With the bus still not well, I was up in good time to go over to the mechanics. He wanted me there at 9am when he contacted his mate in Addis to get a price for a seal. That's a rubber part, not the aquatic animal. Bill was expecting a price of a few pounds. I was a little taken aback when he quoted 6800 birr, that's about £425. He made the final total about £950. It gave me some serious questions. Was it financially viable to carry on to Addis ? What was the alternative ? I would be gutted to get this far and not actually make it to our final destination. The mechanic would still want paying for the work done so far and the bus isn't moveable now the old, damaged seals have been ripped out. We were at the mercy of the mechanic. He could offer us what he wanted for a non working bus in his yard and we would be obliged to accept what he offered.

An alternative solution was to get the seals shipped out from England where they would probably be cheaper but wouldn't arrive for at least another day. It was 6am in England and with the parts in Addis needing to be on an internal flight in under 2 hours, yet again the clock was working against me. Jim was up and trying his hardest to make contact with the Bristol Bus Company but in the end I was forced to bite the bullet and go through with the order. The mechanic had managed to negotiate a discount of 1900 birr, but it was still extortionate.

We were advised to come back at 5, so we arrived en masse at 4 to be disappointed by the lack of progress. The exhaust was still off and we were informed that the seals were still on their way from the airport. We set to work cleaning and washing up, to make the bus vaguely habitable and remove the 3 tonnes of fine powder from the bedding and elsewhere.

At 6pm I went to check on progress again and was given the new expected finish time. Midnight. Wonderful, a seven hour delay. There was nothing we could do about it so we cooked, ate and read. In the end it was about 1230am when it was ready. The mechanic then invited us over to his desk to discuss finance. The price had gone up by over 1000 on what I believed he had quoted as the full price in the morning.

So, with the bus blocked in and 1am approaching we were locked in discussions and the mechanic was suggesting we should go to the bank tomorrow. Step forward Eileen, the negotiator. We settled on 13500 birr and 5 minutes later we were finally, finally moving again with Eileen taking us south towards Bahir Dar.