To be continued...

Pyramids in the background

So here we are, sitting in Cairo airport waiting for our flight back to London.  We’ll have about 2 and a half days in London before heading back to NZ, where we have a little under 2 weeks before we head to Buenos Aires.  

It’s a little surreal to end the trip, after 4 months and over 17,900km through Africa, it is hard to believe that this chapter of our lives has ended.  We said goodbye to a number of friends and our great tour guides Andi and Grant.  Hopefully we will get to catch up with a lot of our friends when we make it back to the UK next year in Feb/Mar.  

Temples in the sun and sailing on the nile

Abu Simbel

Arriving in Egypt feels like arriving in any other developed country in the world.  The roads are busy, the infrastructure is positively modern in comparison to the places we have been, everyone wants to offer you a ride in their 'taxi', and they have McDonalds!!

Sudan - it's getting hot in here!!

Bush camping outside the Meroe Pyramids

From the start what struck us about Sudan was how flat the country was.  Coming from the rolling hills and mountains of Ethiopia it was odd to once again find ourselves in a country where the landscape was almost entirely flat in every direction.  Sudan also felt considerably more affluent, especially in its capital Khartoum, and orderly - the villages at the side of the road, although still constructed from mud, were separated by fences and the village layout felt much more organised than many of the other countries we have visited so far.

Ethiopia - 100% Unique

Lalibela priest

Ethiopia has been nothing like what we thought.  All of our preconceptions about Ethiopia and the images we are shown through the media have only served to confuse what the country is actually like.  In addition to Ethiopia been completely unlike our media-influenced expectations, the country is quite unlike anywhere we have ever travelled and anywhere else in Africa!  

The Long Dusty Road to Addis Ababa

Road Dust

Almost three weeks ago we left Lake Navaisha in Kenya for Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  The total trip was a journey of a little of 1,500km, to be completed over about 7 days.  The trip involved some of the most barren, dusty and martian like landscapes either of us had ever seen.  Both spectacular and incredibly trying it is a journey we will never forget.