Day 152

Sleeping location: Yogofe Hotel, Kombolcha, Ethiopia
Distance (km today/total): 68 / 11064
Estimated climb (m today/total): 1300 / 79800
Restorative cakes eaten: 4

Day in three words: DON’T TRUST DIRT

I woke up at 6am needing the toilet, and by this point the cries of the birds and some nearby fishermen made getting back to sleep impossible. We were both very tired and (in my case anyway) a mite hungover. Also, our Ethiopian SIM cards had both been cut off at midnight and we had no internet any more. After getting ourselves together with lots of coffee and some food we set off straight onto the steep rocky track back to the main road, which was a good start to proceedings. After a few km on the main road we turned off to take advantage of a komoot-recommended shortcut which cut out a lot of distance and climb. It was on an “asphalt road”, but was actually on a stony track, but the gradients and surface didn't look too bad so we decided to give it a go. This went ok until 5km in, when the “ASPHALT ROAD” abruptly turned into a rutted unrideable footpath. When will I learn not to trust komoot in hilly terrain. This path was going to continue for an unknown distance, but almost certainly too far, so with great annoyance we had to turn back to the main road. 2020 had not started well. 

Back on the road we had a long gradual climb up 500m. The scenery was lush and green with lots of trees, and felt almost European. Not much of note happened, apart from a guy shouting “where are you goING” for once (usually it’s just “where are you go”) and me turning around to congratulate him on his use of the gerund. At the top of the climb was Dessie, a pretty big and busy town. We wanted some lunch but nowhere had the food shown in the pictures on the signs, or in one case any food at all, so we ended up buying loads of cakes from a bakery and eating them on the kerb. This was actually pretty great as we hadn’t seen cakes for ages.

From Dessie to Kombulcha was a super fun descent down the side of a steep valley. The road clung to the cliff like spaghetti and followed its contours, with some bits wiggling like crazy (these were the most fun bits). It was also the only descent I’ve done which had a huge troupe of monkeys in the middle, playing around on the sides of the road. They were about the only things in Ethiopia that didn’t seem fussed by the farenji so I got a good look as I cycled past. I arrived in Kombulcha ahead of Rebecca and went to find a hotel; the one we’d earmarked was up a big hill and I was knackered, but thankfully a passing tuktuk was interested in me and drove alongside me for a bit, so I took the opportunity to grab on and get a little tow. The earmarked hotel was too much, then the next one was too basic, but the third was just right - we always seem to take a Goldilocks approach to finding accommodation. The hotel in question was quite fancy but I fancied some pampering and negotiated a tasty discount. it was great, big soft bed and hot shower and a surprisingly good spaghetti olio aglio peperoncino in the restaurant. Sleep came very easy that night.