Day 164
Sleeping location: Green Hotel, Alaba Kulito, Ethiopia
Distance (km today/total): 75 / 11710
Estimated climb (m today/total): 300 / 86600
Pool: Me 3:0 Rebecca
Distance (km today/total): 75 / 11710
Estimated climb (m today/total): 300 / 86600
Pool: Me 3:0 Rebecca
Day in three words: Some funny people
We headed out under wonderfully overcast skies, which made a nice change from always having to shield ourselves from the fierce tropical and high altitude sun. On the way out of town was a sign for Radical Stationery Shop, which sounds like it sells things like 2ft erasers and motorised pencils with three ends. The cycling was pretty much the same all day, a flat plain with more wheat fields and scattered trees. Mid morning we took a gamble on a smaller road which was more direct, which worked out well as it was new and nicer than the bigger one, and quiet for both traffic and people. In fact, most of the people all day were friendly and we had hardly any hassle. We had heard stories of “terror” south of Addis but so far it’s nowhere to be seen. The houses are getting more colourful and fun, and lots of people wear these fun straw stovepipe hats, so that’s keeping things interesting. Some memorable interactions throughout the day:
-A guy attempting to be racist by making exaggerated “Chinese” noises at me, which got a laugh and a shout of “I’m not Chinese you dickhead” instead of the hurt expression he was probably hoping for
-An old man so fascinated by us that a (loudly honking) bus almost ran him over
-A nice boy who served us at lunch, who was wearing a t shirt that said “Birthday Girl”
-A tiny girl wearing an enormous straw hat which fell off when she excitedly ran towards us
We got to Kulita by 3pm and decided to stop as it looked fun and it was two days to Arba Minch, where we planned to take a rest day, wherever we stopped. Our hotel had a nice garden so I sat there with various juices and coffees doing some blogging. There was some kind of cultural festival going on in town but we assumed it would go on all night and rocked up at 5pm to discover that it had in fact just finished. I then briefly tried to watch some football but was quickly mobbed by excitable kids and had to flee to a nearby hotel for beers with Rebecca. We then had a strange dinner where I ate loads of lamb because Rebecca’s stomach wasn’t up to it, then she accidentally ordered pasta instead of wine* so we had to eat that, then we found a bakery and had cake to finish things off. At the bakery loads of people were queueing up, seemingly to be given the bread that was left over at the end of the day, so we felt like total dicks rolling in and buying cream cakes and donuts. Still did it though. To round things off we played a few rounds of Ethiopian style pool, which I am now convinced is really good, mainly because I keep winning.
*The waiter didn’t seem to even understand what wine was, despite being shown pictures on Rebecca’s phone
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