Day 170
Sleeping location: Naughty Guesthouse, Dimeka, Ethiopia
Distance (km today/total): 99 / 12178
Estimated climb (m today/total): 1500 / 91000
Recovery chocolates: 4
Distance (km today/total): 99 / 12178
Estimated climb (m today/total): 1500 / 91000
Recovery chocolates: 4
Day in three words: Much harder/easier
In the night Rebecca went out to the loo and accidentally came back to the wrong room, where a man was lying on the bed and told her to “come here”. She declined.
In the morning we set off across a wide flat valley with lots of water and frog noises. It was humid and lush and very quiet, apart from the frogs, so there was lots of wildlife about. We saw some beautiful yellow and blue bee eaters, dik diks (little jumping deer), a couple of meerkats, so many butterflies of all colours, and a couple of the things that I previously thought were mongoose but it turns out are “ground squirrels”. At one point I thought my bike was making a squeaking noise but subsequently realised it was a nearby hornbill. We then found a 5m tall termite mound, with a massive chimney and everything, and went to investigate, but sadly it looked like the termites had abandoned it and it was in a state of some disrepair.
The road was very quiet of both people and cars and it was lovely relaxed riding, at least until the climb of 900m over 20km started, up through green hills with lots of fun noises coming from the undergrowth. The first third was relentless and quite hard work, especially in the heat, but the middle section was absolutely brutal and required frequent rests. For one I stopped near a phone mast to check the cricket score and some proper tribal old guys, all piercings and tattoos, came to say hello. They asked about my thorn defences via mime and I mimed children taking things, which they seemed to understand and nodded knowingly. Towards the end of the awful bit I found myself close to bonking* and had to stop and devour four fake kitkats, including eagerly licking the melted chocolate off the wrappers and making weird little noises. Rebecca had thrown up in the morning and effectively hadn’t eaten anything all day but kept going, which was very impressive.
At the top we had lunch in a cafe with a cute little girl who kept trying to play football with us and showing off with attempted handstands. Unfortunately the meal was a rip off and took ages, which left us with 55km of dirt to cover in 3.5hrs. This could have been tricky but mercilessly, after a gnarly first section, it was actually pretty smooth with lots of gradual downhill and we made good progress. The vegetation got increasingly more tropical as we descended, and there were some nice views of distant green mountains. On this road we came across four kids who were apparently living (or at least hanging out) in an abandoned school bus. One of them may actually have been feral and kept making weird sounds and demanding money/food with an outstretched hand. When he started grabbing at bits of our bikes I had to produce the porcupine quill to scare him away**.
We made it into the friendly but confusing town of Dimeka a little before dark and found a hotel that wanted way too much, then another which wanted WAY too much but was quickly laughed down to half that (200 Birr). I offered him $5 instead, which is officially about 150 Birr but there is a currency black market in Ethiopia, and he accepted with a greedy look in his eyes. Five minutes later he stomped back saying that he didn’t want to change any more, having realised that actually he had been the one who came out of this worse. Should have said no backsies. The same hotel then tried to rip us off for dinner, but Rebecca smartly asked some locals what they had paid*** and we left that plus about 20% (rather than the 100% they had tried to get). The Omo Valley has generally been a friendly place but it’s also been the only part of Ethiopia where we have been aggressively and constantly ripped of.
*Calm down, it’s when you run out of blood sugar and life gets very difficult
**The stone he threw (poorly) at us was the last one of Ethiopia: end of an era
***Amusingly these guys then had a go at the hotel owner, saying something to the effect of “it’s fine to charge the farenji a bit more but don’t take the piss”, which is also our philosophy on these things
In the night Rebecca went out to the loo and accidentally came back to the wrong room, where a man was lying on the bed and told her to “come here”. She declined.
In the morning we set off across a wide flat valley with lots of water and frog noises. It was humid and lush and very quiet, apart from the frogs, so there was lots of wildlife about. We saw some beautiful yellow and blue bee eaters, dik diks (little jumping deer), a couple of meerkats, so many butterflies of all colours, and a couple of the things that I previously thought were mongoose but it turns out are “ground squirrels”. At one point I thought my bike was making a squeaking noise but subsequently realised it was a nearby hornbill. We then found a 5m tall termite mound, with a massive chimney and everything, and went to investigate, but sadly it looked like the termites had abandoned it and it was in a state of some disrepair.
The road was very quiet of both people and cars and it was lovely relaxed riding, at least until the climb of 900m over 20km started, up through green hills with lots of fun noises coming from the undergrowth. The first third was relentless and quite hard work, especially in the heat, but the middle section was absolutely brutal and required frequent rests. For one I stopped near a phone mast to check the cricket score and some proper tribal old guys, all piercings and tattoos, came to say hello. They asked about my thorn defences via mime and I mimed children taking things, which they seemed to understand and nodded knowingly. Towards the end of the awful bit I found myself close to bonking* and had to stop and devour four fake kitkats, including eagerly licking the melted chocolate off the wrappers and making weird little noises. Rebecca had thrown up in the morning and effectively hadn’t eaten anything all day but kept going, which was very impressive.
At the top we had lunch in a cafe with a cute little girl who kept trying to play football with us and showing off with attempted handstands. Unfortunately the meal was a rip off and took ages, which left us with 55km of dirt to cover in 3.5hrs. This could have been tricky but mercilessly, after a gnarly first section, it was actually pretty smooth with lots of gradual downhill and we made good progress. The vegetation got increasingly more tropical as we descended, and there were some nice views of distant green mountains. On this road we came across four kids who were apparently living (or at least hanging out) in an abandoned school bus. One of them may actually have been feral and kept making weird sounds and demanding money/food with an outstretched hand. When he started grabbing at bits of our bikes I had to produce the porcupine quill to scare him away**.
We made it into the friendly but confusing town of Dimeka a little before dark and found a hotel that wanted way too much, then another which wanted WAY too much but was quickly laughed down to half that (200 Birr). I offered him $5 instead, which is officially about 150 Birr but there is a currency black market in Ethiopia, and he accepted with a greedy look in his eyes. Five minutes later he stomped back saying that he didn’t want to change any more, having realised that actually he had been the one who came out of this worse. Should have said no backsies. The same hotel then tried to rip us off for dinner, but Rebecca smartly asked some locals what they had paid*** and we left that plus about 20% (rather than the 100% they had tried to get). The Omo Valley has generally been a friendly place but it’s also been the only part of Ethiopia where we have been aggressively and constantly ripped of.
*Calm down, it’s when you run out of blood sugar and life gets very difficult
**The stone he threw (poorly) at us was the last one of Ethiopia: end of an era
***Amusingly these guys then had a go at the hotel owner, saying something to the effect of “it’s fine to charge the farenji a bit more but don’t take the piss”, which is also our philosophy on these things
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