After an overnight stay at Gatwick, we were finally ready to go! Broken ankle (Sue) on the mend and shingles (Pat) hopefully on the mend!

After a 5. 5hr flight, we arrived at Istanbul airport. A new air hub, it took ages to taxi from the landing runway to the terminal itself. It seemed to be in the middle of nowhere! Stop over was long enough for a cup of tea and then on to Ethiopia!

Arriving at Addis, we queued for our visas before meeting the rep who disappeared with our dollars and returned with wads of very dirty Ethiopian Birr. Our hearts sank as we realised this was a much bigger group than we had previously experienced on other tours. The group size meant it took a while to sort our room, which was then found to be already occupied! Eventually, we were sorted, climbing into comfortable beds at nearly 2am, with alarms set for 06.30!!