This painting is autobiographical, drawn from one of Slingsby’s most unforgettable field tripsto the southern Omo Valley in Ethiopia. Near the volatile border with South Sudan, theexpedition vehicle became hopelessly mired in volcanic mud. For three days, Slingsby andhis team were stranded in this remote terrain, working alongside a 12-man detachment ofgovernment soldiers sent to protect them. Together they constructed a makeshift road frombranches and stones, inching the vehicle toward freedom through a landscape bothbreathtaking and treacherous.The days were marked by a strange duality, quiet endurance under pressure and moments ofadrenaline, none more intense than the sudden appearance of six ‘Rambo-like’ Nyangatommen from the thickets. Swathed in bullet belts, their silent presence belying their fiercereputation, they melted back into the bush, as if from a dream or hallucination.Finally, as the sun dipped low on the third day, the team reached solid ground. Too late to setup camp, they headed for the nearest outpost: a truck stop in the tiny town of Tum. Therewere no hotels, only the surreal glow of flashing lights, disco music and the unmistakablesigns of a brothel, where a couple of rooms were negotiated for the night.Ushered into a small room with green walls and a single bed, a place they could never havepredicted, the team gathered, mud-splattered, exhausted, elated. There, in that unlikely room,laughter flowed freely, stories were exchanged and a profound sense of togetherness, sotypical of Africa, took root; bond-friendship, born of survival, absurdity and relief.A Night in Tum captures that moment, as a celebration of camaraderie forged throughadversity and of the joy that rises unexpectedly when people come together.