Walking in Wollo, Ethiopia

Ethiopia has long been on our places-to-go list for its fascinating history and beautiful people. First we stretched our car-withered legs with a TESFA walk. This sustainable tourism project guided us through a pastoral landscape of surprising ruggedness.

We relaxed into a steady plod along the sheer cliff edge from one village to the next, every night put up in tukuls - traditional-style mud huts for tourists. The local villagers looked after us well, fueling us with popcorn and buckets of coffee.

Leaving us plenty of time to simply admire the view from our high plateau and glean scraps of understanding about Ethiopians and their unique culture.

Except for a brief Italian misadventure, Ethiopia has never been colonised, and we were beginning to sense a toughness, an aloof cynicism, in the way us 'ferengi' were viewed.