Gonder to Addis Ababa 12 Days - 750 km

After arriving in Gonder I had a few days break.
Sudan had not gone well and I needed some time to think about what I did right, what I did wrong and what I needed to do to ensure that I wouldn't end up on a bus again.

The best way to forget about Sudan was to get back on the bike so I departed after 3 days.

 

I had been told Ethiopia was very beautiful, very hilly but there could be some problems with the locals - especially the children.

The top of the first climb in Ethiopia

Everything I had been told was true, The roads were great, the countryside amazing, the hills large and the people terrible. On the first day I had rocks thrown at me, people yelling at saying you, you, you, where are you go? people demanding money on the side of the road and the children were the worst.
Just around the corner from this photo 2 kids kicked a football at me while I was doing 50k down the hill. It missed by less than a meter.

Helping out some locals with bike problems.

All of this was a bit of a shock. I had been expecting some harassment but this was something else. Over the time getting to Addis I worked out how to deal with all this.

When rocks were thrown at me I would turn around and chase who threw them - it was usually kids.
I watched people beside the road closely to see if they picked up rocks. If they did then I would stop and pick one up too and then they would drop their rock.
If someone was yelling faranji (foreigner/white person) on the bike I would ignore them.
When someone tried to spit on me I would chase them.
For the footballs kicked at me I would take get it, take it down the road 1 km and leave it there.
The people/children on the side of the road who demanded money I would ignore.
There was also the constant  yelling of you where are you go? where are you go? I would ignore this too.

Rocks were thrown and I was spat at  2/3 times each day. Faranji insults, money money money, you where are you go would happen 100 times a day and the football kicking only 2/3 times a week.

The most notable of all of this was a group of kids out walking some cows. They setup the cows on the right had side of the road, then put a rope across what was left of the road so I had a small area to pass them in. I went through what was left of the road and one of them hit me with a cattle whip. It mostly missed and I did chase them but I had to give them credit for a very cunning plan.

I try not to stop in the middle of a town as I will be mobbed by people, so I would find a bar/restaurant/hotel like this one to take a break. If I stopped where people could see me they would just stop what they were doing walk over to watch me do things like buy water or eat something.
I found this was a bit weird to begin with but it was pretty much the same everywhere. Oddly you get used to everyone looking at you all the time.

Often I would get kids running beside me wanting money. I would ignore them and after 500m or 1km they would stop. This kid was different. He ran beside me for around 2km going uphill wearing a blanket and gumboots and I couldn't go faster than him. I was doing 13km/hour and he was still there so I stopped, gave him a drink and some biscuits and took this photo.
The children of Ethiopia can run.

Occasionally I would meet locals on bikes. We would have a chat and I would try to ride through through the next town with them. I don't get hassled nearly as much when I am with a local.

Ethiopia has some good cheap beer. Here I am writing up the days events (distance/times/speed/what happened) and having a Jambo. This is 400ml of beer for around 12 birr (80 cents). There is always someone watching.

Ethiopia is the home of coffee so I get to drink good cheap coffee every day. They have a “Coffee Ceremony” here. They roast the coffee beans, grind it up and it ends up looking like this. Coffee like this costs about 10 birr (60 cents) and you get 3 small cups.

It was my birthday as I approached Debre Markos so this is the birthday photo. Its at the top a 1 hour climb and it had a great view. Climbing hills in Ethiopia was a pretty good way to spend my birthday.

Debre Markos

Two days after my birthday it was onto the biggest descent/ascent I have faced so far at the Nile river gorge. It was 20km decent that took 45 minutes. Its not fun going downhill that far, the brakes get hot and I had to stop three times to let them cool down. My hands get sore from pulling on the brakes and I had to constantly watch the road for changes in the surface, animals, broken down trucks/buses and people. 
 

The road downhill was beautiful and gave me time to think about the climb that was to come.
I have climbed many hills now and there is a kind of process that I go through with the larger ones. I try to work how big the hill is hill is either via the gps or in this case I can see that its very big.I accept that this is something I have to do. Its not optional and I will bike to the top of the hill no matter what it takes.

I try to work out how long it is going to take me. I looked at this point and I thought it would be 2 to 3 hours. I look for sections within the climb. I use something on the hill to break it down it 4 or 5 sections, usually this is flatter parts, changes in direction or points where I turn the corner. In this one it was the power pylons. There were 5 of these on the hill so I would use each one as a different section.
 

Looking back to where I had come from.

So by the time I get to the start of the climb I have an estimated time based on the 3-5km hour for steep sections and 5-8km hour for the not so steep. I have sections that I can tick off along the way to see my progress and I will force more water down me, eat some food and get mentally ready in this case for 3 hours of pain.
 

