To: Wild Camp in Ethiopia #2
New plan! Some people are EFI - wanting to ride the bike every gosh-darn-golly-goodness inch of the way, without ever setting foot inside a motorized vehicle. Others are fast-bunnies, wanting to set biking speed records. My new plan is to see how many modes of transportation I can use to get across Africa! Today I added an Ethiopian tractor to the list and here is a picture of my friends and their tractor.
It was really neat. There I was, peddling along, feeling tired for no apparent reason other than that the road was rough, bumpy, gravelly, and rocky - and then a tractor came along! The 2 boys motioned to me, as if to say, "Want a ride?" Of course, that could have just been my desire and imagination that made me think they were saying that, but, either way, I thought, "Why, heck yeah!" So, they stopped and helped me and my bike on. I rode with them for a good 45 minutes. They weren't going much faster than a bike, so we probably only went about 10 km, but it was fun! What a neat introduction to Ethiopia.
So, with the new Plan, here is a list of transportation modes so far:
Tour bus (in Egypt)
Boat (Egypt to Sudan)
African Routes Truck (our tour truck)
Donkey Cart (in Sudan)
Sudanese Long-Haul Truck
Ethiopian Tractor
Bike
Have also decided not to pay attention when people tell me what to expect in a country. Was expecting rock-throwing, beastly children, who chase after you, rudely yelling "you! you!" all the time. Instead, what I found (in my, admittedly, only half-day of cycling so far) were many, many curious and outgoing children. They do chase you, but it's with excitement, and I didn't have a single rock hurled at me today. Oh, I'm sure there will be a rock incident before I leave the country, but I was honestly expecting nearly every Ethiopian child to be a rock thrower.
I have noticed already the Ethiopians to be remarkably and noticeably different from the Sudanese. The big new thing is that, because of their "enthusiasm" I guess, they come around in huge masses and crown both you and your bike. The kids like to touch and fiddle with all the gadgets on my bike (e.g., water bottles) and I get worried I'm going to lose something - which wouild be a real bummer for this trip. Fortunately, at my second rest stop of the morning, I met Johannes (John) who taught me how to say, "Don't touch" in Amharik (local language). It's "Atenkaw." So, then, I kept practicing it every time one of the 100 kids staring at me through the door, touched the bike. This was a perfect solution because it allowed me to look friendly, like I'm playing a game (which I was, in a way), while at the same time getting across the message.
Johannes was a very friendly young man who spoke pretty good English. While I was at his coke stop place, Eric (from Sweden) showed up. When Eric and I were leaving, Johannes asked for my address and I decided to give it to him. I hope he writes so that I can put the Ethiopian stamp in my stamp collection. Mind you, I don't actually have a stamp collection, but I'm thinking of starting one.
Eric then rode with me all the way to lunch. Actually, we didn't even make it to lunch. I was so tired and soooo slow that at 2:00 in the afternoon, Thor and the lunch truck got worried and came back looking for us. They found us, not 5 km from where lunch was supposed to be - at another coke stop! It is very hot around here. If you were here, you'd drink cold coke at every opportunity too! Anyway, when Thor showed up, I was busy practicing my few new words of Amharik. Specifically, "Atenkow." Much to everybody's delight. At that time, I was beat, so got on the truck. Eric felt good (he's very strong) so rode the rest of the way.
--------------- TODAY -------------- TOTAL
Cycled -------- 46 km (29 mi) -------- 2,069 km (1,285 mi)
Sagged -------- 48.5 km (30 mi) ------ 534 km (343 mi)
Total ---------- 94.5 km (59 mi) ------ 2,603 km (1,628 mi)
In Saddle ------ 4 hours --------------- 122 hours 33 min
Ascended ------ 929 feet -------------- 19,409 feet
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