Cycling friends!!!!

Saturday 30th November

I had to make a pitch black dash to the toilet last night. I didn't need to see where the hole was as the smell of pure ammonia just got stronger the closer I got and when my eyes started to burn i knew i was probably in the right position.

The sleep itself was amazing and I am yet to have a bad nights sleep in Ethiopia. For £1.75 you would at least expect a withered bed or a stained mattrice, I had a blanket cover with tassels!

I had breakfast at the hotel bar and was adamant I didn't want injera for breakfast so I asked for bread with my tibs. (Yes I had sheep for breakfast but its no different to having a sausage sandwich!) what did I get? Tibs, injera and bread! What can i say, they just love the massive flat, rubbery crumpet out here!

A good feed was probably what I needed anyway as I was expecting a few more hills than yesterday but what I got instead was a very pleasant surprise. I started the day coasting downhill and this was pretty much the theme for the whole day! I couldn't believe it, another cruisey day, I was happy but the constant downhill only added to the daunting uphill that I'm yet to experience. As I did yesterday, I made the most of every second and the Fonze came out again. There was also more singing to be had and I even had a local boy dancing to my atrocious singing as I cycled through his village.

At one village one boy on a bike was eyeing up a bit of a race. As he cycled up alongside me I had a quick chat with him as I noticed he had a chemistry book strapped to his rear rack. We coasted alongside each other for a good mile or so and as conversation dried up I didn't know what else to talk about and he wasn't exactly blessed with verbal diarrhoea. What's best for awkward silences when you're cycling alongside an 18 yr old chemistry student? a good old sing song obviously! I popped the earphones in and proceeded to belt out the whole of Take That's "Never Forget." A great song with great lyrics and as we were only a metre or so away from each other it was hard to avoid eye contact. I couldn't really tell whether he was smiling or grimacing but I was enjoying myself at least and my high spirits were carrying on seamlessly from yesterday.

Just 5 minutes after possibly the only time any man other than Gary Barlow has sung "never forget" to an Ethiopian, a man on a motorbike pulled up beside me. "Well I don't normally do requests but as I'm in a good mood, what song do you want?" I didn't say that but I was more than ready for round two. Instead he just said "hello" and he was more than happy to pootle along by my side at a whopping 15mph as we wheeled through quite a busy village.

On the uphill he sped off but then waited for me at the top. Edwin is from Holland and he's touring around Africa for a year. It took all of 5 minutes before we shared our poo statuses and he had a "burning belly" so was keen to stop at the next village and I hadn't stopped yet so we agreed to go for a drink.

We stopped for a drink and it was great to have another person to chat to, especially on my lunch break! Edwin camped with the Hyenas last night and was having a bit of a tough time in Ethiopia as somebody stole his pocket knife this morning as he was surrounded by kids when he woke up. Even though I've done the same I think he made a bit of an error by angrily telling them to go away before his knife got stolen. As I suspected, fighting the kids with fire only gets you burnt and I recommended he should do the hotel thing in Ethiopia and he agreed when I told him about the price of a room.

After a drink he felt  better so we decided to find somewhere to eat. Edwin wanted a burger which I thought was mission impossible. He tried to point to a picture on a sign which made me laugh and I explained to him what I had learnt in Slovenia when I asked a man what the picture of food on the menu was, "that's a picture, McDonald's advertises burgers but they don't look the same do they" he said.

We rode further down the road trying different restaurants on the way, all of which pointed us in different directions. As I pulled away slowly behind Edwin a dirty old homeless looking man kindly spat in my face. I thought it was disgusting as it is but it was never going to faze my sky high spirits. I was having a good day and the man had no front teeth so I will take it he was just trying to say "I love you" and couldn't really control his gums.

We found a top hotel with a quality menu and amazingly they gave us a choice of hamburger, cheeseburger or special burger. I asked what was in the special burger as if it meant dipping it in rice pudding then I was going to opt for the regular cheese option instead. The special ingredient was a fried egg so we both ordered one of them and as Edwin rang his parents I chilled out and basked in the fact that I was having an excellent day and I only had about 20 miles left.

I didn't think Edwin would be keen on stopping with me as 20 miles is still a big difference in time for a bike compared to a motorbike but I was happy for the lunchtime company nevertheless. The burger was beautiful, thick, homemade and came with chips and for under £2 I would go as far as saying it was the best value for money burger I have ever eaten. Edwin said he wasn't keen on a long ride just incase things took a turn for the worse so agreed to ride along with me. So we left the hotel and I had a motorised support vehicle which looked exactly like it does on the Tour de France. This only attracted yet more attention from the locals but I did manage to engage the slipstream a few times which was fun.

