final ethiopia comments
2.25
As I think back to the group of folks that helped me when I first got injured, I am amazed at the coalition of folks, who were from USA, South Africa, France, Switzerland, Norway, Germany, Belgium, Canada, Australia and Holland. I had a coalition that almost surpassed the Iraq War coalition, and I did not have to threaten or pay anyone to help me, unlike that other coalition.
Because I could not ride my bike, and did not want to ride the truck as an injured rider with the other injured, sick, tired, or less than ambitious riders, I opted to stay at a nice hotel outside of Addis, and was gonna spend 4 days there. But, after 2 days, and even with a great book, I got bored, and decided to catch up with the group. I took a taxi and in bout 4 hours time, managed to spot the first riders on the road, and eventually caught up with the lunch truck, and caught a ride to camp. It was really nice to get back to the group, and get back to my current “normalcy” in the group.
There is a lot that goes on in our group every day, and to miss a day one misses a lot of interesting stories, humor, etc.
The day before I got back, the race leader, Marcel, who is from Holland, crashed and ended up spraining his wrist, although he initially thought that he had broke it. He got it x-rayed, and will have to stay off the bike for 10 days. Could be much worse. When I got injured, Marcel, who is one of the nicest and most gracious persons that I have ever met, repeatedly came by to offer his help to me. As he had done with many people on the trip. So yesterday, I helped him put up his tent and get organized, and will do so as much as I can until his wrist is back to normal. He has changed his view of the trip very similarly to mine, ie, it is now a journey across Africa, but we will ride as much of it as possible.
It was really nice to get back to the group, and have many people come up and welcome me back. We have developed a very close community, and it is great to be part of it.
2.26
Today was a big ride, bout 105 km, with a lot of climbing. I decided to see how I would do on the bike. Of course, last nite was the biggest rain of the trip to date, and it was still raining this morning, but oh well. I started out slowly, but my hip felt just fine, although I could feel that it was not quite normal, but figured I would not push things, and just see how it flowed. My same strategy as last time when my hip blew up on me, but today worked out much better.
I went a few miles, and saw Gerald parked along the road taking pictures, as usual. I took a few, and we got going together. We saw one of the younger and inexperienced riders fly by us, and we both commented that he was an idiot to be riding that fast on the wet road, particularly cuz it was the first rain in a while, and it brought lots of oils to the surface, making it slippery. We had not ridden 10 minutes when we caught up with the young goober, and sure enough he had crashed, but fortunately, did not hurt himself. We rode bout 10 miles and caught up with our regular crew at a coffee shop, and we joined them, and spent the rest of the day together. The ride was beautiful, even in the rain. Just like home, the clouds accentuate the beauty of the mountains. We were around 2,200 meters, and climbed up to 2,500 meters today. Eventually, it quit raining, the road got dry, it warmed up, and the day was awesome. Unfortunately, there were lots of kids out, yelling YOU YOU YOU, GIVE ME MONEY, GIVE ME, MONEY, FERENGI (foreigner), F YOU (sure enough) – they get incredibly annoying.
After lunch we stopped in a coffee shop and ran into an English woman who has been birding in Ethiopia for over 10 years, and travels by car. She was surprised to learn of the rock incidents that we regularly suffer thru. She told us that she had only had one such incident in one year. We wanted to put her on a bike and let her ride 1 km, and see if she changed her mind. As it turned out, we rode 1 km and Gerald and I each got hit by a rock, but no sting to it. A new treat that the kids have started to do is to try and spit on us. These little bastards are helping to convince most of us on the trip to put Ethiopia very low on our future destinations. In contrast, most of us still have very positive thoughts bout the Sudanese. Who would have thunk that?
At lunch today, as is common most days, there were bout 150 kids standing outside the rope line, just staring at us. The rope line is critical cuz these kids have no sense of personal space, and will steal stuff if they can. After we left, a woman rider showed up and was very upset due to some experiences that she had that morning. She came into the group, and proceeded to say something along the following lines: “I hate this f’ing country, I hate these f’ing kids, and I can’t wait to get the heck out of Ethiopia. Ergggggggghhhhhhhhh.”
In turn, 150 Ethiopian kids at the same time as if on cue said “Ergggggggghhhhhhhhh.” She failed to see the humor, but the other gringos present all commented that it was hilarious, but did not laugh as they did not want to piss off our rider. Buttttttttt, they took great delight in sharing the story with the rest of us, who howled in laughter. We felt for our fellow rider, but humor is humor.
