Diesel and Dust: Addis to Kombolcha, November 9

The Shoan Plateau is the largest area of continuous altitude in all of Africa. It's also home to Africa's longest continuous roadworks. For five hours we ground our way ever upwards through a landscape something like a high altitude version of the Golden Plains Shire, sans canola and views of Mt Buninyong. The Ethiopians are better equipped than the roadworkers in Benin (who use watering cans to pour tar on the road), thanks to the Chinese contractors who have brought tonnes of machinery. Every section of roadworks has one Chinese man supervising or driving the largest dozer, which has sparked a unique game of 'spot the Chinese guy' to pass time in the car.

So our 4WD wound its way around endless potholes that even Togo would be proud of, as well as numerous other hazards, mainly livestock: goats, sheep, donkeys, cows, camels. Passing child shepherds barely older than Ayden, grinning and doing a lot more waving at us than herding their animals off the road.

It's a spectacular country, breathtaking not just for the scenery but also the altitude. We stopped to look out over a steep escapement down to the very northern end of the Rift Valley; at 3200m it was cold, windy and above the tree line. Not to high for the gelada baboons grazing on the steep slopes, and little furry critters we've dubbed 'fast wombats'. It was just the place for a hat, and what a choice, with a mob of kids trying hard to sell us horse hair hats woven with the colours of the national flag. My attempts to send a cooee down the gorge sent the hat sellers into hysterics... but there was no echo with the wind coming straight up the ravine and throwing my voice back at me.

We arrived at Kombolcha after 11 hours in the car, looking in amazement at the views and the all the gum trees, originally an idea to bring more firewood to the capital. Now the trees are planted everywhere, lending a bizarrely familiar aspect to the landscape. But that's not Mt Buninyong, that's the Rift Valley my friend! And the mountains stretch forever.