When Tony Blair was attending the recent Commission for Africa meeting in Addis Ababa, there was a rumour that his plane had been sent on a 1 600km round trip to Nairobi to pick up his dinner. The story turned out to be a myth, but it suited the popular image of Ethiopia as a country continually beset by famine. However, Live Aid and those horrific newsreel images were 20 years ago, and any traveller who has been there in the past few years will tell you that it is an undiscovered jewel.