A lot has happened since the last time you heard from us: We left the Cameroon coastline (and the humidity) behind us and made our way through the lush green mountains to central Cameroon. Once we were on the other side of the mountain range it was like being in a different country altogether, with the dry desert landscape returning again.
We spent the next week making our way towards Chad, over dusty, rough roads at times not seeing a major town for days on end. In the small villages where we stopped to buy supplies along the way, it was easy to see that not many travellers come to this part of Cameroon.
We crossed the Chari River that forms the border with Chad and made our way to the capital, N'Djamena where we spent a few days resting up before the tough times ahead.
It was in the campsite here that we bumped into Bruce, our mad Scottish friend who we had first met in Ghana and who is travelling across Africa alone by motorbike. Despite repeated offers of travelling with us for the next few weeks, he decided he wanted to do it by himself.
As soon as we left N'Djamena the good tarmac roads ended and it was back onto bumpy dusty dirt roads and dry river bed crossings that would be impassable during Chad's wet season. As we were on a tight time schedule to make it to Sudan before our visas expired, we only stopped in villages to stock up with the very limited fresh food at the markets, and cold beers when we could! It was here that we realised just how isolated we were, sometimes only seeing one other vehicle all day...
We made it to the Sudan border the day our visas expired, so no problems. We then spent the next day and a half in the customs compound while the immigration office had the day off...
Sudan is very rarely visited by Westerners but I think it would be safe to say it is now everyone's favourite country. Everyone is so friendly and helpful. It is comforting to know that with all the trouble going on in the world at the moment that you can feel so welcome and safe in a very strict Muslim country.
It took us the next two weeks to make our way east across this huge country, travelling on sand tracks and using only a compass to navigate our way.
It was on our third day that we found our friend Bruce again, sitting in a small village, suffering from dehydration. After loading all his gear onto our truck he travelled with us for the next week on his much lighter bike.
Some members of the group took the opportunity to fly up to Khartoum and see the Meroe Pyramids, then to do some diving in the Red Sea at Port Sudan.
At Kosti we crossed over the White Nile, and made our way to Ethiopia. Ethiopia brought at lot of surprises to everyone: Huge green mountains, very scenic and very cold beer! We are basing ourselves in Gondor for five days for a chance to explore the Simien Mountains and the churches in Axum, or to just chill out in the hotel...
From here we plan to go down to the Blue Nile Falls, Lake Tana and then onto the Lalibela churches on our way to Addis Ababa.
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