Day 32 - Gonder. 4/11/12

Great - today started really warm and bright, so we were all in high spirits for our guided tour of Gonder (once the capital of the country). It is called (by the Ethiopian tourist board?) "the Camelot of Ethiopia" - I wonder if Glastonbury is called "the Gonder of England"?

The walled royal city (a UNESCO world heritage site) contains seven separate small-ish castles built by Ethiopian kings in the 17+18th centuries, and was almost all roofed and intact until the British bombed it in 1941 as we were trying to drive the Italians out, after Mussolini's invasion in the 1930s. I was trying desperately to recall Gus xxx-xxxx's programme on BBC4 when we were looking around, as at least some of what we saw was described in his programme.

Guess what - the sky soon clouded over and we ended up getting rather wet, but worse things have no doubt happened to us all. Tried to understand as much as possible about the Ethiopian orthodox church but rather complicated, although dates back to before the Roman church, so can claim to be closer to the original? I must discuss with Benedict when we next meet up.

Also learnt about Emperor Tewodros II and his letter to Queen Victoria. A rather disappointing episode in British Foreign Office policy - see Wikipedia if you are really interested.

Also saw an amazing root system of a local banyan tree - quite impressive.

Helena has been having a bit of axle work today - goodness knows what fellow guests feel about this bang outside their hotel! V.