This comes from former TWgroup editor-in-chief Penny Wilson, who was in Ethiopia a few weeks back - not strictly a blog post, but I think it fits here.
The parched earth cries for rain in Ethiopia's northern territories. It will fall in great torrents from next week, damping the dust and filling bone-dry rivers - including the Blue Nile - that snake across a vast and impressive country, fast ripening for tourism.
Pictured: Fasilides' palace, Gondar.
Under communist rule from the seventies to the nineties, now this democracy bristles with the green shoots of free enterprise. Construction of new hotels and smart housing jostle for space along what will become a well-worn historic route north of the capital, Addis Ababa, which boasts a spanking new InterContinental, Hilton and Sheraton. Others are about to open too, I'm told.
Here the few signs of communist dictatorship include a surplus of bright blue Lada taxis and a huge university in the former palace of Emperor Haile Selassie, overthrown in 1974.
Selassie's legacy includes his donation of a province down South to Rastafarians after they proclaimed him a messianic figure or "God incarnate" in the sixties. Still revered by Ethiopians, he never publicly accepted the role, but the province remains a Rastafarians' mecca.
Tonight at time of writing, I share barbecued goat (delicious) with a group of UK agents and tour operators on the terrace of the state-run Roha hotel in Lalibela (meaning "eat honey"). We are in the midst of Ethiopia's historic route, which drips with ancient history and monolithic churches dating to the 12th century.
Our educational trip all has been funded by Ethiopian Airlines, which criss-crosses Africa, flies to 53 destinations worldwide and soon takes delivery of 10 new Boeing 787 Dreamliners. It is pouring resources into raising Ethiopia's profile, and as an Ethiopian Airlines' group invited to taste the country's travel potential, we agree Ethiopia deserves a place on the UK tourism map.
It is not geared for the masses, and probably shouldn't ever be. Part of its charm is that it has never been colonised - the only African country alongside Liberia to remain free of European bounty hunters. It's a far cry from the unsafe, war-torn, famine-ridden country much of the world perceives it as. Well worth investigating.
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