Jim Cavanaugh’s Tour d’Afrique

The group left Addis yesterday, and I stayed behind for a couple of more days to work on my hip.  I still have some pain, but after taking lots of anti-inflammatory pills, applying anti-inflammatory creams, stretching and some massages, am feeling better.  I will join the group tomorrow, and hopefully get on the bike pain-free, or minimal pain, hopefully.   Am a bit bummed at this injury, and surprised cuz it is a new one for me, but there is not much I can do but grin and bear it.

Have not ridden in a week, and have not been with the main group for that same time, although I hung out with some of the folks in Addis. 

I won’t have access to the internet for a while, but hopefully my next post will be great news on my hip and lots of good photos.

At the hotel that I am staying at, which I admit is pretty comfortable, I just saw 3 clergymen walking around, apparently they are staying here, and are being chauffeured in a very nice range rover.  I was tempted, but somehow managed not to remind them of their vows of poverty.   But, I am glad to see that they are living well in a very poor country.

Ethiopia really is a complicated country.   Very beautiful, but facing many tough challenges, particularly with the number of kids.  It will be tough to employ them all in the future.  The educated folks in the cities appear to have much more in common with educated westerners than they do the uneducated rock throwers in the country.  That will no doubt fuel economic conflict in the future between the educated and the non-educated, which equates to the haves and have nots.   A not uncommon struggle.

we are staying at a pretty nice hotel in addis, close to the commercial district and close many embassies.  addis is the capital of ethopia, but is also known as the capital of africa.  and so, we are sort of in the heart of th ecity.  but, next door there is an open field, and yesterday it was full of goats and cows grazing.  not the first time on this trip that we have been in a situation that one can not make up.

2.17

 it is a little after 7 pm, and am in my tent.  We are surrounded by kids yelling.  After hearing You You You all day long, it is very comforting to continue to hear it in camp.

 The moneys that I spent to stay in the very nice hotel the past two nites may have been the best $300 that I have ever spent.  It was very helpful to get me back on my feet.  In contrast, many of the group that stayed at the other hotel got a bad stomach, fever, etc – it seemed to run thru the group.  There are many of us not feeling well.

 Fortunately, I felt pretty good today, and was able to ride reasonably well.  We had some nice climbs today, and it felt good to do them.  The ride was great, it felt like the temp was in the 70s, the scenery was great, rolling hills, and we were up around 7-8,000 ft much of the day.

 In the morning the kids were the best behaved that we have encountered in Ethiopia, in the afternoon they were at their worst.  Gerald, Laura and I were riding this afternoon, and as we passed some kids I said to Gerald that “these kids have rock throwers written all over their face,” but they did not throw at us.  Laura was a bit behind us, and they managed to hit her in the helmet,  Further down the road we road thru a gauntlet of kids around 40 kph, I was first and one threw a rock at me but mis-timed it badly, they left Laura alone, but Gerald was last and they pelted him, although none hit him, 3 hit is bike.  Down the hill a ways, a little kid nailed my bike with a rock.

 One of the guys heard from a tourist guide that it is just sport for kids, and when he was a kid they would throw rocks at mini buses and try and break a window.  He said that they are just testing their skills by aiming for our bikes.  But, they drew blood on one rider today and left a mark on another, so they need to work on their skillset a bit more before they throw at us.

 But, ignoring the kids, which is really hard to do, the ride today was fantastic, on really nice pavement.  I do think that Ethiopia would be a great cycling destination if it was not for the 50M kids under 18 who make it a sport to harass cyclists. 

 The kids that attend schools wear uniforms if they can afford them.  We managed to hit a few today at the top of the climb where school had just gotten out, and there were hundreds of kids out staring at us.  Being friendly and curious, but staring just the same.  It is always a bit weird just to be stared at.

 Of course, when we got to camp out in the middle of nowhere, there were many kids lined up on the ropeline just staring.  And a number of adults.  The cellphone has changed Africa in many positive communication ways, and has given them a camera.  And so it is not uncommon for Africans to take photos of us while we are taking photos of them.  Odd but true.  And of course, after taking a few thousand photos this past month of hundreds of people, I can’t object to getting my photo snapped.

 We are down to 13 riders who are EFI, out of 58 going the distance.  The oldest is me at 52, the next is 48, and 3 more 40 or over.  I think that I am the only American still EFI.  It is a worthy goal, but it does get in the way of interesting side trips, taking time off the bike if truly sick, etc.  I remain committed to stay EFI, but if I lose it I will still be able to look at myself in the mirror, grudgingly initially perhaps, but could live with it.

