To Eritrea and Ethiopia: ‘The Abyssinian Difficulty’: Retracing a Victorian Expedition – Monday 19 November 2018

To Eritrea and Ethiopia: ‘The Abyssinian Difficulty’: Retracing a Victorian Expedition – Monday 19 November 2018

John Pilkington has, on previous occasions, described his travels to us.

Now he tells us about his 2018 adventure, retracing a Victorian Expedition when in 1868 Queen Victoria’s government mounted an extraordinary bid to rescue a clutch of European hostages in the Ethiopian highlands. This involved a purpose-built port and railway on the Red Sea, and in the mountains 13,000 British and Indian soldiers, 26,000 camp followers, and more than 40,000 animals including 44 elephants. John has followed their route, partly on foot with a donkey, and has been comparing Ethiopia then and now. History and adventure combined!

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