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.
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