This is the gorge bridge. It was taken by some police officers who were sitting on the side of the road. Ethiopia has its own calendar so whilst this is called the millennium bridge it was finished in 2007. The friendly officers confirmed that it was another 21km to the top.

So this changed the plan and I knew it would be a 4 hour climb.

I stopped at the 3 hour mark to fill the water bottles again.

I have only one rule when climbing a mountain. Do not stop. It doesn't matter how much it hurts you do not stop until you reach the top. This sounds a bit crazy especially on a 21km climb but its how I do it.

I see it as a battle me vs the mountain.  The purpose of the mountain is to destroy my motivation, my legs and to make me quit. My single purpose is to defeat the mountain by climbing it. If you stop its because you are physically or mentally tired and the mountain is starting to defeat you. This happens when if you go too fast, eat to little, don't drink enough or start thinking that this is too difficult and you have to stop
 
Once you stop a first time then you will stop again. It will begin to hurt too much and stopping feels like the best thing to do. This carries on until eventually you are resting more than you are biking and the mountain has won. It all ends with you pushing the bike up hill, mentally demoralized and worse off physically - its harder to push the bike uphill than ride it.

I have been defeated like this many times on my travels but after Austria I decided that enough was enough I had to start winning these battles.

So to the climb 

I take off my watch. Time is irrelevant as it me vs the mountain and it doesn't matter how long it takes. I put the GPS away. I don't want to know where I am on the climb, how far I have come or how far I have to go. Looking at these things in the early part of a climb can only demoralize you.

I have a few sayings that I repeat just before I begin and then it starts, and it doesn't stop until I finish the climb. 
A climb always has steeper and flatter sections. 

The goal in the steeper section is to get up that section at a comfortable place. I need to be breathing comfortably and keeping the heart rate as low as possible, so at times  I get down to 3.2km/h hour but it averages between 3-5km/hour. At this speed its difficult to keep the bike upright but I can continue to climb like this for as long as it takes.
On the flatter sections I try to take it easy, drink, eat and recover as much as I can  from the steeper section. This might see me going at 5-8km/hour which isn't quick but if necessary I can get the breathing and heart rate back under control.

The summit

Time passes, and it all becomes a bit of a blur. I just focus on getting  to get to the next corner, to the next section and my at some point my mind drifts off somewhere else
I don't think about the biking but try to think of anything else.

Time passes and eventually you finish the mountain.
I won, the climb did not beat me, the reward is the view and I get to have a break.
This was a 3 hour 58 minute climb. The longest but not the toughest. 

I haven't been beaten by a climb since Austria. Then its onto the next one. 

The break at summit.

After the gorge climb it was a few days later that I arrived in Addis.
I still get hassled here but not all day every day and it was was good to have a bit of time to unwind after what had been a difficult ride to get here. It wasn't so much the the ride that was difficult (it had its moments) but it was dealing with the people that was tough.
 

I have been in Addis for just over two weeks now - I needed some bike parts & MP3 player sent from the UK (Thanks Damon & Jo). It was a complex business getting them sent then clearing customs so it took longer than I was hoping but now they are here I will get back on the road soon.  

Its been an interesting stay. 
The area where I have stayed (Piazza) is cheap and full of bars that are very dimly lit. The Ethiopians like a drink so later in the evening the pubs are full of men dancing, clapping and singing. Its quite a thing to see when the pub whole pub is dancing and in full voice.

There is extreme poverty with homeless children, men and women sleeping rough and there are many people with disabilities begging in the streets.

There is also a lot of money here, with Addis being the headquarters of the African Union and there are many NGO's investing money in health, welfare, education & agriculture. The UN has 26 agencies and programs here so you see their vehicles everywhere.

Because of all this outside assistance people usually assume that I am working here rather than just being a tourist.

 
There has been some fights which usually end up with the police taking someone away in handcuffs made of tied string. There was a comical situation where the police chased some homeless kids up and down the street for 10 minutes. I would see the kids run past then the police chasing. Then a minute later the same thing from the other direction. Everyone stopped watched and laughed but it did end badly with the kids getting hit with the baton.

Addis was always going to be a bit difficult because it was my first major African city and you never know quite what to expect. I have visited the major tourist sites (there aren't many) and I have meet some interesting local and talked with them about Ethiopia's past, present and future. I have also meet some fellow tourists and had a few late nights and some fun times in Piazza. 
So all in all its been fun in Addis but now I need to get back on the bike, finish off Ethiopia in a little over a week and then into Kenya. 

I have a meeting with an Elephant somewhere in the very near future and I cant wait!