JERSEY explorer Colonel John Blashford-Snell and a Jersey member of his latest expedition have survived a harrowing ordeal at the hands of gunmen in Ethiopia.

Another member of the expedition became seriously ill with malaria, and on his return Col Blashford-Snell, who was accompanied by Islander Pat Troy, said: ‘It was certainly no picnic.’ He was leading a major British expedition run by the Scientific Exploration Society and made the first successful navigation by inflatable boats of the 87-mile Beschillo river in the Ethiopian Highlands.

The expedition carried out extensive scientific research along the rapid-strewn waterway and the legendary Blue Nile into which it flows.

The Colonel led the first successful descent of the Blue Nile in 1968.

At one point on the journey, at noon just two days after the expedition had started and as the boat flotilla had reached a spot north of the Victorian battlefield of Magdala, a crowd of locals gathered and began to threaten them with weapons.

Col Blashford-Snell said: ‘I saw two old Italian Second World War rifles and, more worryingly, a Russian AK47 automatic weapon.

Our Ethiopian liaison officer showed our permits and tried to convince them that we meant no harm, but they would only let us pass if we handed over £200.

Clearly, this was robbery.’ The expedition learned later that one of the leaders of the mob had just served a jail term for murder.