On the uphills Edwin would hoon it to the top and stop for a cigarette whilst i slowly dragged myself up to meet him. It was very much a tortoise and hare situation for at least 10 miles of hilly road but Edwin didn't mind. On one of the hills I could see the bike and the helmet resting on top with a few kids standing around the bike but no Edwin. A bit worried I tried to up the pace slightly but it didn't take long for me to clock the situation when I spotted Edwin's sunny side just a few metres from the roadside. It seemed Edwin was experiencing the same monsters I've been friends with a few times and I really shouldn't laugh but the paper trail of clothing left thrown across the ground displayed the urgency of Edwin's operation and we both let out a little chuckle. The kids happily stood by and watched the whole thing, they just waited for us to finish talking so they could squeeze in the odd "money, money" 

I tried "Tao" out today and it worked a treat, the kid was shocked into silence and I could continue riding on my rainbow with no begging to affect me. Asking the kids for money and pens before they could also worked similarly well but they were more confused into silence.

We arrived in Demebecha at around 4pm and I found a decent hotel for 80birr (£2.60) I was buzzing, 2 St George's down and I could put my feet up for the night. Unfortunately Edwin wasn't feeling the same and he went for a shower but then hibernated away in his room and didn't answer my knocks so I guessed he just needed to sleep things off. I got talking to a few locals and a lady named Jade from Chicago who was working for the Peace corps here. She's been here 13 months and has another year left but obviously knew the language and alot of the locals very well so we had a great chat about the local culture.

I told her I was getting fed up of injera and she told me alot of good foods to choose and offered to take me out for dinner. I gave Edwin one final knock but he must've been dead to the world so myself and Jade walked down to another hotel where they had the closest you can find to BBQ'd Lamb. It still came with Injera but the meat was cooked differently and in a much better way. We sat and had a great chat about lots of different things and Jade has given me some extra Amharic sayings and food tips for future use. 

Time was rolling on and it was getting past my regular bedtime of half 8 so we decided to call it a night. Jade went back to her mud hut which all the peace corps people have to live in and I was happy with my newly decorated hotel room which smelt of wood as the bed must've been brand new. 

Another quality day with quality people. I hope to see Edwin tomorrow before I embark on my 2 day climb towards Addis and hopefully the poor bloke doesn't have to ensure for too long what I now take for granted!

Hotel, Motel, Holiday grin

Friday 29th November

I woke up really really demotivated. I had some barriers in my head that took alot to break down and if it wasn't for my free breakfast buffet I could've easily rolled over and slept it off. Instead, I dragged myself to the hotel restaurant and stocked up on egg and bread and by stocked I mean 3 platefuls of scrambled egg and 12 buns. I was the only one there and the staff didn't seem to mind me doing shuttle runs between tables so i got stuck in. In the end I think I have opened their eyes with regards to the capacity of a human's stomach but in all honestly I only stopped eating because they ran out of scrambled egg, I could've happily carried on.

Despite knowing that as soon as I get on the road ill be in a better mood it is still very hard to make that extra effort to leave your room. I had the thought of tough terrain and torment in my head, that's enough to make anyone want another day in bed! In reality it took me 2 minutes to turn my frown upside down and as I weaved in and out of the morning traffic I liberated myself from Bahir Dar via a gap in the standstill traffic. There was a slight collision which wouldn't of affected the flow of cars that much but the 30 people debating who's fault it was caused a four lane road block.

Myself, Nigel and Beirdre squeezed down the side and were let loose into the beautiful Ethiopian countryside. As time went by it became more and more apparent that the uphills I was dreading the most would not play any part in today. I figured this out when I got to the top of a hill and established that the landscape was just gentle rolling hills for as far as the eye could see. The road was quiet and the kids were few and far between. I was beaming and soaking in the alone time I was offered, I even stopped a few times to take pictures instead of focussing on the next stop. The older farmers were delighted to see me and some wanted to get into my pictures. I was not going to just power through today, I was going to savour every second. 

I felt strong and in the zone as my music played its part in creating an upbeat and sunny theme tune to my life for the day. Kids were not just sung to today but given animal impressions and one group of teenagers even got the Fonze! Don't ask me where he came from, I just spotted the lads in the distance and as I flew past them, both thumbs were up and a no handed "Ayyyyyyy" jumped out of my mouth.

The state of the villages got stronger  today as well. Buildings looked stronger and different materials were used suggesting to me that there was a bit more import/export distribution occurring between other villages. People looked sharper and better educated and there was a bit of variation in the things shouted at me. Amazingly as I pedalled up a hill through a village I had a "bravo, you very strong man!" Not only was he expressing himself to me in not just English but he was complementing me, top marks for you sir, I will invite you to my house for tea.

I decided to stop briefly for some biscuits and a bottle of water because I could feel myself lagging a little but had no idea that I had cycled a full 50 miles and found myself just over an hour away from my bed for the night! Today had flown by and I was looking forward to putting some effort to finding a cheap hotel instead of just exhaustedly agreeing to the first one I stumbled upon.