 After our great hotel stay, we are now looking for a comparable deal in Addis that is affordable.  The nicest hotel in Africa is the Addis Sheraton, but at $400+ per nite, I will pass on that.  A few of the guys planned ahead and got deals, but I am now just hoping for the best.

 2.18

 When I woke up this morning, the first thing that I could hear was the reassuring You You You that I had come to expect.  That and “Money,” “Give,” and our favorite, “Where are you go?”  Today, two of our riders would get hit by rocks, one needed a few stitches by our nurse, another, an Ethiopian rider, had a spoke broken by a rock.  We hear that the kids in southern Ethiopia are better behaved than those in the North, we hope that is true.

 Last nite my hips were bothering me a bit, and I tried to stretch out of the problem.  This morning they were still sore, and I thought that I could ride easily and spin the pain away.  Unfortunately, the pain grew worse thru the day.  It did not help that we had a lot of climbing that day.  Beautiful scenery, up above 7,000 ft much of the day, and no kids throwing rocks at me that day, and with the air temp in the 70s, it was perfect.  Except that when I stopped for a break I could barely raise my leg to get off the bike.  And the day only grew worse.  It is never a good sign when cyclists not near as strong as me can pass me on hills.  When I got to camp, I could barely get off the bike, and could barely walk.  A couple of guys carried my bag to a tent site, and I tried to get a yoga mat out to stretch.  I could barely move, and it was extraordinarily painful to roll over.  Something was clearly wrong.  Although I initially thought that my legs were having some collateral damage from the two deep-tissue massages, am not really sure what happened.  I just know that I was in pain, could barely do anything but moan and groan.  It was not a good scenario for a cycling holiday.

 I stumbled over to the trip’s nurse, and eventually got some pain killers and an injection of anti-inflammatory something or other, and the pain decreased a fair amount after bout 15-20 minutes.  As I hung out by my bag, I was constantly reminded of the wonderful community of folks that we are traveling with.  Many, many people came by to offer me help, such as putting up my tent, helping me get organized, getting my meal, washing my dishes, essentially helping me out every possible way that they could.  I greatly appreciated it as I could not do much.  In the morning, I was still very sore, and knew that EFI was over.  As Laura, our Belgian rider, told me the nite before that if I could not walk, I could not ride.  Folks came by to help me pack up my tent and bag and carry it over to the truck to load. 

 Gabriela, the Swiss journalist, has had tonsillitis and a cold since Khartoum, and has been on several different medications, with none of them solving the problem.  He had decided to travel by mini-bus to Addis Ababa and go to a private clinic and get tested.  Gabriela invited me to join him, but I think that he would come to regret that.  We rode the luggage truck down and up the Blue Nile Gorge, and I was bummed that I was not riding it, as it was amazingly beautiful and looked like a great ride.  The climb up from the Blue Nile is comparable to Mount Ventoux in France, and it was big in the truck, much less on a bike.  The luggage truck driver took us to a town and negotiated 2 places on a mini-bus for 100 birr each (13 birr to $1).  It started out bad as I needed to sit on a bench, and there were no available chairs, so they moved a guy, which no doubt ingratiated me to him. Gabriela did not get a comfortable chair, and had to sit essentially on the floor, but he did not begrudge me my comfortable bench, as he knew that I was hurting.  The minibus hada clutch issue, and the driver kept stopping to make some adjustments, and could not go very fast.  Therefore, an uncomfortable ride for Gabriela and me, but we made up for it by going slow.  It was challenging. 

 But, we made it to Addis before dark, and after going to the wrong hotel several times, our mini-bus finally made it to the right hotel, even though Gabriela had given him the right address several times.  And of course, the mini-bus driver wanted more birr out of us, starting with 100 birr each.  We noted that he did not pull that on any of the Ethiopian riders, etc, but it was lost on him.  Of course, we got our bugs out of the mini-bus as quickly as possible, and I offered him 50 birr or nothing to go away.  He eventually went away, pissed off at us.  Am not sure how he can convince himself that he was reasonable, but people are strange like that.

 By the time that we got to the hotel, I had stiffened up, and could barely walk.  The hotel was fairly concerned when I arrived.  They only had one room with twin beds, so Gabriela and I shared a room.  Lucky for me, not so for Gabriela.  When I layed down on the bed, I could barely get up.  It was an incredible effort to sit up, and hurt a lot.  At one point, my foot slipped off the bed, and I could not raise it, and Gabriela had to put my foot back on the bed.  It was really tough to get up in the morning.  Gabriela went downstairs to get breakfast and organized one for me which room service brought to me.  Gabriela also tried to find a wheelchair for me, yes, it was that hard to walk.  He came back with an office chair on rollers, and I rolled around the room.  Gabriela was very helpful to me, and I greatly appreciate his generous efforts. 