Am glad to report that I rode well today, and although my hip was talking to me, it was not screaming. As I have never been a very good listener, I rode hard on every climb, and was ok. I think that riding is helping me. Hopefully, it will be ok tomorrow as well. I managed to do the hills just fine, and had a great ride. And, it was very fun to hang with my friends, and enjoy the beauty of Ethiopia. But, the little kids always dampen some of the positives, cuz one is always on edge, wondering from where the next rock, stick, spitball, etc may come from. Fortunately, we hear that Kenyan kids are much better behaved. We shall see.
It looks like rain tonite again, and am glad that my tent is working its magic and keeping me and my gear dry. It is an MSR tent, and is really great. There are a number of them on the trip, and everyone seems happy with them.
We are still bewildered as to what Ethiopia will do with its 40 million kids under 18, but if rock throwing becomes an Olympic sport, they will be contenders.
Today we ran into some incredible runners. It is common for kids to run alongside us for many meters up hills, but today a kid bout 10 named Joseph ran barefoot up hill with us for bout 1 km at 11 kph. And tried to sprint to the summit. He was an amazing runner, and did not want anything from us except to enjoy himself. We then came across a serious runner, who was thumping along, and he ran alongside us for at least 10 km, he could stay with us uphill, and we rode slowly downhill. He did not speak English, but he could run. We were around 2,400 meters at that point, and it is no mystery why Ethiopians win so many long distant races. For many of them, it is their ticket to fame and fortune, and they take they opportunity serious.
Ethiopia is a beautiful country, but probably best seen by car.
BTW, please note that contrary to myths put out by Europeans, they fart as least as much as Americans, if not more. In Ethiopia, we camp pretty close to each other as we camp within a roped off boundary cuz of the kids, and tent walls are pretty thin. There are not many secrets on certain matters.
It is also interesting that by and large, we discuss the quality of our bowel movements pretty constantly and openly, particularly cuz so many folks have had serious bouts of diarrhea. Many riders have had to make emergency stops along the road, or are too sick to ride. Ethiopia has been very hard on our stomachs, hopefully Kenya will be better. We only have a few more days in Ethiopia, and then on to Kenya.
Tomorrow will be 6 weeks of riding, and 7 weeks since I left Portland. When we reach Arusha, Tanzania, in 2 weeks, we will be half done, and only have 2 months left. The end is not in sight, and we have a lot more to see, but the reality is that we are humming thru Africa at a steady pace, and really seeing amazing things and people. Although Asia is interesting and an easy place to travel in, Africa has a funkiness that makes it uniquely bizarre, sometimes in an enjoyable way, sometimes not. But always interesting. Africa ain’t easy, but it is sure worthwhile to visit. And, I don’t think that folks should write it off as “too out of it.” The Chinese sure recognize its potential, and the African people will have plenty to offer, they just need education and opportunity, same as all of us.
2.27
Today was pretty uneventful, just a nice day of riding with a fair amount of climbing. The terrain was semi-arid, red clay, with huge termite mounds. And very few kids. We started off the day by riding bout 20 km, and Gabriele discovered a great coffee shop, which we all joined him at. Had a second breakfast, and lots of fun. Other riders stopped in, and it was a good time.
The few people that we saw today were very poor, their soil would not grow vegetables, and there were not many people living out there. Again, not many kids, but not many anyone. It sort of makes Kansas look like a paradise. They were not used to seeing tourists, and when we would stop to take photos the few kids that we saw would often run away in fear. The fast few days the people seemed to dress and look differently, and seemed more tribal.
We stayed at a funky hotel tonite and tomorrow, for our rest day. Many folks camped, but I got a hotel room. The “nicer” rooms went for 500 Birr per nite (13-1), but they were sold out by the time that we arrived, so I got a more basic room for 101 Birr per nite. Last nite we had the mother of all rain storms, and we got a tropical downpour for a while. I had fallen asleep already but was woke up bout 10 pm by the storm. But, as it turned out, the nicer rooms had their issues, most importantly that rain got into the rooms under the door, and so many folks had a fair amount of water on the floor. Jeff and Diane also had a mosquito issue in their room, so they put up their tent and slept on the floor, only to have their tent floor wet cuz of the rain seeping in. In contrast, over in the cheap seats, the rooms were dry.
