I awoke to hear people moving around outside and looked out to see hussle and bustle of a huge number of people. Why ? Its 6am, the border is still closed and there is nowhere for people to go. We had a disagreement with the bloke who sold us the beer. We hadn't drunk it all and he wanted the empties back or he wanted us to pay another 2 Sudanese pounds each bottle. We had only paid 3 for a full one.

The passport office is a mud walled shed with 3 women who have to manually check passport numbers in a large book to see if you are an undesirable. Luckily we were all desirable. The paperwork went smoothly and we fobbed off the beer seller with a few Egyptian pounds and other loose change. Whilst he wasn't looking we drove off at speed in to Ethiopia.

I was under the impression that this road was supposed to be paved. It wasn't. We had more gravel tracks, deep ruts and a new obstacle, rivers to ford. 5 in total, one deep enough to allow water in to the bus.

Along the whole road our bus seemed to be drawing attention. Children came running down to the road, adults stopped to wave or gawp. The terrain varied from atrocious to paved and back again.

I had estimated 4 or 5 hours. Jo had been told it was a days drive. She was closer. 5 breakdowns, serious slopes and gullies in the road and roadworks all contributed to us taking over 10 hours to get there. Jo had been waiting since lunchtime and I was unable to update her. The weariness, frustration and so many days of constant driving were showing, I was in a foul mood. During one of our breakdowns in a small town the bus was surrounded by children. Ian had some of his belongings dragged out of a window, Eileen was propositioned by an attractive young lady, but saying that, we all were.

Finally, after the sun had set, we hit the main road and soon after entered Gonder. We picked up a few locals who offered to show us to the hotel. We do need to be more careful as one of them tried to pinch Ian's camera.

Finally Jo appeared up the road where she had been waiting for us. It was an emotional meeting, its been over 3 weeks but felt more like 3 months. So much has happened since she saw us off on The Esplanade. I think I've aged a few years and lost weight in to the bargain.

It was 9pm by the time we were showered and sat around eating and drinking. We had somehow managed to reverse the bus in to the courtyard so we could drip oil and other fluids over the ground. The bus was truly bleeding to death.