 It was pretty humbling, and spooky, to be so out of whack so far from home.  When I get sick, I always call my brother, Mike, a doc, and he tells me what to do in very gracious Cavanaughnese, which means short and to the point.  But, this time, Mike was not going to be able to help me.

 Instead, after breakfast, we went to a private clinic.  Public hospitals are open to the public, and are a zoo, whereas private clinics are pay only, and only the more affluent can go.  Which means much shorter lines, white people, Asians and affluent Ethiopians.  I got in to see a doc who came of age when Ethiopia was communist.  Although he studied at GW in DC, he worked in Cuba, and was clearly a Castro sympathizer.  Wanting good medical care, I did not want to disagree much with him, and did acknowledge the good things that Castro has done, eg, literacy, good health care, and good water for all of it’s people, but we pointedly did not touch on human rights violations or torture.  The USA can no longer speak with the same moral superiority that we previously had on these issues, sad to say.

He did not do a very thorough exam of me, but somehow reached the conclusion that I was going thru a muscle spasm.  I thought that it was a psyatic nerve issue, but oh well.  He gave me a script for an injection of anti-inflammatory something, and a script for tablets of the same, told me to get a massage and stay off the bike. I thanked him for the political discussion, and moved on.  According to google, the treatment is pretty much the same for each.

 13 birr to $1.   When we arrived at the clinic, we had to pay 70 birr to get an exam.  After the exam, I had to pay for the scrips, which were bout 210 birr, and then had to pay 12 birr for a nurse to inject me.  And so, for less than 300, or bout $22, I got ok medical care.  After the shot, I was able to walk the 15+ blocks back to the hotel.  They were amazed when I walked back in, after hobbling out hours earlier. 

 As the day progressed, I could feel my legs tightening some more, but not near as bad as the nite before.  Last nite, I was a bit stiff, but much better, and feel that I am on the mend.  The group arrives in Addis today, we have a rest day tomorrow, and leave the day after.  Am not sure what I will do.  I still can’t ride, don’t want to ride the truck, and am pretty comfortable in a reasonably-priced hotel in Addis.  It will be a game-time decision.

 And so, am no longer EFI, dang it, but will still travel from Cairo to Capetown.  And now am free to do some exploring along the way that is off the bike.  Northern Kenya has roads as bad or worse than the Dinder Disaster, and there is a group of riders that are planning on skipping that part.  I think that I will join them, we just need to figure out the options.

 And so, am no longer in dire pain, am back to good spirits, and waiting to see where this adventure will take me next, and how I get there.

 BTW, not surprisingly, Ethiopia has really good coffee.  Perhaps surprisingly, they also have really good donuts.

2.14

 Happy Valentine’s Day from a campground next to a highway in Ethiopia!!!!!  It is no doubt a very romantic spot for some of our few couples on this trip, but not for one as one of that couple is wrestling a bad stomach today, a common ailment in our group.

 Today was a great ride, 117 km, a couple of modest climbs, and beautiful rolling hills, somewhat like John Day country in Central Oregon.  The road was great, not much traffic,  kids mostly nice and I only got hit by one rock.  All in all, a good day.

 I was still not at my best, so I rode with some of the slower riders all day, and had a great time talking to different folks.  I did the climbs at their pace, which was very helpful to my continued improvement.  Additionally, riding in a group makes the kids seemingly less likely to throw rocks.

 It is difficult to paint an accurate picture of these kids.  I think that an overwhelming majority of Ethiopia are under 18, and there are not a lot of schools.  The kids work in the fields, tend goats, cows and donkeys, and seem to throw rocks at bike tourists.  All day long we continue to encounter kids in the country, sometimes 1 or 2, often times packs of 5 to 6.  They often request pens, money, etc, and we don’t give them anything.  Apparently, there are many tourists who come to Ethiopia to see the old churches, etc, and they give stuff to these kids, which encourages them to beg from others.  If any reader falls into that category, please make a note to self to stop doing that, so that subsequent tourists don’t have to put up with it.

 Therefore, we continue to encounter groups of kids all day long.  The country kids misbehave much worse than the city kids, who have adults to supervise them, and the adults don’t approve of that behavior.

Today, we had a group of kids throw rocks at us, and an Ethiopian driving a car stopped, got out, and threw rocks at the kids, and yelled at them.  A smart guy, be nice to tourists and more will come.  Frankly, Ethiopia is sort of a cycling paradise from what we have seen so far, except for the kids.  And except that there are many germs in the air, and many of us are sick.