2.28
Our rest day was very quiet. We did some laundry and washed our bikes, and watched it rain all day, and hover around 70 degrees. I did not venture out of the hotel, although some folks did, but there was not much to see. A very relaxed day. But, with no internet access.
We found out today that Gill, a Canadian living in Hong Kong, and who is a great guy, dropped out the trip for a myriad of personal reasons, which he had previously indicated to a few of us, but he did not have any complaints bout the trip itself or our tour guides. It is a drag to lose Gill as he is always interesting to talk with, but his real life beckoned, and he responded accordingly.
It is amazing to me that there is only 2.5 months left, and in 2 short weeks we will be halfway done. Time flies. Am not quite registering that the end is in sight, yet, but am recognizing that we really need to revel in every day of this very special journey with so many special people.
One of our riders, Paddy from Ireland, who is bout 26 and who had hardly ridden before this trip, and yet was EFI, has to leave us for a week to fly to London for admission interviews with the Harvard MBA program. He is a very good kid, and we are all hopeful that he will get in. He has graciously helped carry my bag some the past few days, as my hip does not enjoy having me be a beast of burden quite yet. It is ok for me to ride, just not bear much weight. I could get used to that, although the other riders might soon tire of that.
We have a good ride tomorrow, hopefully not in the rain, and then the next day we ride to the Kenya border, and will have to deal with that. That should prove to be an interesting experience. We are sure hoping that the Kenyan kids are better behaved, and that we can say good-bye to the constant harassment that we feel in Ethiopia.
A couple of good books that you might want to consider is “Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World,” by Jack Weatherford, and “Public Enemies” by Bryan Burrough. Genghis Khan is one of the most fascinating people in history, and the mark that he left on many levels of society, including on commerce, will stun you. This was a very good read. The latter focused on some of the major gang figures of the early 30s and the FBI’s war on crime. It followed Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, Machine Gun Kelly, Bonnie and Clyde, and the Karpis-Barker Gang. Contrary to my prior understanding, it turns out that Melvin Purvis was a glory-hound but ineffective FBI agent. And Hoover was even worse than I imagined, as well as an incredible liar who simply made stuff up to CYA or just to puff himself up. For example, Ma Barker was simply a mom, and did not participate in any criminal activity, other than living off of its fruit and harboring criminals. But, when the FBI raided a hideout where Ma Barker and her criminal son, Fred, were killed, Hoover painted Ma Barker as a criminal mastermind to to justify her killing. It is hard to believe that we had to tolerate him for over 40 years in power. The author wrote the story chronologically, and followed the events for each gang accordingly. He did a great job of doing so. This was a terrific book that I had a hard time putting down.
3,1
Another terrific day in Africa. We rode 128 km today. The first 70 km to lunch fly by, a great road, very little traffic, and even fewer kids. I did not find myself longing for the familiar YOU YOU YOU. After lunch we had a 30 km gradual climb that was very fun. We ended up at the top of the climb at the town of Mega, where we found ourselves a great little coffee shop. Although I don’t drink pop or coffee at home, I continually drink both here. As does virtually every ever rider.
Am really appreciating this great adventure that we are on, and now savior every coffee stop or break, and don’t take anything for granted. I realize that this trip will be over before I know it, and want to enjoy every moment.
From the coffee shop on to camp, I rode by myself and just took pictures. The scenery was spectacular, a high desert with red soil. The locals are much more isolated from the world, and seem pretty pristine in the their environment. It continues to amaze me how amazed the locals seem to be to see their selves on the camera viewer. These folks tend to be the poorest. And then there are the more financially secure folks with cell phones who take pix of us.
We are camping in the bush tonite, and it is raining. The forecast for the next few days is rain, which will make the dirt roads in Northern Kenya a real challenge. But, hopefully there won’t be a lot of little kids yelling YOU YOU YOU, etc etc etc and throwing rocks at us. Nothing is perfect, and TIA.
One of our large trucks had issues today, and so we waited in camp for several hours for our bags. But, our TDA staff did a good job of fixing the truck and getting our stuff to us, and what the heck – TIA. It is a real challenge to manage myself on a daily basis, at home or here. But, the TDA staff is doing a very fine job of managing 60 of us. It is interesting, some of the riders tend to bitch every day bout something, others are always happy. It is a no-brainer whose company I seek out. Besides, with all of the strong and interesting personalities on this trip, why waste time listening to whiners?
Tomorrow we will cross into Kenya, goodbye pavement and hello nightmarish dirt roads.