I arrived in Injabeera at around 2. Today was the start of me getting back into the swing of budgeting again as I slipped up a little in Bahir Dar. Right, i need to be under £10 a day and I've already spent £1 on lunch but I need dinner and an after dinner snack later so let's aim for £3-5 a night for a hotel I thought. I arrived at a hotel which was more like a motel with a square courtyard area and rooms around the edges. How much is the room? £1.75, yeah go on then. It was like a cell with a double bed and a chair in but the bed felt like memory foam and I managed to get an upgrade to a bigger padlock for my door so I was well chuffed. 

It was only until after I collapsed on my bed that I realised I had no toilet and in recent days this has been a necessity so I just ensured I had my loo roll at the door and I had a clear route to the communal pit. 

I had a coffee in the hotel restaurant and had a very rare and random conversation with a well educated Ethiopian as we sat and watched the world go by. Don't ask me how but we got on to the subject of fighter pilot recruitment requirements, see, told you it was random. We had a good laugh and I could finally express my feelings to a local about the issues I have experienced in rural Ethiopia. It was nice to have a wee vent and he agreed with me which made it better but we both agreed it would take more than two blokes drinking coffee to improve Ethiopia but at least the country is going in the right direction. (This is easy to do when you start at a dead end)

After this he then pointed me to a restaurant that served meat as it was a fasting day today and the majority of establishments will not serve any animal related food stuffs on a Wednesday or Friday. Meat and egg have been pretty much all I've had and I was not liking the idea of giving them up for a vegetarian curry. I had the usual "tibs" (bits of sheep with bath mat) and whilst I sat and ate, a very helpful man sat and ate next to me and helped me out with some local language that may help scare off the odd pesky kid that I've been coming into contact with.

"Tao" means "no touch" and was probably the easiest for me to remember so I will give that a go tomorrow and see how successful it is. After dinner I was pretty tired, although I hadn't taken that long to do it, I still managed 120km today so I went back to my cell block to end a very successful and enjoyable day.

The mountains are still waiting but after today I feel a lot more comfortable in conquering them. I know I can do them even in a bad mood but my spirits have certainly been lifted a lot since this morning which is always nice.

Ticking off

Thursday 28th November

I got to bed late last night as the footy didn't finish till gone midnight so the 6 o'clock alarm on a rest day wasn't greatly appreciated but I wanted to get some time in on the breakfast bonanza before meeting Lidet.

There was no "special breakfast" surprise today, I could see bread, plain injera, scrambled egg and injera with sauce. If you don't like injera then you would find it quite hard to get anything else other than egg. I won't eat injera if I have a choice as I save it for when I have to order it so I stocked up on bread and egg.

I met Lidet at dead on 7 and waited a few minutes for another guy called Tyler who was from Oregon. We walked down to the boat where we were the first to get on followed by 5 Ethiopians and then 2 Aussies, Dan and Nicola. It didn't take long for conversation to flow and everybody to ask the usual tourist questions, "Name? From? How long you here for?" And what their story was would lead from that. Tyler was on holiday and Nicola and Daniel were travelling but had more of a complex story then just a regular backpacker. 

They had both spent a number of months together along the west coast of Africa by motorcycle and Daniel had stayed there whilst Nicola met a friend in Dubai. They met up again here in Ethiopia after Daniel couldn't get into DR Congo and it didn't take long for all four of us to share stories and experiences. All three of them were good people and I thrived the social interaction after spending the majority of more than 100 days on my Jack Jones. Some of the stories Dan and Nicola told, most people wouldn't believe but I was loving having such like minded and inspiring people to have a flowing chat with.

The first two islands we stopped at we could hardly walk 10metres before we were forced to pay extra. Both Dan and I had researched the one main monastery that everyone raved about and so we decided just to stay by the boat and continue chatting. Dan and Nicola were on a tight budget aswell and also enjoyed a wee trek off the beaten track so we did that for as far as we could before the locals called us back.

We arrived at the third island which had two monasteries on. Whilst Tyler and the others walked right; myself, Dan and Nicola walked left towards a slightly less beaten track and figured we would circle the island and hit the monastery on the way back. This first step left would result in a situation that would sculpt the whole theme of the day, - "Annoying the locals!"

After walking for about 30 minutes we came to the good monastery that I had researched. There was a tour group of Germans there but Tyler and the other boat people were nowhere to be seen. This wasn't an issue at the time because we figured they must've been at the other monastery and so we would all end up back at the boat when we looped around the island. We were right to wait and pay for this monastery, the paintings inside were full of vivid colour and told a story with some bizarre and funny pictures. Tagging along the tour for a bit the three of us soaked in the whole monastery before moving on in the same direction and following the island around.

As conversation continued to flow and stories told,  i was loving just expressing my feelings to people that understood and had similar views. It didn't take long before we were surrounded by kids and they posed a humorous distraction which added to the fact that we had been walking a while and didn't seem to be circling an island at all. It just so happened it wasn't an island, it was a peninsula and the mainland village with a huge blue mosque that we arrived at after hours of walking confirmed this. We were officially lost and the first thing you think about is the other people on the tour.

