We are in travel mode heading back to California. We have been in Morocco with our family for 2 glorious weeks, about which much more later. We spent 3 days in Tel Aviv at the 
David Intercontinental on the beach relaxing and recovering in preparation for 10 days travel in Ethiopia. The latter was among the roughest travel we have undertaken. After three luxurious nights in  the Addis Ababa Sheraton we went to Bahir Dar, Gondor, Lalibela and finally Axum. More about that later too, but note we moved every other day until Axum which was the departure point for the long days of travel we are in the midst of.

Wednesday morning we flew on a Dash 8  from Axum to Addis Ababa. Eyob, our guide, split the group, taking those of us flying onward immediately, the Poleshuks and Barb, to the International Terminal for our Ethiopia Airlines flight to Tel Aviv. We left the hotel at 8 AM Ethiopia time and arrived in Tel Aviv at about 8 PM TLV time total travel 13 hours. We said goodnight and farewell to Joyce and Vic as we went to our rooms. They flew out early this morning. 29 hours later our next flight is 1 AM to Paris 5 hours and following a 5 hour layover we finally arrive in LAX at 1 PM after a 10 hour flight. 49 hours from departure in Axum we will rent a car in LAX for the 2+ hour dive to Jojoba Hills. 

The original plan was to do the whole trip with no break, but I messed up and added a day in Tel Aviv by mistake. I am grateful as we both needed a good nights sleep in a comfortable bed. Vic located this hotel, Sadot, on TripAdvisor and we are happy. It is quiet, comfortable and has a free shuttle to the airport. Breakfast is excellent. The hotel is on the top 2 floors of a mall in a medical center, not a tourist location, but perfect for our needs.