Stanley Stewart, with Palm Sunday donkey, took a three-day walk down the Erar Valley in Ethiopia for Telegraph Travel. His trek was part of a new community project in which guides and transport were provided by local villagers who, with the help of NGOs, have also built hedamos, or guesthouses.

He writes: “There are moments when Ethiopia seems to belong to an atlas of the imagination – part legend, part fairy-tale, part Old Testament book, part pulling your leg. In this land of wonders there are medieval castles of a black Camelot, monasteries among Middle Earth peaks accessible only by rope and chains, the ruined palace of the Queen of Sheba, and the original Ten Commandments in a sealed box guarded by mute monks with killer instincts.”