The major error we made was thinking we were on an island and now we were posed with many questions on what to do next. Luckily Dan had the number of his tour operator who could call the captain of the boat but we still had a range of options. Do we walk back to find the boat gone? Do we try and find the boat and some very angry passengers ourselves and act as if nothing happened? Do we just get back via the mainland and tell the boat to leave? Or do we try and find the boat with help and apologise profusely with a bit of hanging our heads in shame on the side.

We found help which resulted in us backtracking our steps for a good half an hour and after multiple phone calls from the tour operator of "where are you now?" we arrived back at the good monastery. From there it was only another 10 minutes to where the boat was where we were greeted with let's say a less than appreciative sarcastic clap.

The man that walked with us the way back naturally wanted money for doing something that we could've done ourselves after knowing that we had to go back to the monastery. I asked Tyler how long he had been waiting for and he said about 2 and half hours. I felt sick for them but struggled to work out why they were waiting for so long and how we had only really walked half an hour or so in the wrong direction, so at most the wait should've been just over an hour.

The geography of the problem was this. The boat stopped at point A where average monastery was situated on the right. It's plan was to then go around the other side of the peninsula to point B, where good monastery was situated. We walked straight to point B and thought we could continue around to point A but instead ended up at unplanned point, point X. 

So whilst we were still only en route to point B, other tourists had seen monastery A and already arrived back at the boat awaiting the ride to point B. They waited at point A for 2 hours whilst we were blissfully unaware and snapping away at the paintings of monastery B. After our phone calls they then motored around to point B meaning they didn't experience the monastery we did, massive OOPS and another apology to Tyler again who is probably reading this blog.

We got back to Bahir Dar and amazingly Tyler still wanted to stay with us. He was very chilled about the whole situation and a big bravo goes to him as he was actually worried that we might've been stuck in quick sand! Top bloke and the least we could do was buy him a drink. I cant say the same for the 5 other locals and especially the guy that shouted at Dan when he tried to explain what happened. You could see where they were coming from and so it was just one of those tail between the legs situations. 

The four of us had food together and Dan thought it would be right to go out for a drink with the tour operator that helped us so we met up with him at a random hotel. In the random hotel reception were two lads from Sweden trying to book a tour with a local and another quite drunk local. It seemed the drunk local didn't take kindly to one of Dan's light hearted jokes and before long noise levels increased and trouble brewed. The drunk man was rightfully removed from the establishment but at the same time I was doing my bit against money grabbing snakes to try and negotiate a good price for the Swedish guys.

With the lonely planet guide book in hand they were clearly clueless on how much they should pay for the same trip as we had just done and a bus ride to the Nile falls. Bearing in mind I had just paid £6.50 and the coach trip was only 30kms away, you would say that £12 per person was a reasonable price. Man in the white shirt is how he will be politely referred to was trying to get 150USD per person out of them. My reaction was not over the top when I let out a high pitched "you must be joking!!!" and I advised the swedes to keep searching for a figure that was more Ford Fiesta then Bugatti Veyron.

Obviously the man in the white shirt didn't take my intervention too kindly as he had already dug himself a swimming pool, added a new wing to his house and taken the wife and 8 kids to Disneyland Addis Ababa with that sort of fee. He expressed his displeasure with me with a profanity in suprisingly perfect English. This led me to think, if only he put as much effort into learning how to ask for things politely and say the word "going" at the end of "where you go?" or even better, saying "excuse me" instead "you" then maybe he might be a more successful businessman and he could've sealed the deal before I got there!

Both situations happened within a few minutes of each other and so we thought it was right that we moved out of the poor random hotel manager's place of peace and found a decent coffee shop. Dan later went back and hooked the swedes up with the tour guide that we had coffee with and so in the end justice was served and good prevailed over men with white shirts.

After coffee I was pretty tired. It's exhausting annoying Ethiopians and leaving a path of anger behind you but I had achieved it to probably the best of my ability. I exchanged contacts with Dan, Nicola and Tyler and went back to the hotel.

Despite everything I had a good day, i saw the monastery I wanted to see, had a good laugh, saved a couple of people some mega bucks and drunk beer and ate in good company. It was a weird one though as i can't compare it with anything I've done in the last 14 weeks because for the whole day I was never alone! It was nice to be in a group and i wish all three of them well on their very different journeys as Tyler goes back home, Dan resumes a travellers lifestyle and Nicola interviews for jobs in Dubai.

An exhausting "rest day" but it was well worth it and it took my mind off the awaiting mountains that I am finding very hard to get motivated for. 

Not a Bahir'd day

Wednesday 27th November

There's something quite heavenly about waking up underneath a mosquito net. Either that or you've managed to knock yourself out whilst getting your pen under the table at the bingo hall and woken up underneath aunt Maggie's dress!

