We were out of bed by five o’clock next morning, December 19, and hastened the preparations for the start. We had to cover thirty miles in order to reach Gedaref in the evening. All this country—I cannot call it desert, though the conditions are not dissimilar—is comfortless for travellers, but our last day’s journey in it was the worst. The heat was intense; so much so that “resting” at lunch-time seemed less tolerable than movement on camel-back. To quench an incessant thirst we had only the water stored in our tanks, which was warm and far from colourless. Even the hint of shade given by the mimosa scrub had now disappeared, and our eyes were wearied by the monotonous stretches of land, in which nothing was seen but the dried and matted grass. It had been fired in places, accidentally I think; for though it is often kindled to clear the ground for crops, in this region there was no trace of agriculture. The flames had a ghostly, exhausted, unreal look in the burning sunshine. After a march that seemed interminable we beheld, from rising ground, three trees with verdure on them, and then we knew that we were near the boundary of this distressing district. A two miles’ journey brought us to the house of Mr. Flemming at Gedaref[11]—a square building made of sun-dried mud. At our countryman’s dwelling a warm welcome and cool drinks awaited us. Here we found Bimbashis Gwynn and Liddell. That evening Mr. Flemming gave us our Christmas dinner—and we reconciled ourselves to antedating it—with true British plum-pudding in the _menu_. [Illustration: MR. FLEMMING’S HOUSE AT GEDAREF. _See p._ 22.] [Illustration: REST-HOUSE BETWEEN GOZ REGEB AND ADARAMA. _See p._ 214. _From a Photograph by Mr. C. E. Dupuis._] CHAPTER III I had slept in the open by choice and felt it a luxury to awake on the following morning with no prospect of a fatiguing journey. At seven o’clock on December 20 we met again at Mr. Flemming’s house, and busied ourselves with amateur photography. “You are the last white men I shall see until June next year,” said our host, “so I want to keep your faces.”