Iringa, Tanzania

23 March - Easter Sunday and we have a rest day in Iringa after seven days of cycling before a rest day

Sunday 16 March - after our two-week break to avoid cycling through Kenya, today it's back in the saddle in Arusha on the first of seven consecutive cycling days before our next rest day in Iringa.


We pass by the clock tower in Arusha - supposedly the centre of Africa - and head south into the country. Leaving Arusha there was light drizzle, the road was wet, and it looked like it might be a wet day.


Sun by lunch...


and a very pleasant first-day-back ride into a nice campsite that had facilities.


They worked hard so we could all have showers... it takes one person to haul water to the shower room and pour it into a bucket, and a second person on the roof to pull the bucket up by rope and empty it into the water tank. With temperatures in the high 30s, the 'cold' water from the tank makes for a pleasant shower.


Sunrise the second day.


Another hot sunny day. We're just a few degrees south of the equator, and that's about where the sun is too. Check out the size of the shadow beneath Rae.


We are into beautiful lush green countryside, rolling hills, and what looks like productive agriculture.


We have lost our hard-surfaced road and are now on dirt, which can mean anything from large rocks to mud after a rain - and we're getting afternoon and evening showers and thunderstorms in this part of the world.


The surface made for some VERY tough riding.


...and tough driving for the trucks.


The local busses go by fast and often very close, and they kick up lots of dust.


Sometimes we take advantage of trails through the fields to get smoother rides.


The day 4 stop was in Dodoma, the capital of Tanzania. Dar Es Salaam with its port is the commercial hub for Tanzania and is home to most government offices. Parliament is in Dodoma...


But apart from a paved road to Dar Es Salaam, the other trunk roads from Dodoma are dirt. Hard to believe that this is a main trunk road.


Along the way, women can almost always be seen carrying their wares on their heads...


...but how about a 55-gallon drum!


And as we saw earlier in other countries, the very young are almost always in the care of siblings not much older than themselves.


Further south, we found lots of sunflowers.


Stops for coke were always welcome in 30-40 degree heat and very high humidity.


This area has many of these Baobab trees that have massively wide trunks. We thought it reminded us of the trees in the stage production of Lord of the Rings.


Every evening there were thundershowers so we sometimes got wet.


And we also got some spectacular sunsets.


The afternoon riding into Iringa we got VERY wet with about two hours of heavy rain. It continued to rain off and on for the rest of the night and into rest day morning. As I finish writing this, there is some sunshine. Hopefully that's what we'll have when we get back on the bikes tomorrow.

Iringa is a big enough town of ~150,000 people, but we found it funny in that there are only about three restaurants in town and with this being Easter Sunday, it is a holiday and many shops are not open or they close early, and all but one of the restaurants closed before 6 pm last night.

Rest stops can be frustrating in other ways. We put our dirty clothes in for laundering. They got mixed up with other people's, some stuff was wet but not clean, we had to search for it ourselves. First try to do this blog and the internet cafe computer had a virus that wiped out the memory stick and resulted in us getting a few km more walking to go back to clean it up and reload it. And now I realize that I failed to bring along the additional pictures to upload to the Serengeti blog. Oh well....

Tomorrow is Monday 24 March, the first of five riding days to our next stop at Chitimba Beach in Malawi. Early intelligence says it is a lovely spot with a really nice beach so we can just enjoy swimming in the lake. There may not be any internet there, so we make no promises as to when we can do the next update.

Thank you for the encouragement that many of you have sent us either directly by email or through comments on this site. Time is limited in these cafes so forgive us if we don't respond personally to everyone. If that means we have failed to reply to a question or something that you really need and answer to, then please drop another email and remind us.

So long for now... we're well and still enjoying the adventure.

Ursi and Rae

More Serengeti Photos

Here are a few more photos - the cheetah is at the end of them.

Serengeti

March 11 - we flew from Zanzibar to Arusha - two hour flight in a single-engine Cessma Caravan flown by an expatriate Canadian who was veryhappy with the work and the professionalism of the outfit compared with his experiences in the bush in Canada. Rae got to sit in the right-hand seat. The flight took us close enough to Mount Kilimanjaro to take a picture.

March 12-14 - three day safari to Serengeti and the Ngorongoro crater. Travel was by this Toyota four-wheel drive.

The first animal sighting was some giraffes crossing the road well before we got to the National Park.

En route we passed this Masai village.

Ngorongoro crater was the third morning of the trip.

The descent was an adventure of its own.

Overnight accommodation was our own tents. The second night we camped on the rim of Ngorongoro crater. An elephant wandering through the campsite provided some excitement especially when it charged Rae when he wandered across the road with camera in hand. He stopped as soon as Rae was back across the road, which was very quick.