My day started with a "special breakfast." I was intrigued to find out what made it so special and twice as much as anything else on the menu at a whopping £1.30!

I waited at least 25 minutes for it as I'm pretty sure the waitress forgot to order it but I didn't mind, I was in no rush. I only had around 50km to do today so I just relaxed at my table and watched the business of a Woretan morning unfold on the road outside.

When it arrived I was given three plates. One with injera, bread and curry on, one with a tomato and green chilli omelette and one bowl with what looked to me like chicken soup. I was pretty chuffed, I know its breakfast but I could do with some protein and I had eggs, chicken and some carbs to go with it, happy days!

As always I was watched by a few people that decided that they didn't want to work today, they wanted to go and sit in a cafe and stare at white man instead. I tucked into the soup first with the bread, it was nice and hot and the bread was soft so I really got stuck in a scooped up alot. As I did this the consistency did not remind me of a regular chicken soup, it was thick and lumpy. Probably just chicken bits and a bit of skin I thought, as I devoured the bite in one it became immediately apparent that it wasn't chicken soup at all, it was rice pudding and I had just covered a big lump of bread with it. What the locals thought I don't know but I didn't actually care (disgusted/confused looks come as standard). It turned out tasting pretty good, both were definitely edible and they were right in front of me so I continued to dig in.

After a decent feed I was ready for my speed section. I wanted to get to Bahir Dar as quick as possible so I could have a look around first and then decide if I wanted to do a day trip tomorrow.

Despite the short distance there was still a lot of begging. Today the begging styles varied somewhat and as I've said, there is no fool proof way to handle all of them but i find singing is more successful than most methods (it also maintains high spirits) Some of the kids start with a smile, gesticulate they want money then end with a smile. Some start with a smile, gesticulate they want money then get nasty. Some start nasty and shout and others ask for different things like pens or my t-shirt.

 Some of the kids are an absolute delight and I would love to stop and take pictures to show everybody at home what I'm experiencing. I don't feel right doing it though. I don't like the way it would seem to the locals that a foreign man just comes, takes a picture of them either working hard or playing and then leaves as if they were some sort of exhibition. I made reference to Jurassic park before and its exactly like that with the tour buses as well. It seems to me like the tour buses stop at certain villages so the foreigners can get out and take pictures or just snap away as the bus is still moving. This maintains the divided mentally as the young child sees this and so will never improve the begging problem.

I don't have many pictures of the locals but I do have some incredible landscape shots. Today was surprisingly quite hilly but it didn't deter me from pushing hard and bringing on the burn! 

I arrived in good time at the Ethio Hotel, it was the first one I found and it overlooked the lake so I thought I would give it a punt and see if it was as cheap as Paradise. I knew it wouldn't be as Bahir Dar immediately struck me as more of a tourist town and the busy road running through the centre of it added to that assumption.

I walked into the reception and first impressions were good. There were a few people sat on sofas on iPads which suggested to me that it had free wifi so already I was praying the price was right. "It is 400birr per night" the man at reception said. Oooo, i was gutted, the wifi was neccesary for the blog updates but 400 was a bit steep considering I only paid 90 last night. I asked the man if there was any other cheaper hotels, "ok, 300 per night" he said. Well that was easy! 25% off just for asking! You don't ask if you don't get I suppose and the price included a buffet breakfast which to me meant, a meal for a tenner and free accommodation! I didn't bother trying to get it below 300 and so gave him my details.

That was that, Nigel was in my room and I was showered and changed by 2 o'clock ready for a wander. I had a good walk along the road that ran around the edge of the lake but couldn't really get to the lake due to luxury resorts or restaurants. Lake Tana is a big tourist attraction as its supposed to be the source of the Nile but I have to say I was a little disappointed with how scrappy it was around the edges. This maybe on purpose as it homes some of the rarest birdlife in Ethiopia and so some of the restaurants and the areas in between are quite overgrown with nature. I wish I knew more about birds because I'm sure I saw a few hidden gems but I wouldn't have a clue what they were if they walked up and pooed on me so I just continued to wander around. 

During my walks I have a tendency to find the poshest hotel and despite looking like a poor caveman, the colour of my skin allows me to enter the hotel with no questions asked and  use their facilities. (This means nice shiny toilet and free wifi) Today was no different and I sat out on the restaurant balcony and overlooked the lake with a beer. The beer was 3 times as much as I've been paying previously but in Ethiopia that meant it was still only £1.20 so I sat there in rare silence and soaked everything in.

I had no clue what Bahir Dar had to offer so I did a wee google search and found out that the lake was very famous for its island monasteries and there were boat trips that visited different islands and also an area on the lake where you may spot hippos! There we go then, that's tomorrow sorted.

I got some food in a nice restaurant on the lake and continued some pointless bird watching and as I got about 200m from my hotel I was stopped out of the blue by a nice young lady named Lidet. Lidet was a boat trip organiser and she was offering me a half day tour with a group and all I had to do was meet her at 7am tomorrow. It seems now, that if I want something, I don't have to go looking for it, it'll just come to me! I could get used to that.

