Day 171
Sleeping location: Hulu Bersu Pension, Omorate, Ethiopia
Distance (km today/total): 106 / 12284
Estimated climb (m today/total): 200 / 91200
Price of electricity: 200 Birr (£5)
Distance (km today/total): 106 / 12284
Estimated climb (m today/total): 200 / 91200
Price of electricity: 200 Birr (£5)
Day in three words: Farewell to Ethiopia
In the morning I made coffee outside and was going to have breakfast out there but was forced back into the room by a group of staring locals*. We are so looking forward to having some privacy again, to be able to camp or have a picnic without the whole village turning up to silently stare and/or ask for money. On the way out of town we met a nice Dutchman on an organised tour of Ethiopia, and we had a nice mutual moan about how MUCH Ethiopia is, fittingly whilst a group of children gathered to stare and fiddle with our bikes. We set off back onto a dirt road, but sadly not as nice as the previous day’s, all loose sand and big stones and that horrible bouncy washboard surface. It was again very tropical and we would occasionally see some very tribal looking people who were all very friendly. At one point I passed a crowd of five naked children and a topless old lady who were all waving and shouting hello. Throughout all this I was listening to OK Computer, which was a spectacularly bad fit for this most stereotypically African of scenes, but who cares it’s great.
It took us 2hrs to do the less than 30km into the town of Turmi, which had again lots of tribal vibes, but also lots of younger people in western clothes. As everywhere the old ways of life are being eroded and homogenised. There were some interesting combinations along these lines, such as a guy in a full tribal getup plus a Chelsea football shirt. Absolutely everyone we interacted with tried to rip us off, which is ironic given the number of “UK Aid” project signs in the area. At lunch we had “fish” soup which was actually (we think) goat, and I tried to give some injera to a bird but even he was sick of it.
We set off towards Omorate having heard that the road was paved all the way, but the apparent route was on dirt/sand. We went 3km then turned back to town to make sure we’d gone the right way. Back in town a friendly policeman said that indeed we had been going the right way, but the asphalt didn’t start for 5km. Back down the dirt road, sure enough after 5km the track abruptly turned into a smooth asphalt road, which ran for the next 100km to the border. I have no idea why they didn’t just extend it to Turmi; maybe the contractors got ripped off so much that the money ran out. The road was very empty (I saw 3 vehicles in 3hrs) and went through very empty bushland with the odd faraway hut. There was a lot of wildlife about and I saw several monkeys* and colourful birds, an ENORMOUS vulture and lots of termite mounds with their distinctive big thin chimneys. The few people were very tribal and mostly (semi)nude, mostly they gave friendly waves but a couple tried to aggressively wave me down to ask for food.
We were descending all the way, albeit into a headwind so it was annoyingly not that fast, at when we reached Omorate it was very very hot. We found a hotel on the outskirts of town which was quite nice but the friendly owner wanted 500 Birr. Rebecca got him down to “300 but no electricity” which we thought was great until we realised that this meant the fan wouldn’t work. Rebecca cooked a delicious spicy soup (just the thing for hot weather) with a lot of our remaining food and we spent our last evening in Ethiopia in the most un-Ethiopian way possible, in a quiet room with nobody around, no injera and no beers.
How to summarise this crazy country then? Before this trip started it was the place I was dreading the most, having heard horror stories about attacks, ambushes and serious injuries from everyone else who’s cycled through it. Rebecca got a very painful stone to the ribs but I didn’t get hit once, and most of the time we felt safe and welcomed. Maybe we dealt with things well, or maybe we took a good route - we didn’t ride any of the “usual” more direct route from Sudan to Kenya. The constant attention was difficult to deal with sometimes, but it only really got to us when our defences were down due to tiredness or illness. As for positives, there’s quite a few. First and foremost it’s an absolutely beautiful country, with much variety in its landscapes. As a result of all this beauty (read: mountains**) there was also some fantastic cycling. We had some memorable moments with wildlife. The climate was surprisingly pleasant and cool. The culture was fascinating and the food was generally very tasty, aside from the ubiquitous injera. And the people were mostly very nice despite the frequent language barriers. Once the memories of the attention and begging and occasional aggression fade into amusing stories we will be left with a lot of incredible experiences. Despite all the difficulties I think it’s my favourite country since Turkey, and that isn’t something I thought I’d be saying.
