Day 141

Sleeping location: Something Pension, Mehoni, Ethiopia
Distance (km today/total): 72 / 10623
Estimated climb (m today/total): 1200 / 72000
Capsized trucks: 2
Day in three words: The wicked rollercoaster

Before we set off we fixed some tinsel to our bikes in an attempt to get into the Christmas spirit, it being 21st December already. The fact that it’s a bit cold here definitely helps with the festive feeling.  On the way out of town I got an escort from two boys on bikes, who loved keeping up with me until the hill started, plus some really young kids started chanting “Chi-na! Chi-na!” as we went past. A good start to the day. 

The aforementioned hill was a medium sized ‘un, starting off gradually up a river valley through beautiful craggy mountains, then ramping up away from the valley along some steep sections with short descents in between. It took a couple of hours and was hard work, but it was all very beautiful. On the way up were two capsized trucks within a couple of km of each other; one had been involved in a really bad looking accident. We got lots of attention from kids, as is normal when we’re going slowly, and by now I have gone fully crazy with them and started saying things like “a merry Scritu to you” and replying to “where you go” with “CHINA!”. On the last steep section I was tailed by five kids saying nonsense like “how many banana” and “you money”, all of which I replied to as if they were serious questions, which really confused them. It passed the time. 

At the top (2600m) I stopped to wait for Rebecca and ate some “OK Biscuits”, which are a great example of nominative determinism. From here we had a mega fun 10km descent through sweeping bends and more of the same stunning scenery, but after that entered into an annoying section with lots of fun downhills but also lots of short but stiff climbs. It was tough riding and made it difficult to keep momentum up for long. The scenery changed gradually from rocky peaks to dramatic forested peaks to rolling hills, and the air got wetter and warmer as we descended. We came out onto a big plain framed on the right by huge mountains (the ones we had crossed earlier in the day). 

10km along here was the town of Mehoni, where we’d agreed to meet for lunch, but we had moved so slowly that it was gone 4pm by the time we both arrived and close to 5pm before we were ready to move on. There were no upcoming towns on the map and even though we were pretty sure there would be mystery towns with basic hotels*, we decided to call it a day and stay in Mehoni. We found another moderate pension, Rebecca went out for an explore and I chilled out in the room with blog, beer and banana sandwiches.

*And indeed there were, as we found the next day

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