22nd November 08

Date: 22nd November 08
Location: Gonder, Ethiopia
Weather: Clear blue skies and sunshine, 32°c
Status: Amazed that we’re on the move finally!

Got up at first light and packed everything away after a quick bit of breakfast, and then found we were blocked in by no less than three other cars…had to wait for 45 minutes before they shifted their asses and we could leave the decrepit old hotel grounds.

Took the road out of town towards Gorgora to go and find the Dutch place….thats all the information they gave us, the Dutch Place!!! The stony road to the lake took just over and hour and surprise surprise we had another puncture as expected around the valve of the tyre which hadn’t had the plastic collar put onto to it in the first place!! So for the seventh time on two days I changed the wheel 

Arrived in Gorgora and had no idea where to head to but the helpful locals all said “Tim’s place” questioningly. They pointed us in the right direction and we followed a track through the shacks until we spotted Kee’s truck in the distance. Ammon was up and about and we all decided that today would be the day we’d try and get moving towards the next of the countries, Sudan.

Bre and I left in the Colonel to get to Gonder first in order to sort out a few replacement inner tubes in case we needed replacements with our current run of luck, to have a final juice at the Sofa Juice bar and to do some last minute shopping. By 2pm all of the jobs had been finished and we made our way meet Kees who was waiting for us.

We departed from Gonder and instantly lost the good tarmac and as expected hit the painfully rough and rocky unmade road towards the border…and then all of a sudden we had perfect tarmac….and then all of sudden it was gone again! Gotta love these African road finishing schemes!

We drove on until the sun as just dropping out of the sky and found a bush camp at the edge of the road which was out of view, flat and ready for out weary heads.

End of day location: Bush camp, 75kms short of Sudan border
Distance covered: 275kms