*At one point I startled a baboon which ran off making some very amusing noises
**Before Ethiopia the average climb had been 62600m/9866km or 6.34m/km. During Ethiopia we did 29500m/2418km or 12.2m/km. HILLY.
In the morning I made coffee outside and was going to have breakfast out there but was forced back into the room by a group of staring locals*. We are so looking forward to having some privacy again, to be able to camp or have a picnic without the whole village turning up to silently stare and/or ask for money. On the way out of town we met a nice Dutchman on an organised tour of Ethiopia, and we had a nice mutual moan about how MUCH Ethiopia is, fittingly whilst a group of children gathered to stare and fiddle with our bikes. We set off back onto a dirt road, but sadly not as nice as the previous day’s, all loose sand and big stones and that horrible bouncy washboard surface. It was again very tropical and we would occasionally see some very tribal looking people who were all very friendly. At one point I passed a crowd of five naked children and a topless old lady who were all waving and shouting hello. Throughout all this I was listening to OK Computer, which was a spectacularly bad fit for this most stereotypically African of scenes, but who cares it’s great.
It took us 2hrs to do the less than 30km into the town of Turmi, which had again lots of tribal vibes, but also lots of younger people in western clothes. As everywhere the old ways of life are being eroded and homogenised. There were some interesting combinations along these lines, such as a guy in a full tribal getup plus a Chelsea football shirt. Absolutely everyone we interacted with tried to rip us off, which is ironic given the number of “UK Aid” project signs in the area. At lunch we had “fish” soup which was actually (we think) goat, and I tried to give some injera to a bird but even he was sick of it.
We set off towards Omorate having heard that the road was paved all the way, but the apparent route was on dirt/sand. We went 3km then turned back to town to make sure we’d gone the right way. Back in town a friendly policeman said that indeed we had been going the right way, but the asphalt didn’t start for 5km. Back down the dirt road, sure enough after 5km the track abruptly turned into a smooth asphalt road, which ran for the next 100km to the border. I have no idea why they didn’t just extend it to Turmi; maybe the contractors got ripped off so much that the money ran out. The road was very empty (I saw 3 vehicles in 3hrs) and went through very empty bushland with the odd faraway hut. There was a lot of wildlife about and I saw several monkeys* and colourful birds, an ENORMOUS vulture and lots of termite mounds with their distinctive big thin chimneys. The few people were very tribal and mostly (semi)nude, mostly they gave friendly waves but a couple tried to aggressively wave me down to ask for food.
We were descending all the way, albeit into a headwind so it was annoyingly not that fast, at when we reached Omorate it was very very hot. We found a hotel on the outskirts of town which was quite nice but the friendly owner wanted 500 Birr. Rebecca got him down to “300 but no electricity” which we thought was great until we realised that this meant the fan wouldn’t work. Rebecca cooked a delicious spicy soup (just the thing for hot weather) with a lot of our remaining food and we spent our last evening in Ethiopia in the most un-Ethiopian way possible, in a quiet room with nobody around, no injera and no beers.
How to summarise this crazy country then? Before this trip started it was the place I was dreading the most, having heard horror stories about attacks, ambushes and serious injuries from everyone else who’s cycled through it. Rebecca got a very painful stone to the ribs but I didn’t get hit once, and most of the time we felt safe and welcomed. Maybe we dealt with things well, or maybe we took a good route - we didn’t ride any of the “usual” more direct route from Sudan to Kenya. The constant attention was difficult to deal with sometimes, but it only really got to us when our defences were down due to tiredness or illness. As for positives, there’s quite a few. First and foremost it’s an absolutely beautiful country, with much variety in its landscapes. As a result of all this beauty (read: mountains**) there was also some fantastic cycling. We had some memorable moments with wildlife. The climate was surprisingly pleasant and cool. The culture was fascinating and the food was generally very tasty, aside from the ubiquitous injera. And the people were mostly very nice despite the frequent language barriers. Once the memories of the attention and begging and occasional aggression fade into amusing stories we will be left with a lot of incredible experiences. Despite all the difficulties I think it’s my favourite country since Turkey, and that isn’t something I thought I’d be saying.
*At one point I startled a baboon which ran off making some very amusing noises
**Before Ethiopia the average climb had been 62600m/9866km or 6.34m/km. During Ethiopia we did 29500m/2418km or 12.2m/km. HILLY.
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