We only have 3 days left in Ethiopia and I can’t help but reflect how I cycled into Ethiopia somewhat cocky having largely cruised through the previous two countries. It only took Ethiopia one day to put me back in my place and remind me who was in charge.
I wholeheartedly despise the rebirth of this word, but feel it’s absolutely appropriate: Ethiopia is epic. I don’t know whether I’ve loved or hated the experience of cycling through 3 weeks of mountains (i kid you not, Ethiopia is nothing but mountains) but the impact this has had on me has been borderline spiritual. I’ve learnt so much about myself in these 3 weeks (for example, you do not immediately die after sweating close to 10 litres per day- gross I know). Most importantly, I’ve learnt to switch off my mind as it screams “STOP!” knowing that my body will give out loooong after my mind will.
Ethiopia’s cultures and landscapes have continually changed- which has been a source of great anticipation and excitement each day with the uncertainty of what each day will bring. We’ve seen abject poverty, affluence (Addis), tribes, and lately a sort of balance between the two on the “roads” towards Arba Minch; which is a beautiful town perched in the mountains amongst a series of lakes. Our 130km ride into Arba Minch was characterised by endless mango and banana plantations and an equally amount of endless people farming these plantations. For anyone who knows me well knows that these two fruits are by far my most favourite and I feel that i’ve stumbled across heaven on earth. Gone are the kids who throw rocks at you. Now, people throw bananas and mangos to you as you cycle past. I couldn’t wish for a better setting. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the people in the last week and enjoy taking some time to talk with them (usually as the cycle out of town with us).
I’d mentioned in previous blogs about the limited and somewhat annoying vocabularies that the local children have. I’m pleased to announce that this limited vocabulary has somewhat increased as the kids and adults now yell “i love you” as you cycle past. This has been wonderful for my ego as I cycle past everyone doing feeling very much like Ryan Gosling; despite being covered in sweat and dirt and looking like i’ve spent the previous night sleeping on the streets. It’s been an unusual cultural transition. The landscape, though still mountainous, has now become somewhat tropical with lush green landscapes and endless plantations. While up in the mountains, the weather has been warm but bearable. When we descend to somewhere close to sea level, the weather immediately changes back to the almost unbearable oppressive heat. We do this multiple times every day (ascend, descend) and the effects of the sun are becoming apparent on us all as our skin slowly begins to resemble the colour of the locals.
I’m slowly beginning to come to terms with the relentless hill/mountain climbing on account of the amazing rush you get as you descend 20+kms downhill at speeds averaging 60km/h. To date, the fastest i’ve descended has been 78km/h which is a real buzz when you’re doing it on a heavy touring bicycle which is akin to driving a bus at break-neck speeds. I feel like a 5 year old kid on his first ever bike when I go this fast and commonly yell “woooohooo” and “weeeeeee” when doing these unnatural speeds.
Unfortunately, we’ve taken a bit of a battering on the electronic-side of things with 2 cameras, Gavan’s GPS unit, all of our bike-mounted phone recharge units and most recently by kindle having broken in the last 2 weeks. This has left us all without the ability to recharge our mobile phones for a week or so which has been compounded by the fact that the whole of Southern Ethiopia has been without electricity for 5 days. This has made even finding a restaurant to eat in a difficult task, though we’ve made do with freshly baked bread rolls and random fillings every day. The most exciting of these fillings has been my tomato and sultana rolls which I strongly urge Subway to bring into menu rotation. Again, food has become less of a culinary experience and more of a body refuelling exercise. We generally eat whatever we can get our hands on, however we have drawn the line at raw beef which is a local delicacy.
After our day off in Arba Minch (today) we still have 3 or so days riding before we reach the border of Kenya. I’m not sure what these 3 days have in store for us. I think we can expect a dramatic deterioration in road conditions as yesterday, riding in to Arba Minch, we spent about 1/3 of the time on rutted, corrugated and very dusty unsealed roads. Unfortunately these poor road conditions don’t deter trucks and busses passing you like they’re in a Formula 1 race. Vigilance prevails. I presume that there’s MUCH more of this to come. I personally don’t mind these roads as though they require immense amounts of concentration, they also see you cycling very slowly and without much physical exertion and you can really take in the surroundings. Though not really being a plant-man, I’ve enjoyed the very green landscape and being able to see frangipani and bougainvillea trees; something that’s not possible when you’re zipping by at 40km/h on good, flat roads.
For the first time, the scenery’s really taken on the image i’ve had in my head of what this African experience was going to be like and I’ve also only now started to realise that I really am in Africa. The wildlife has also been more apparent as we’ve seen lots of little monkeys and the somewhat larger baboons crossing the roads ahead of us. There’s talk of this part of the world hosting hyenas but I personally don’t mind if we don’t see them.