I got back to my hotel and confirmed with the man at reception that Lidet was offering a reasonable price and she was so I sat and watched the Champions league football very happy and content with my productive day.

A good ride that Nigel completed with no further spoke issues and good prep for hopefully a enjoyable rest day tomorrow. Happy days indeed.

A day in Paradise

Tuesday 26th November

There is always an adventure to be had when you cycle tour especially in such a diverse country and the unknown factor means you rarely have a boring day. Overall you either win or lose despite having elements of both throughout the day. I've managed to win most days in my eyes but when I woke up today I felt a lose was on the cards, thankfully I was wrong.

The day started well with two omelette sandwiches and I took a few photos of the hotel family but I seriously wasn't looking forward to the ride despite being rested, hydrated and with a full belly.

The first thing to mention is the landscape. Ethiopia certainly doesn't disappoint when in comes to Kodak moments and I was pleasantly surprised to see the road meander around the hills instead of attacking them head on.  The plateau of fields and villages that is surrounded by hills I like something from Jurassic Park. If I changed the cattle to brontosaurus', goats to stegosaurus' and kids to velociraptors then I would be cycling trough another world because that's exactly how it felt.

There was a slight headwind which made it a little harder cycling but took the edge of the heat so on a whole the day was very good. The kids were as always out in force and around 80% of them begged. I tried to vary my responses to see which one worked best but there is no correct way. I didn't find a stick, I'm pretty sure that will only antagonise them, it just depends on the type of child and its quite interesting to see how the manners differ from village to village. 

I also found it quite bizarre as I cycled past students and adults studying Quantity Surveying and only metres past them was begged at by farming infants. The social, educational and economic gap is quite extraordinary and its hard to understand how a country can be in such a situation but I guess it's no different to the ridiculous numbers of homeless people we have in London. This is why I'm pleased to be raising money for not just kick for life but for the Saints foundation as well. 

I got chased a few times today, they always get me on the upslope!  I was pushing into a headwind at the time and the kind hellos soon changed to begging for money. I outpaced them still due to the fact they were wearing sandals/flip flops and we all know that sandals are the worst to run in (alongside slippers.) When the begging changed from money to water that really struck a chord with me. It was only a few days ago I was begging for water and as I looked down at Nigel who was laden with 3 litres I wasn't going to make the same mistake again. If I can make 4 litres last 3 days in the desert I can do 60miles today. 

The next group of lads came just after the first and this time I stopped to give them a litre. It stopped them chasing me but didn't stop them asking for money and the shirt off my back. I don't mind the begging but the chasing is annoying. It normally starts as a hello, then begging, then chasing, then stone throwing. I had a good day today though and all possible stone throws were halted by constant shoulder checks.

I decided to stop fairly early at 11. This turned out to be a quality decision and not only did have another good bath mat-curry combination but I had a great chat with the locals and I found myself in a town only 30km from my initial proposed stop and 60km from my more desired stop. Not only were the locals a good laugh but they were very knowledgeable on distances and terrain which has not been a constant factor with the locals throughout pretty much every African country!

They told me that I only had a few up and downs to get to my first stop Adis Zemen and then after that it was flat until Woreta. If this was true, and  I could stop in Woreta, then I would have a nice leisurely 40 miles to get to Bahir Dar tomorrow. 

I felt really strong today, its always a good idea to eat food before a big mountain ride and the rest had obviously done me good.  There was one climb that was quite tough but I pushed quickly up it and even rejected a kind offer of a lift. When I reached the top I knew it was all downhill from there. I could see lake Tana and the whole world seemed to open in front of me. "This is why you cycle tour" I said and then I let out a huge African-esque "whoooooop." (More specifically it was identical to Rafiki's whoop when he finds out Simba is still alive for all those Lion King fans out there)

I could feel the adrenaline start to bubble through my veins as I started the descent towards the lake. On a big descent in Africa  it's surprisingly not potholes you have to be wary of, its livestock. I came very close today to writing off a donkey or more accurately looking like an ass! Luckily donkeys aren't too sporadic and when they are heavily laden as most of them are, the last thing they want to do is change direction quickly so I managed to swerve in between two of them at the last minute. 

I still had around 30km of flat land after the descent but my momentum carried me across the farmland through lots of different villages pretty quickly. The villages reminded me of wooden climbing frames that you find in English country parks. They all just seemed like recreation areas and throughout the whole day today I was treated to some fascinating little towns with lots of different types of buildings made from an array of natural materials.

As I got closer to Woreta I thought my day was too good to be true and I started to hear what sounded like the cracking of thrown rocks on the road behind me. I was wrong, it was just the sound of a whip cracking on a cows back so my day (unlike the cow's) continued to be pretty much faultless.

