Goodness knows at what time the rain finally stopped but we awoke with no power, and to find ourselves somewhat marooned with our own lake in front of the hotel, and a sea of mud stretching into the distance in both directions. We stood at the hotel entrance watching as the locals tried to rectify the situation. Not only were we marooned as such but could not even think of moving on to pastures new as, until we had news that the roads (in any direction) were passable, Helena was also stuck along with us.
At 10.00 news arrived that we could leave with a certain degree of certainty on the road - and what a road. Rumour has it that it featured on a BBC "scariest roads of the world" programme. Really great scenery, but surface very treacherous (I decided to use the seat belt) and it was a long long descent down and down to (only) some 2000' and then up again. Unfortunately, progress was so slow, with yet another major storm, that we had to abandon all hope of our next hotel for the night (one with wifi !!!) and ended up camping in the bus station at Adi Arkay (?)- pitching our tents by torchlight in the pitch black. In fact, it was a most memorable evening as we ended up in a local "restaurant" where two locals insisted on buying our drinks, while a lady performed the coffee ceremony for us - she washed the raw green first, then roasted and ground them before boiling. Then sUgar was put in a cup, and the coffee poured over before serving. Then she made fresh popcorn for us - the whole ceremony / procedure took about an hour. Then back to our tents in the bus station - I rather doubt many of "my readers" will have had a similar experience (or at least not in their so called mature years).
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