 Rock throwing, hitting each other with sticks, etc is sort of acceptable behavior in Ethiopia.  At least it is common.  Some folks in Gondar saw a local guy hit another local guy with a rock and knocked him out.

 At  camp, TDA had again put up a rope perimeter around the camp, and the locals stayed outside of it.  But, kids continued to cross the line and try to get into our tents when we are not looking, etc. Apparently, it is just part of the Ethiopia package, and we have to deal with it.  The crew put up 2 toilet tents, at least, so that we can have some privacy.  I have yet to have some Ethiopians watch me in nature, but my time is surely coming.

 Tonite, TDA discussed the Dinder Disaster, and acknowledged that they had made some strategic errors in doing that ride, such as too long of a distance, not enough time, etc.  Which helped to close the door on it, except that they indicated that they will go back and do it next year, which is nuts to me cuz it was the worst riding that I have ever experienced..  But, oh well, I won’t be on the ride next year with them, and it will be someone else’s problem.   Paul, the TDA tour leader, who is from Florida, and is really outstanding, did a very good job of addressing stuff and hopefully closing that door.  We have a lot more days of riding to worry bout.

 I am continually amazed at some of the folks on the trip.  Hardy, a German, is truly one of the kindest and most decent human beings that I have ever met, and that is the consensus among many of us.  Hardy is a nurse who takes care of the elderly, and is on this trip courtesy of his brother, who passed away last fall.  I followed Hardy at the tail end of the ride today, and he is like a politician in a parade, waving to everyone on both sides of the road.  I don’t think that he gets many rocks thrown at him, I need to ask him, but they would not upset him.  I mentioned Hardy in an earlier post bout a ride he made from Germany to China and then Mongolia and ending up at Lake Baikal in Russia.  He did mention that he did not like riding in Russia cuz the Russians would get drunk and come to his camp to harass him.  Hardy rides an empty touring bike with 50 cm tires and is a very powerful rider, and has a sign on the front of his bike that says “Hardy On Tour.”  

 There is Gill, a French-Canadian living in Hong Kong and is a retired teacher, and a strong rider.  Gill is very smart, logical, and has been very gracious to me on numerous occasions, including the other day when I arrived in Gondar well beyond spent.  He took my bike for me and put me in a chair to recover.  Of course, I did help him out in Sudan when he got cooked in the sun one day.

 Jeff and Diane are a couple from Aspen who worked hard, made a good life for themselves, and are enjoying the fruit of their success.  They have been married for bout 27 years, and are very happily married.  They are both delightful people that are very interesting to talk with, and they have done many self supported bike tours.  They will be a good source of info for me in the future for rides that I want to do.

 There seems to be many NGOs in Ethiopia, which is probably a good thing cuz this is a desperately poor country that needs all of the help that it can get.  But, am not sure that there are enough funds to help Ethiopia with all that it needs.  When one sees all of the kids in this country, it is hard to fathom that it was American foreign policy under the Bush Administration to not provide funds for family planning in the third world.  Go figure.   Instead, the Malthusian Trap is 1-2 generations away.  Hmmm, I wonder which is truly the more humanitarian approach in the long run.  It is a shame that domestic US politics screw up so much of both our home and the world.

 They say that birth rates decline with education, and the best hope for Ethiopia,  and countries like it, is lots of education.  And much of that comes from charitable contributions.

 In many ways it is hard to envision how backward Sudan and Ethiopia are.  Although they buy many modern weapons for their armies, there are many donkey carts doing commerce.  But, there are lots of big trucks on the highways carrying goods, so it is coming of age.  Comparing Ethiopia to Mexico, by and large Mexico is much more developed and prosperous, except in its really poor parts of the country.  But, I doubt that we will find much development or prosperity here, but we shall see in Addis Ababa when we arrive there in a week or so.  We see many people wearing rags and living in shacks.

 2.15

 The morning started with a road construction crew diligently starting to work at 5 am next to our campground, and then taking a break at daylight, which we presumed enabled them to review the screw-ups from the work done in the dark.  We were all greatly impressed with their work ethic.