The animals and birds - abundant and pretty unfussed by people provided we stayed in the vehicles. As shown in the last photo, the cheetah kept its distance - we thought it was stalking a gazelle - and we failed to see a leopard. We'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Some Rambling Reflections

At this juncture, forced time away from the bicycles and all, it seemed fitting to reflect on everything we've learned so far on this trip. The regular posts show the pretty pictures and give the daily blow-by-blow, but they don't tell:

• is Tour d'Afrique what we expected?

• would we do it again?

• What have we learned about where we've been?

• how are we?

About Tour d'Afrique...

• What we were not prepared was just how exhausting it would be.

• The physical effort of a daily routine of six to seven hours sitting on the saddle and pedaling the bike, up hills, into the wind, and in incredible heat, and that does NOT count stops to take pictures, eat lunch, etc. No amount of weekend rides or rides to work prepare you for doing that day after day. Trust us, it's a whole lot more exhausting than we'd thought. We are amongst the slowest of riders in this excursion - a lot of the younger fitter folk are doing the daily ride in only half the time we are.

• The daily routine is tiring in its own right - up before dawn every day, pack up the tent and the gear, eat breakfast, get on the bike, eat lunch, ride the bike again, get into camp, set up tent, clean bike, clean self if you can, eat, go to sleep. Seems like there is no real free time.

• The mental exhaustion from dodging crowds of people and kids, the constant demand for money, the threat of sticks and stones.

• Minor intestinal ailments have affected everybody including us and they tend to sap you of whatever energy you had - to some degree, we are all run down from seven weeks of constant physical, mental, and psychological demand on our bodies. Most of Ethiopia was close to 10,000 feet altitude and like runners after a marathon, immune systems are low.

• The camping format - the problem (if there is one) is not the remote camps where there are no facilities, it is the places where the facilities are worse than basic. Rest days and hotels on those days - we have mixed feelings about that - TdA advertises camping, not hotels - it's just too bad that the room facilities at some of those locations have been of such poor quality. But this is a personal mind-over-matter issue. We have abandoned earlier expectations about the quality of hotel rooms - we'll take one for convenience when available and we'll be pleasantly surprised if the quality is good. If you are reading our blog wondering if you want to do this excursion, the key is to manage your expectations and not to expect too much in places where it simply doesn't exist.

The countries:

• Egypt - disappointing for air quality, garbage especially plastic bags everywhere. There was no such thing as a simple financial transaction. Even in grocery stores in the city, you had to bargain or get ripped off. After agreeing on a price, it wasn't unusual for them to demand more. The local folk shouted at each other all the time - you really thought they were having an all out argument although they probably were not. There's lots of traffic and it is chaotic in cities. That said, truck drivers were usually extremely courteous to us and gave us lots of room on the road. Kids in Egypt were also present at roadside, usually asking for money, sometimes throwing stones or trying to put a stick in your spokes, but since they were fewer in number than in Ethiopia, one didn't feel under siege the same.

Sudan

• We were immediately taken by how laid back the people were in Wadi Halfa when we got off the ferry. They were polite and friendly; you could say hello without being pestered; you seldom got ripped off and you didn't have to bargain for everything.

• The desert between Wadi Halfa and Dongola was a highlight in terms of scenic beauty - exhausting riding, but worth it.

• The 50-60-year old gentleman who did our laundry in Dongola stands out as an amazing guy - diligent in his work, gentle and polite in his manner. He worked in one of those small one-room sheds that serve sometimes as stores, other times as workshops, too small to be a garage. He sat on the floor and handwashed everything in a wide, shallow metal bowl (like an inverted coulee hat with some washboard corrugations). And even the articles that we took on this trip because they were expendable because they were so dilapidated after years of abuse - even these came back cleaner and brighter than when they were new.

• Kids in Sudan like everywhere wanted to run to the roadside and wave at us, but there wasn't much in the way of sticks and stones.

Ethiopia.

• We spent almost a month there, so not surprising that it left a significant impression. We were warned in advance that everything needed to be locked up or it would be pilfered, be that at the campsite or out of our backpacks or handlebar bags, and we were warned that kids would throw stones and try to poke sticks into your spokes. All that came true, and were overwhelmed by the constant presence of hundreds kids at the side of the road shouting 'money money money' and trying to grab you or your things, or hit you with hands and sticks and even whips, or throw stones.