I think we’re all heading off today to see a village market which should be quite fun. I don’t mind poking around at markets and flushing economies with cash in exchange for tacky souvenirs. Upon arriving into Sudan I bought a knife/dagger at an ad-hoc market and sent it home the other day with a bunch of other stuff I don’t need on this trip. The UPS lady had some reservations about me sending this (she actually refused) but I snuck it back in the box before she sealed it up with a nice note to Australian customs who i’m sure will throw some kind of hissy fit when/if they scan the box and see my 30cm razor sharp “ornamental” dagger. I propose to send more of this stuff home so I apologise to my Mum who’s going to be the recipient of these wares and the potential customs headache that may accompany them.
I feel ‘at home’ on this journey now. We’re approaching the 1/3 mark as tomorrow we’ll clock up 4,000kms. It still doesn’t feel like i’ve been gone that long until I think back to everything I’ve seen and experienced so far. Happy times indeed. In a couple of weeks we’ll be at the halfway point of both time and distance (Nairobi, Kenya) which will be a bitter-sweet experience indeed. There were times at the beginning of Ethiopia where I doubted that I had the physical and mental ability to complete this journey but with each day that passes, I feel more and more confident that I will be crossing the finish line in Cape Town at the end of April 2012.
One very exciting thing for 4 hungry cyclists entering a new country is the promise of a change of cuisine that we will try and satisfy our insatiable appetites with. For Egypt, it was fool. Ethiopia was enjira and tibbs (lamb). I have always liked enjira and upon entering Ethiopia (@ Metema) I boldly exclaimed “I will NEVER get sick of enjira” only to retract that statement within 4 days after the experience of eating enjira resembled trying to eat a dish washing sponge soaked in vinegar. I have no idea what Kenyan cuisine will entail but I hope it’s more palatable than what Ethiopia had to offer.
It’s always quite funny when we arrive at a remote roadside cafe for lunch. Like a whirlwind, we take our seats in our hot, tired and sweaty states and immediately begin depleting their stocks of food, water and soft drinks. We order enough food and drink to fuel an entire sports team and the waiters look around wondering where the other 10 people are who we’ve ordered food for. We eat like we’ve just escaped from a POW camp, then order round two (and sometimes round three). The staff stare in amazement wondering how 4 relatively skinny guys can gorge themselves so much. The bill comes, which by local standards is an astronomical amount. We happily pay the $5AUD equivalent and leave contently, knowing that we’ve just thrown enough money into the till to probably put the owner’s three children through high school and university two times over. Despite the chaotic way we arrive, order, eat and leave, staff always appreciate our coming to their establishment and it’s very much a win/win situation as we fuel up my simultaneously stimulating their business’s bottom-line with nothing more than the equivalent of Australian lose change.
I wholeheartedly despise the rebirth of this word, but feel it’s absolutely appropriate: Ethiopia is epic. I don’t know whether I’ve loved or hated the experience of cycling through 3 weeks of mountains (i kid you not, Ethiopia is nothing but mountains) but the impact this has had on me has been borderline spiritual. I’ve learnt so much about myself in these 3 weeks (for example, you do not immediately die after sweating close to 10 litres per day- gross I know). Most importantly, I’ve learnt to switch off my mind as it screams “STOP!” knowing that my body will give out loooong after my mind will.
Ethiopia’s cultures and landscapes have continually changed- which has been a source of great anticipation and excitement each day with the uncertainty of what each day will bring. We’ve seen abject poverty, affluence (Addis), tribes, and lately a sort of balance between the two on the “roads” towards Arba Minch; which is a beautiful town perched in the mountains amongst a series of lakes. Our 130km ride into Arba Minch was characterised by endless mango and banana plantations and an equally amount of endless people farming these plantations. For anyone who knows me well knows that these two fruits are by far my most favourite and I feel that i’ve stumbled across heaven on earth. Gone are the kids who throw rocks at you. Now, people throw bananas and mangos to you as you cycle past. I couldn’t wish for a better setting. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the people in the last week and enjoy taking some time to talk with them (usually as the cycle out of town with us).
I’d mentioned in previous blogs about the limited and somewhat annoying vocabularies that the local children have. I’m pleased to announce that this limited vocabulary has somewhat increased as the kids and adults now yell “i love you” as you cycle past. This has been wonderful for my ego as I cycle past everyone doing feeling very much like Ryan Gosling; despite being covered in sweat and dirt and looking like i’ve spent the previous night sleeping on the streets. It’s been an unusual cultural transition. The landscape, though still mountainous, has now become somewhat tropical with lush green landscapes and endless plantations. While up in the mountains, the weather has been warm but bearable. When we descend to somewhere close to sea level, the weather immediately changes back to the almost unbearable oppressive heat. We do this multiple times every day (ascend, descend) and the effects of the sun are becoming apparent on us all as our skin slowly begins to resemble the colour of the locals.