I arrived in Woreta at around 3pm and it took me five minutes to find a hotel and check in. The Paradise hotel stood out on the main street as a place to be seen for anybody who's anybody. I was expecting a high price and a poor room but what I got was a better room than in Gondar for a wallet busting £3 a night! Not only that but the TV in the room was already set on the football and I had lights that worked, a tap that ran, water that was hot and a mosquito net!

Something had to go wrong, things were just too perfect. Well a few miles before I arrived in Woreta I noticed the rear wheel wobbling and thought it must've been a loose spoke as I couldn't hear any noise. It just so happened that I had a broken spoke but I took my time whilst watching the footy to get it changed in my room and it took me a cool 20 minutes to get it changed. Adjusting the wheel took a little longer and it still doesn't rotate perfectly so I hope it will be ok. Nigel has been simply amazing since the last broken spoke which I cannot even remember what country that occurred in. I do pray this is just a one off though and my attempt at adjusting the spokes doesn't cause a knock on effect for more broken spokes tomorrow or in the near future.

I had dinner in the hotel cafe and I have to say that the Ethiopians know how to make a good curry! The only down side is that its vegetarian but my two boiled eggs in my special injera gave me the protein I was lacking. I had extra chips which they must have left in the fryer till the oil ran out but luckily I'm a lover of scraps. In total, I worked out today that I had bought technically 4 main meals with a side of chips, 4 litres of water, 3 fantas and a night in "paradise" all for just over £8. Not bad ay? 

A really good day today and I'm set up perfectly for another tomorrow providing my bike handy work doesn't self destruct!

Lake Tana looked beautiful from a distance today, hopefully its just as good close up!

P.S If you're still thinking about the whipped cow then please don't be upset. I'm sure to them, it just felt like a wee tickle or even a massage. It's when it rains when you should be upset, real leather gets destroyed in the rain!

Fondar of Gondar!

Monday 25th November

I made an executive decision last night to stay an extra day and it fully paid off today.

I just wasn't feeling a tough mountainous ride and my hotel was a little way out of the Gondar centre so I still hadn't really seen what it had to offer. I don't like cycling after doing a few jobs either and I needed to get some money changed and ideally clean Nigel so it made sense to stay an extra night.

I changed some money first thing and despite the bank being ram packed with around 30 people swarming around 4 cashiers I was called around the other side of the perspex and fast tracked in around 5 minutes. A perk of being the only white man I guess!

After changing my money I made my way into the city centre to do my touristy thing. A Tuktuk ride and a walk later (the Tuktuk cut me off well short of where I wanted to go!) I had a nosey around Fesilidas' castle who I'm told used to be king of Ethiopia and checked out his baths aswell. There was a 2.5km walk between his castle and his bath which is a bit of a naked dash if you've left your towel in the airing cupboard! Not exactly ideal if you ask me but it was good to do something different and I welcomed the peace and quiet.

I was sporting a big smile for the whole day as i properly chilled out again and took in more of Gondar and the surrounding area. I could sense the people were more used to foreigners as there was slightly less staring and less giggling behind my back. I did wonder if Beirdre didn't exist, would I have any laughs and staring at all? I clocked her for the first time in a mirror in about 6 days and she is positively feral. If the dog hadn't of bit me on Saturday then I'm sure it would've just been a matter of time until Beirdre took my nose off!

I saw a tour bus of white people which was a very welcome site. I didn't talk to any of them or anything like that but it just made me feel slightly less alone then I have felt for the last 3 weeks or so. Come tomorrow when I thrust myself into the countryside I will be back to being the randomer again but for at least 5 minutes today I didn't feel quite so much like an alien.

Even walking around the more "backstreets" of Gondar I felt very relaxed and comfortable just as I have done in all the previous towns I've stopped at for a few nights. Football is becoming more popular and I stopped to watch a few people have a kick about in the street. There are a lot of Ethiopian football jerseys worn in the streets and I'm sensing a greater love for football in Ethiopia compared to Sudan and Egypt. The bar and beer culture may help this but there is always football of some sort on the TV and there are always people in the bars. You could say its like a home from home but its not, it's hot here and its still slowly sinking in that I'm actually in Ethiopia!!!

There is a slight Caribbean feel to the area. The colourfully painted corrugated steel stalls sell a variety of things from shoes to stationary and they blast out music which creates a good atmosphere as you walk past. You're likely to find a few man holes uncovered so you have to watch where you walk as you bounce along and I had to move quickly to avoid some flying rubble today that was being shovelled out of nowhere. 

There is always so much to see in main towns in Africa compared to back home and I love just sitting outside a bar and watching the variety of things going on. I could've done it all day today but I found myself actually wanting to get back to the hotel family.