• We had the opportunity to speak with people from an NGO operating north of Addis Ababa and also to a former World Bank official who now volunteers for four months of the year to assist Ethiopia. We were forewarned that the country was the poorest of all of Africa, and it has been and continues to be the recipient of a large amount of international aid. Is it doing the job? And if not, what is needed?

• Of course the answer is a mix of yes and no. There are obvious health problems. Diarrhea apparently is the greatest killer, linked to water quality and sanitation. Medical aid has done much to alleviate the death rate, and much is being done to address the water issues. But the underlying problem is over-population. The lives that are saved have little future where there is little food for the existing population and little employment. Family planning and birth control is unpopular in today's western political climate where the religious right and right-to-life movements have an overwhelming influence.

• Education reportedly is improving - literacy rate is now 25% compared to 5% when Haille Selassie lost power, but obviously there is a long way to go. There are great new infrastructure projects in the country, but it suffers from lack of maintenance largely because there is a lack of education as to both the need for it and how to do it.

• That probably is not a simple issue - the NGO said that they had installed many water pumps that no longer function. People had been trained to maintain and repair them but then because they have that education, they find better jobs elsewhere and so they leave without passing on the skill. The NGO is philosophical in that the skill usually stays in Ethiopia - that still leaves the NGO dependent on continued external funding to keep past infrastructure improvements functioning, but NGOs typically don't have a constant source of income.

• We got one view that outside aid tended to address symptoms but not underlying problems, that they sometimes compounded the underlying problem (as with adding to the population) - that what was needed was something that could generate something self-sustaining. Economically, two principal sources of income for Ethiopia are agriculture and tourism.

• In Canada, the US, and all of the EU, there are farm and agricultural subsidies and various other schemes that serve (intentionally or otherwise) to block the likes of Ethiopia out of our domestic markets for their products, the result being that it is impossible for Ethiopia to derive significant foreign income from their major product. One NGO said that if we really wanted to do something, we should write to our member of parliament or government representative and lobby for an abandonment of all such subsidies.

• I think another way would be to buy an airline ticket to Addis Ababa and find a local agent who could arrange some travel in the country. Spend money in Ethiopia where it goes to Ethiopians. Somehow demand tourist infrastructure that is better than some of what we've seen. That would be incentive to maintain and improve and generate foreign income.

• Back to the kids and their ever-presence - they are a symptom, not the problem.

Are we enjoying this experience and if we knew then what we know now, would we have signed up for it.

• Yes to both.

Zanzibar

Tuesday 4 March - Flight from Addis Ababa to Zanzibar with a stop in Dar es Salaam. We crossed the equator, both of us for the first time, without any fanfare. Arriving in Zanzibar, we found our way to downtown Stonetown, the old part of Zanzibar city, where we spent the next two nights. Major breakthrough - we find an ATM that recognizes our bank cards and gives us some cash.

The town has several elegant buildings and facades.


Our hotel was just off this narrow street in the old part of Stonetown...


...only three minutes walk to the beach - here Ursula is this Bernie and Beryl Doiron from PEI who are also doing Tour d'Afrique.


We had a couple of drinks watching the dhows going by in the harbour and then watching the sun set.



After two nights in Stonetown, we moved to Nungwi at the north tip of the island and took a bungalow behind the buildings shown here.


There are nice beaches, especially when the tide is in. When the tide is out, it is a long walk and the bottom is rockier and there are hazards like sea urchins, several spines of which are in Rae's hand - quite painful when they go in.


The highlight of Zanzibar was the day of snorkeling.


They took us around to the east side of the island to near this small island. Lots of dolphins en route. The water was clear and the coral attracted hundreds of colourful fish. And of course we all were baked in the sun.



Tuesday 11 March will be early start to get to the airport for a 0930 flight to Arusha where we should rejoin the Tour d'Afrique trucks at the campsite and start to get reorganized first for a three-day safari to the Serengetti and Ngorongoro crater March 12-14 and then to start cycling again on Sunday 16th.

Lalibela and its Monolithic Churches

Sunday 2 March - Lalibela and its monolithic churches.

The flight to Lalibela was at 0700, check-in at 0500 - it would have been a short night and an early lot rise no matter what, but our minibus got us to the airport at about 0230 and we snoozed a bit and had some breakfast before checking in. The flight had whistle stops at Bahir Dar and Gonder, so we got to see from the air a lot of the terrain that we rode through. Got into Lalibela and to our hotel before noon, had a relaxed lunch, then three hours with a guide at one of the main complexes.

Lalibela itself is located in beautiful rugged country. This aerial photo shows a village on the edge of a canyon a few miles out on the approach to Lalibela.


The little round houses in the foreground are traditional construction for this area and are preserved as heritage structures.


