Thu 20 Nov
Rest days over, it was back on with the walking boots and back on with the trek. First hour or so through Muja village and then down down down to cross the great Tekezze river. We lingered briefly in the market at Densa and took chai in a dung plastered "tea room" before the up up up onto the Santerra plain. At the top we enjoyed lunch and the fantastic views; comfortable with the thought that it was less than an hour to camp. On top was windswept grassland with gentle hills and outcrops, though none of us had ever been we all agreed it must be similar to the Mongolian Steppe, perhaps it was the youngsters racing across the plains on bare backed mules and donkeys that convinced us.

Fri 21 Nov + Sat 22 Nov
We were following in the footsteps of the Napier expedition, a Victorian general who brought 400 men, artillery and elephants this way 135 years before. In terms of trekking this day and the next were joining up the interesting bits; frankly a bit of a slog. Also I started to develop an almost uncontrollable runny tummy that was not particularly inconvenient but nevertheless left me feeling weak and longing for rest.

Sun 23 Nov
At Kon we took another rest day.We camped on the edge of a wonderful escarpment offering great views, and enjoyed the prospects of washing ourselves and our clothes, and feasting on a freshly slaughtered sheep for supper. Mark and Michelle discussed getting married in the local town but despite Oliver and I offering to be witnesses they didn’t actually go through with it. However, in the evening we did have some local people singing wedding songs and for the rest of the trip we remembered this as their wedding day.