Based on a True Story - Travel - Adventure - Personal Discovery - Historical Insights: The Journal begins in the caves of Matala on the Island of Crete, made famous by Joni Mitchell's song Carey from her Blue album. My cave was three caves down from hers. The story details my quest to visit the churches of Lalibela in the Gondor region of Northern Ethiopia. I embarked alone on a journey up the Nile River and across the Nubian Desert to Khartoum. I faced unexpected challenges entering Ethiopia from Sudan, finally arriving in Addis Ababa only to be involved with the Mengistu Coup on February 3, 1977 - the beginning of the Red Terror. The political landscape of Eastern Africa was dramatically changing, and I found myself in the heart of those transitions, finally escaping Ethiopia on a dried-up riverbed into Kenya.