I’m slowly beginning to come to terms with the relentless hill/mountain climbing on account of the amazing rush you get as you descend 20+kms downhill at speeds averaging 60km/h. To date, the fastest i’ve descended has been 78km/h which is a real buzz when you’re doing it on a heavy touring bicycle which is akin to driving a bus at break-neck speeds. I feel like a 5 year old kid on his first ever bike when I go this fast and commonly yell “woooohooo” and “weeeeeee” when doing these unnatural speeds.
Unfortunately, we’ve taken a bit of a battering on the electronic-side of things with 2 cameras, Gavan’s GPS unit, all of our bike-mounted phone recharge units and most recently by kindle having broken in the last 2 weeks. This has left us all without the ability to recharge our mobile phones for a week or so which has been compounded by the fact that the whole of Southern Ethiopia has been without electricity for 5 days. This has made even finding a restaurant to eat in a difficult task, though we’ve made do with freshly baked bread rolls and random fillings every day. The most exciting of these fillings has been my tomato and sultana rolls which I strongly urge Subway to bring into menu rotation. Again, food has become less of a culinary experience and more of a body refuelling exercise. We generally eat whatever we can get our hands on, however we have drawn the line at raw beef which is a local delicacy.
After our day off in Arba Minch (today) we still have 3 or so days riding before we reach the border of Kenya. I’m not sure what these 3 days have in store for us. I think we can expect a dramatic deterioration in road conditions as yesterday, riding in to Arba Minch, we spent about 1/3 of the time on rutted, corrugated and very dusty unsealed roads. Unfortunately these poor road conditions don’t deter trucks and busses passing you like they’re in a Formula 1 race. Vigilance prevails. I presume that there’s MUCH more of this to come. I personally don’t mind these roads as though they require immense amounts of concentration, they also see you cycling very slowly and without much physical exertion and you can really take in the surroundings. Though not really being a plant-man, I’ve enjoyed the very green landscape and being able to see frangipani and bougainvillea trees; something that’s not possible when you’re zipping by at 40km/h on good, flat roads.
For the first time, the scenery’s really taken on the image i’ve had in my head of what this African experience was going to be like and I’ve also only now started to realise that I really am in Africa. The wildlife has also been more apparent as we’ve seen lots of little monkeys and the somewhat larger baboons crossing the roads ahead of us. There’s talk of this part of the world hosting hyenas but I personally don’t mind if we don’t see them.
I think we’re all heading off today to see a village market which should be quite fun. I don’t mind poking around at markets and flushing economies with cash in exchange for tacky souvenirs. Upon arriving into Sudan I bought a knife/dagger at an ad-hoc market and sent it home the other day with a bunch of other stuff I don’t need on this trip. The UPS lady had some reservations about me sending this (she actually refused) but I snuck it back in the box before she sealed it up with a nice note to Australian customs who i’m sure will throw some kind of hissy fit when/if they scan the box and see my 30cm razor sharp “ornamental” dagger. I propose to send more of this stuff home so I apologise to my Mum who’s going to be the recipient of these wares and the potential customs headache that may accompany them.
I feel ‘at home’ on this journey now. We’re approaching the 1/3 mark as tomorrow we’ll clock up 4,000kms. It still doesn’t feel like i’ve been gone that long until I think back to everything I’ve seen and experienced so far. Happy times indeed. In a couple of weeks we’ll be at the halfway point of both time and distance (Nairobi, Kenya) which will be a bitter-sweet experience indeed. There were times at the beginning of Ethiopia where I doubted that I had the physical and mental ability to complete this journey but with each day that passes, I feel more and more confident that I will be crossing the finish line in Cape Town at the end of April 2012.
One very exciting thing for 4 hungry cyclists entering a new country is the promise of a change of cuisine that we will try and satisfy our insatiable appetites with. For Egypt, it was fool. Ethiopia was enjira and tibbs (lamb). I have always liked enjira and upon entering Ethiopia (@ Metema) I boldly exclaimed “I will NEVER get sick of enjira” only to retract that statement within 4 days after the experience of eating enjira resembled trying to eat a dish washing sponge soaked in vinegar. I have no idea what Kenyan cuisine will entail but I hope it’s more palatable than what Ethiopia had to offer.
It’s always quite funny when we arrive at a remote roadside cafe for lunch. Like a whirlwind, we take our seats in our hot, tired and sweaty states and immediately begin depleting their stocks of food, water and soft drinks. We order enough food and drink to fuel an entire sports team and the waiters look around wondering where the other 10 people are who we’ve ordered food for. We eat like we’ve just escaped from a POW camp, then order round two (and sometimes round three). The staff stare in amazement wondering how 4 relatively skinny guys can gorge themselves so much. The bill comes, which by local standards is an astronomical amount. We happily pay the $5AUD equivalent and leave contently, knowing that we’ve just thrown enough money into the till to probably put the owner’s three children through high school and university two times over. Despite the chaotic way we arrive, order, eat and leave, staff always appreciate our coming to their establishment and it’s very much a win/win situation as we fuel up my simultaneously stimulating their business’s bottom-line with nothing more than the equivalent of Australian lose change.
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