With tourism on the rise in recent years, new hotels have been built that try to take on the traditional appearance.


The monolithic churches were hewn out of solid rock under the direction of King Lalibela in the 11th century. The existing ground-level rock surface becomes the roof and they carve down around the church, then carve into it to form the interior structure which in some cases is a three-story affair with stairs carved out of the rock.

This is the first of several churches - it was completed in 23 years - quite a feat considering the complexity of the task and the tools available to do it.


The photo also shows a protective roof over the church. There is an EU-sponsored project to protect them from damage from the elements - controversial in that many believe that the structure as designed is too intrusive and unnecessarily detracts from the attractiveness of the sites.


The churches had various styles of crucifixes. This is the Lalibela cross, and below that a fresco on display in this church.



King Lalibela's tomb is in another church that is part of this complex.


And a short distance away is this three-story structure.



Other complexes featured tunnels, passageways, and bridges connecting the churches to each other, all carved out of the rock.




Monday 3 March - We had to catch the noon flight back to Addis Ababa and overnight there before flying on to Zanzibar on Tuesday 4 March. We dined at the Yod Abyssinia where we were entertained with traditional Ethiopian music and dance - a rather nice way to spend our last night in Ethiopia.

Onward to Moyale

February 26-29 - four days of riding from Arba Minch to Moyale

Tuesday 26 Feb was 100 km from Arba Minch to south of Konso, more than half on very rough dirt road. We left Arba Minch with a nice downhill coast... of course we'd pay for that with climbs in the heat of the day.


Through a National Park where baboons and monkeys sat at roadside and watched us go by.

The land is rugged...


South of the park, the land was not as cultivated as farther north.


Farming was on small plots...


...and not as densely populated. That didn't prevent a very pushy crowd forming around the lunch truck. These two women carry their load in home-crafted backpacks of goat skin.


It is a dry area. Most of the rivers are dry or very shallow most of the time. They are crossed by driving (or riding you bike) through the riverbed. A new route has to be found after washouts when it rains - you'd want a four-wheel drive. Any water is magnet for the livestock. So river crossings entailed more than one kind of hazard to TdA riders

Here Rae goes through one...


...followed closely by Ursula.


Water also draws the townfolk where they wash their clothes and dishes and themselves and replenish water jugs to take back to their homes. Most of Ethiopia has no idea what it's like to turn on a tap and have running potable water.


Closer to camp today, the road got even narrower and rougher. Ursula here is going through another riverbed.


The hills here were terraced, but look how narrow the workable areas are.


Camp tonight is in a dry riverbed in a sort of out-of-the-way area. Further down the riverbed, we found a stream with a few centimeters of water - enough for many of us to sponge off the dust that is caked onto us.


But out-of-the-way doesn't mean unpopulated and nearby is a little cinder-block factory - all done with no electricity or powered equipment.


Wednesday is 100 km to Yabello. We got up earlier than usual hoping for an earlier start when the day is cool. Less than a kilometer underway and we had to turn back for a mechanical problem on Ursula's bike - it didn't take long to get it fixed, but we were now a bit later than our normal start - so much for beating the heat - Sod's Law! The road is terrible - this picture fails to show how rough it was.


We are latitude 5 degrees north, and it's scorching by 10 in the morning. Between the temperature and the road, Rae found the going really tough and ran out of willpower when he took a minor fall at about 40 km. Ursula continued to the lunch truck - 60 km in over six hours. We're camped beside a hotel that has showers - good thing because we're again caked with dust.

The country is not surprsingly very dry and we found several herds of camels along the road - the first camels we'd seen since Sudan.


The land suffers badly from erosion. There were big cracks in the ground all over the place.


A new feature to the scenery was these vulgar-looking protrusions from the ground - termite hills - some of them very substantial in height or girth or both. We passed through local areas of very red earth as well as some of whiter earth, and that is reflected in the colour of the termite hills.


Thursday was 130 km from Yabello to south of Mega - a hard surfaced road, but rough with potholes that ofter dwarf what Toronto has to offer.


And lots of hills including a long one after lunch - there is no flat land in Ethiopia. In Mega, we looked forward to a cold soft but nowhere in town can you find a cold drink. They're all room temperature which means 40 degrees. Camp is another 30 km away in almost desert conditions. We heard a couple of days ago that cattle will to start dying if it doesn't rain by tomorrow and it doesn't look like it will. Fields everywhere are dry and are ready to be planted for the smaller crops of their season. Rain usually comes before the end of February, but they're saying it looks like a drought this year.


The tree on the left has bee hives in it; the one on the right has weaver bird nests.


