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!
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