I got back to the hotel around 2 and had some food, had a chat with the manager about the impending rough terrain that lies waiting for me and then leisurely got Nigel clean and ready to go in the courtyard area. It's good that I know when I'm ready to move on and also when I want to stay. Today was perfect in every way and I can be happy that I've experienced Gondar properly and now I can look forward to the next exciting town/challenge. There's nothing worse than regretting not seeing something when you've come so far. There is a very historic church called Lalibela that would be great to see as well but its just too far a detour for me unfortunately. I may see if I can get a bus tour there during a rest day but cycling would mean changing my route completely and probably adding 5 days which I don't really want to do.

I packed up my panniers and settled down for the night with a movie. My movie got interrupted multiple times with the man on reception channel hopping and then putting on Ethiopia's got talent which was really annoying as I was enjoying Mr Poppers penguins! I guess I will just have to watch it when I get home. No Home Alone or Muppets Xmas Carol for me either this year, "when in rome" means I have to put up with some absolutely atrocious singing that didn't get given one "X." Maybe I could get through on Ethiopia's got talent?...

At least the bed was comfy. A good sleep was needed for a big day on big hills tomorrow.

Reflect and Recover

Sunday 24th November

Today gave me some time to recover and reflect on yesterday's mammoth day. 

I took a while to recover to full health as I still felt a little light headed when I woke up. A few more litres of water and a couple of main meals later restored me a little and then the extra nap at lunchtime got me back fighting fit.

I took a walk around the town and sat at a cafe with a beer to ponder on what I should've highlighted more in yesterday's blog instead of overshadowing it with trying to get the point of how physically and mentally exhausted I was. 

Yes it was a mammoth day but that was only because I had the target of Gondar in my head from the second I woke up. Anything less than Gondar would've been a failure in my eyes so I pushed my body and mind to the absolute  limits (well the locals helped with pushing my mind). I thought to myself, if I didn't know Gondar existed would I have pushed that much? Definitely not! I would've stopped after the first 30miles when I reached the top of the gorge, I would've been happy with a hard days cycling and my blog would've been focused on how the truck drivers offered to slow down and give me a drag up the mountain or how marble arch talked of issues beyond his age such as the state of Ethiopian economy and how he was an absolute star that kept me going up the Gorge. Yesterday could've easily been a two maybe even three day cycle for most, it was my choice to do it in one in the end.

The next section of the day would've mentioned in detail at how beautiful the landscape was and how when it started to rain, the colours of the varying fields magnified and the rolling hills despite being hell to cycle with tired legs provided one of the most beautiful back drops I have ever cycled.

The kids and the dog could not be avoided and I am still happy with how I only snapped once from a stone throw, which I think is justified. The begging is unfortunately a fact of Ethiopia and it leaves a salty taste in your mouth. However when you're attempting to complete a monster 20oz steak of a ride, you don't just eat the steak and down a shot of salt in one after. You sprinkle the salt evenly over the steak which makes it a lot easier to handle and could even enhance the flavour slightly.

I tried to down the shot in one day when I think if I had evenly spread it over two or three days I would mentioned the adults more than the kids and how at each food stop and especially the hotel, the Ethiopian locals have been great. Happy, helpful and every time I've seen them so far I've been embraced with a hug and a smile. Two of them sat with me today as i ate food and we talked about all sorts. Another sat and watched the football with me yesterday and the hotel manager has leant me some money until tomorrow as the banks are closed today.

My food and water deprivation yesterday may've played a part on me focussing on the mobs of begging kids that are very annoying but should no way overshadow the good will of the older generation and the laughs and smiles I've had in the last two days at all the places I've stopped at.

As I sat in the cafe and overlooked the surrounding mountains I know there is going to be no easy way to Addis Ababa (everywhere seemed a steep uphill). I checked the distance to Bahir Dar in the free Internet cafe and there is no way I will expect to do that in one day so I will play each day by the feelings of my body and availability of hotels from now on. This will mean taking a lot longer than planned as i don't want to have half my rest day recovering back to normal when I could spend it in more productive ways. 

I have 770km until Addis which i initially gave myself 6 days to complete, this means nothing now as I have no clue of the terrain and so all plans and schedules are void. Tomorrow I will take things leisurely and ensure my physical strength doesn't get unnecessarily affected, there is no easy way to take on Ethiopia it seems so keeping my head up and my heart strong as I have done so far remains the best tactic.

In other more important news, I'm making my way through the large variety of Ethiopian beers. They're all around 5% and no more than 70p a bottle and so far St George's beer is winning. This has nothing to do with my patriotism this is purely because its the first thing I had when I arrived in Gondar yesterday. Realistically I could've had bull's semen and it would've tasted like sweet nectar so I may have to try it again to conduct a fair test.

I've also checked my right shoe and annoyingly I cant find any teeth marks in the sole so you will just have to take my word for it, the rabid dog did bite me and I'm a lucky boy to have a healthy foot. I will be looking for a big stick on my ride tomorrow.

After a couple more hours I am still holding strong with St. George as the best beer. Meta, Dashen and Bedele are all very good but St George original is winning at the moment. I still have lots of varieties of these brands (blond, pale, extra etc) so this is an ongoing experiment.