Travel: Ethiopia – A journey to the cradle of humanity

Jamie Blake Knox, The Irish Independent

I suspect that, like many Irish people, my perceptions of Ethiopia are not simply outdated, but frozen at a particular moment in its history. I may have been vaguely aware of its rich and complex history, but, whenever I thought of Ethiopia, I thought of famine and the horrific images it evoked.

My father had visited the country in the early 1980s, and his descriptions of what he had seen there were pretty bleak. He told me that at that time he visited Addis Ababa there were said to be only two proper roads in the whole of Ethiopia: one was said to run from the Emperor’s Palace to the airport – the other was from the airport to the Palace.

It was, therefore, with a mixture of excitement and trepidation that I started my journey. I had to fly from London, but Ethiopian Airlines plan to open a new route direct from Dublin by 2015. The flight was long, but comfortable, and I slept for most of it. I awoke as we started making our approach to Addis – flying over the Entoto Mountains.

Read more at: The Irish Independent