Over breakfast I saw Edwin emerge from the toilet. He was feeling a lot better than last night which was good so we planned to maybe meet at the same village at the end of the day.
Getting to Dejen which was my proposed village seemed almost impossible looking at Edwin's much more accurate and in depth map of the terrain. He was going to wait to call his parents at 2pm which gave me time to get some decent miles in. The plan was to stop at either one of two villages and go to the best looking Hotel. Edwin took a picture of me and would then follow me on a man hunt to find a filthy castaway on a bike. Fool proof plan obviously!
As its the 1st December and I would normally open a door on my advent calendar I am making an African version of the first memorable incident of the day. Today I opened my first door to a man really encouraging me and clapping as I motored up a hill.
I felt really strong today (possibly the thought of meeting a familiar face at the end of the day) but not only that, the amount of pesky kids or how i like to put it, kinderruptions was drastically lower and as always the older generation were in fine form with smiles and thumbs up. As I sang Robbie Williams' "strong" two old blokes who struggled to walk down the hill with their sticks all of a sudden burst into dance and started jigging around and waving their sticks in the air. Just as this happened a local younger man cracked out a traditional Ethiopian dance which is where you pop your shoulders back and forth really quickly. It kind of looks like a chicken impression mixed with someone putting an ice cube down your back but its great to watch and not easy to do. (I tried it and almost slipped a disc!)
Today the wildlife was in full form and more specifically birdlife. Unfortunately i couldn't tell you what on earth all of them were but the most impressive ones looked like a cross between a pterodactyl and a vulture. There were hawks a plenty circling dangerously close to my head and electric blue birds along with every other colour you can think of but I am yet to find zazu, I'm keeping my eyes peeled for him though. (Lion king reference again for you there)
I found myself in a town called Debre Markos just as the college kicked out. It was great to see so many people coming out of education but the stampede was a bit mental as I tried to manoeuvre through the hundreds. I stopped for lunch on the roadside so I could jump out in front of Edwin if I saw him riding past. I've been eating a lot of the same foods recently, its nice food but I fancied a change. Instead of my usual "curry," I chose the perfect food for a man sporting a bit of gruff around the mouth, soup! And not only that it was meat soup that had the cooked sheep leg still in it.
It is tradition in Ethiopia to only eat with your right hand as your left hand is for other purposes...and it's also frowned upon to lick your fingers. Well let's just say I have no issues with people frowning at me and so i proceeded to get both hands stuck in, face dripping with oily mutton soup and as the colonel would say, the whole lot was "finger licking good" and they didn't provide napkins so what else was I going to do!
After a decent meal and rest it was time to get back on the road where I would cycle towards an unknown town that myself and Edwin had agreed on but he was more likely going to catch me up en route anyway. It took a while to shake off the "lunchtime legs" but when I did I found myself making excellent progress and the more preferred 120km marker of Dejen was becoming more possible.
I left so late this morning and had an extra long lunch I didn't think there was any way I could squeeze the miles in but the road was being kind to me. I arrived at the original "unknown" village at around 4pm and I was surprised Edwin hadn't caught me up. The terrain changed so much and I even cycled through a forest which I thought Edwin may've stopped at as he has a hammock and said he would look out for trees if he couldn't find me. As I cycled through the unknown village it became apparent that there was no hotel and I really didn't fancy camping. I had a tricky decision to make, do I carry on and push for Dejen which would be a fight against daylight, do I chance it with some locals in this village or do I just keep going till sunset and end up camping in the centre of Hyena land and hope maybe Edwin catches me up and we can at least camp together. Not one option was a guarantee or really desirable as I was initially set on a nice hotel and a beer with Edwin. As always though, plans change and the movie that is my life took an interesting turn.
I decided to fight against daylight. If the road stayed good then I had worked out, with the help of getting an average of multiple distances that I received from the locals, that I would arrive in Dejen at around half 6, just before sunset. I got my head down and turned my music up. As the sun set behind me and my shadow grew longer in front of me, I felt stronger and had somehow summoned a ton of energy so late in the day.
I motored to the top of the hill only to look down and find road works for as far as the eye could see. I couldn't believe it, Ethiopian roads have been perfect up until now and just when I need them to stay perfect I am faced with not tiny bits of gravel but huge coarse foundations that was like cycling on giant marbles. My bike is not cut out for this terrain and it wasn't as if there was a solid layer of tarmac underneath that the lorries constantly going past had revealed. The rocks were 2-3 feet deep in some areas and absolutely impossible to ride.
I was gutted and angry. There was no way around it and I had to push Nigel for 5km along the equally as bumpy muddy path along the roadside. This drastically affected the likelihood of arriving in Dejen before nightfall and I really did not want to be cycling with the lights on as the Hyenas are up and hunting as soon as the sun goes.
The road eventually turned back to tarmac and I absolutely went for it with all I had. The kids could've said, thrown or done whatever they liked I had one focus and that was to push Nigel to the absolute limits. I converted the frustration and anger of the roadworks into pure adrenaline and with a quick question to a local man on a bike I was given hope, 10km to Dejen and its downhill! Woohoo! I let out a massive cheer. I had about half an hour of sunlight left, the sun had gone but the sky was still a beautiful orange.
My hope and enthusiasm was dashed and crushed into pieces as I reached the crest of the next hill. Again, I looked down to find the remaining 10km of "road" a track of dust and rubble. I couldn't peddle it, it was far to dangerous and as the speeding lorries had carved one lane in the road there was no way I was going to submerge myself in the dust just to get a half decent surface that would probably result in either breaking Nigel or breaking me.
From being up the majority of the day to down to up and then a massive down again, my emotions were like the terrain and I just couldn't believe how far the road works went on for, this beat Turkey! I lifted Nigel over a reservation of rock to get on the unfinished tarmac side of the road but it meant I had a few extra metres of cycling before both lanes turned good again. I eventually arrived in Dejen in darkness but at least I was in the town. I just needed to find a decent hotel.
I stopped at the first hotel/motel and asked one of the truckers the price. 120 he said, it was more than I'm used to but the place looked pretty decent. I approached the manager and she said it wasn't 120 and that it was 180 for me. Despite it being late and dark, that annoyed me and I'm a man of principles so i left her and prayed there was another hotel down the road. My rubbish phone map did say there was but as I continued to cycle and frantically look both sides of the main road I wasn't prepared to bet Nigel on it. As it happened my map was spot on and Alem hotel shone out like a shining star in front of me. The room was 100 and there was a decent looking restaurant that was showing Chelsea-Saints just kicking off.
I've always wondered why they put just one chair in motel rooms with no desk. It's normally used as a clothes horse but I used mine to slump exhaustedly into and take in another mental day but a good day in the end. The hotel manager and her friend sat with me as I watched the football, had a beer and easily munched my way through two Spaghetti Bolognese's.
I was knackered in the end so couldn't manage the whole Saints game but at least I was safe and not battling the Hyenas in my tent in some random field which looked dangerously likely during the last hour of the day.
I've set myself up nicely to tackle the Abay Gorge tomorrow. I've been building myself up for this day for at least a week now so let's hope all goes well.
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