 Today was an easy 61 km ride with some modest hills, which worked to the good for many of us, as stomach ailments are running rampant in the group, including yours truly.  Ethiopia has a reputation for germs, and people always get sick here.  We arrived to Bahir Dar bout 10:30, and checked out the hotel that our group was staying at.  I got the last room, and upon entering nearly gagged at the smell.  In checking out he bathroom, I noted that my knees would touch the opposing wall if sitting on the toilet, and given my anticipated familiarity with that regime, was not looking forward to the situation.  About that time, some riders rode in and told me that they had found a fantastic hotel, expensive at $150 per nite, but that included breakfast and dinner, and a massage, manicure and pedicure.  In other words, they had found a hotel with a spa.  I immediately joined in with them, and found a beautiful hotel, with great amenities, AND lots of warm water for the shower, which has been pretty rare on this trip.  I have a great bed, cable tv, and an outside bed on a porch, along with an outside chimney if I want to hang on the porch.  I have figured out what happens to movies that no one wants to watch – they get sent to African cable TV.

 I struggled to stay awake for my massage, as I did not want to be late or miss it.   I figured that I could fall asleep during my massage.  However, once there, the massage therapist worked me over and instead of falling asleep I thought that I would pass out in pain.  The poor gal did not speak much English, and I can only imagine what she was thinking as I howled in pain, bit my towel, kicked my legs which almost hit her in the head once, etc.  I was like a little kid in a dentist’s office.  But, it sure felt good afterwards, and I tipped her well by Ethiopian standards to acknowledge my gratitude, and to try and mitigate the damage done.  I asked for her for tomorrow as well, so it will be interesting whether she shows up for work tomorrow.  Or if any massage therapist shows up for work tomorrow.

 The food at the hotel is very good, and I hope that this helps my recovery, which is improving.  Having seen my cracking point in the horizon a few days ago, I now see my recovery on the same horizon.

 Ethiopia is slowly growing on me, which is good as we have plenty of more time to spend here.  No rocks were thrown at us today, which helps.

 We also learned that the phrase ”Where are you go?” actually means “Where are you from?”   Go figure.  When we answered the question based on our literal interpretation, we got weird looks and the question repeated.  But now, we get acknowledgement, and things are better.  Of course, most folks have not heard of Canada or Belgium, etc, but they all like to hear America.    Am not sure if our American ego should swell too much  based on the fact that we are No 1 in Ethiopia.  But, it never hurts to be No 1 somewhere.

 And Obama is very popular here. 

Ethiopia is the oldest country in Africa, and has had its own identity for bout 2,000 years.  It is the only African country that was never colonized, although the Italians occupied it for 5 years from 1936-41.  it has been a Christian country for hundreds of years, long before the missionaries came to Africa.  Not surprisingly, the government is not fairly elected, and the current president sows no sign of wanting to give up power.  Same old story, different country.

Given the anti-Moslem sentiment in America, which makes no sense to me to tarnish an entire religion and its members cuz of the actions of a radical few, I find it ironic that while in Islamic Sudan,  we never had to worry bout theft, but once we crossed into Christian Ethiopia, theft is a big issue.  We have to strip our bikes down each nite, and keep all of our stuff in our tent.  Further, we have to watch the kids that hang out on the rope line around our camp like a hawk, as they have proved at every opportunity that they will “liberate” any thing that they can.  It is a shame that we can’t trust the kids, cuz they are often engaging kids, but we have to keep bright lines drawn with them.  I think that they have a hard time accepting that we will camp there for approximately 15 hours, and they won’t get anything out of it.

2.16

As should be apparent by now, this blog is a random stream of consciousness and semi-consciousness.

In the Ethiopian countryside, many folks carry sticks to herd cattle, fight each other, and last nite I dinner learned that they sometimes smack cyclists with them.  Two days ago, Gerald was riding and some goober on the side of the road simply smacked his forearm with a stick, which he said hurt very much.  Yesterday, Simon, a South African, was riding his bike, and some goober carrying a stack of hay simply threw it at him, but fortunately it just bounced off of his shoulder and did not hurt him. Another guy was riding thru town and a woman stepped in front of him without looking, which they do here with the expectation that a car will honk, and he hit her and went down.  He was not hurt, just startled, but pissed that all of the locals thought it was funny.  We have to live with the fact that when we have minor problems, the locals seem to enjoy it, although some will help us out.  We really miss the graciousness of the Sudanese, although Ethiopia is really great cycling so far, except for the bad people interactions.  And these are certainly minimal, but annoying.

We have a rest day in Bahir Dar.  Am not doing much but cleaning my bike, some clothes, my tent, and getting another massage at our great hotel.  It will be really tough to go back to the tent tomorrow nite.  My energy seems to be returning, but I will error on the side of caution today, and take it easy.  My hotel room has an outside bed on a porch, and am reading this fascinating book on Genghis Khan, and I foresee some time on that bed today.

I won’t have internet access for another 5 days, until we reach Addis Ababa.   Will try and update my blog then.