"Ethiopia confounds every expectation. You arrive expecting a vast featureless desert and instead find yourself overwhelmed by majestic landscapes and climatic abundance. You expect a land which has been ravaged to the point of ruin by years of civil war, and instead you find close to the best civil amenities in Africa and almost no obvious signs that a war ever took place. You arrive expecting to see human degradation and abject poverty, and instead find yourself immersed in a culture besotted with itself and its history, and marked by a sense of unforced pride that is positively infectious. Ethiopia is a true revelation. It is the most welcoming, enjoyable and uplifting country I have ever visited."