. Seriously, the poverty there was quite something else and it really sets you wandering what can be done about it. There are already tons of projects going on here, seemingly without much coordination between them and people really need to be steered away from a charity mentality to a self-sufficient positive outlook. More on this in future blogs...

We've just heard that Charlie Boorman and Ewan McGregor have embarked on a 'Long Way Down' trip to Capetown. They've obviously been inspired by our blog but have chosen to do the trip on girls' bikes! Anyone we know at home who now says, 'oh you're doing the same trip as Ewan McGregor' will be slapped no questions asked.