Friday is a fairly short day - 90 km to Moyale - but by 0900, it is again very hot - we're directly into sun and a fairly stiff headwind.

So we come to the end of the trip through Ethiopia. The last four days have given us some more memories... the colourful birds along the road...



...people on the go...


...sharing the road with the cattle. By the way, that is a spear that this guy has over his shoulder - we saw several of those in this area.


...the popular fussball table...


...curious local folk at the edge of camp at days end...


...and the kids along the way. This last four days, the kids have been fewer and so has the stone-throwing and other nasty incidents - that's good, because at least the most recent memories are of nice little kids waving at us and only wanting a wave back.


We get into camp at about 1300 and are quickly greeted by this colourful grasshopper.


This of course is the beginning of the forced two-week break due to the political situation in Kenya. Latest info from there says that things are improving, but it is way too late to change plans again. So we have to repack bags and prepare bikes to go on the trucks. Everything we don't need in the next two weeks will go on the trucks which will drive through Kenya and rejoin us in Arusha, Tanzania.

Camp is at a hotel. For less than $10, we get a room with toilet and shower. The allows us to leave the camping gear packed up. Only thing is that there is a water shortage so the water is off - they give us a bucket of water that can be used to flush the toilet or sponge bath or wash the dirty clothes. We do all three. This is a camping holiday... even in a hotel room.


And here we get a look at the country we can't ride through as the sun sets across the border over Kenya.


Saturday 1 March - Bus transport takes us back to Addis Ababa. Ten hours or driving and three hours of rest and meal breaks before we get to the overnight stop at Lake Langano, about 250 km short of Addis Ababa. For all sorts of reasons, the roads are not conducive to fast driving - rough surfaces, steep hills, livestock on the road everywhere, many villages with throngs of people, police check points, construction, unlit vehicles and hazards at night.

We (along with five others) arranged a mini-van to take us from Lake Langano to Addis Ababa tonight in order to catch a 0700 flight to Lalibela tomorrow morning. We didn't get to Addis Ababa until nearly 0200, and failing to find a hotel right away, and with a 0500 check-in time for the flight, we just went to the airport and snoozed there.

Our plans for the next two weeks - Lalibela, Zanzibar, and a 3-day safari out of Arusha into the Serengetti and Ngorongoro crater. We're back on the bicycles departing Arusha on March 16th.

Arba Minch - Rest Day

Arba Minch - Monday 25 Feb - rest day.

Birds and wildlife were the highlight here.

These baboons entertained us at breakfast, playing on the roof of the next-door shed and some of them coming onto the patio before hotel staff shooed them away.


We took the opportunity to visit Nechisar National Park on Lake Chamo and take a boat ride to view a variety of marsh birds as well as crocodiles and hippopotamus.









These other birds we spotted in the vicinity of the hotel/campground.

Addis Ababa to Arba Minch

21-24 February - Addis Ababa to Arba Minch - four riding days before a rest day in Arba Minch as we continue to press south in Ethiopia. The route is new to Tour d'Afrique - it takes us on less travelled roads rather than the main road to Moyale on the Kenyan border. It also takes a day longer than the original schedule, possible this year because of the decision not to ride through Kenya.

Convoy out of Addis Ababa on Thursday 21st.


The route is lined with these tiny stores. This is the way business is done here.




Small shops with lots of fresh fruit.


And here some fresh meat


Four days of hilly countryside - there is no flat land in Ethiopia.


Some really long hills, some that need the granny gear. Some steep descents - dangerous too.


A few stretches of dirt road and water hazards for the trucks.


.... and Ursula and other riders...


Dirt roads mean dust. Good that the dust is the same colour as our tans or we'd look absolutely filthy dirty. We finally get a shower at Arba Minch. Afternoons are hot and the sun really intense. Leaving Addis, the land seems even drier than before.



Less grain-growing as we go south.

Cattle are used to trample the grain and separate the grain from the stalk. There's a word for that but it escapes me.


More trees and scrub land. Then some banana-growing and cotton.


Along the way, the young look after the younger.


They ham it up for the camera in Hosaina.


Watching us eat lunch is this youngster sporting a Basel Football Club jersey - who would expect to find a Swiss football fan in the middle of the Ethiopian countryside.


Village streets are always full of people.


Most walk long distances every day to bring things to market. For heavy or bulky stuff, they make their own wheelbarrows.


And there is always some kind of productive activity along the main street as people prepare things for market.

Addis Ababa - Rest Days

Tuesday-Wednesday 19-20 Feb - Addis Ababa - rest days

We opted to take a room at the hotel. Interesting - the grounds here are beautiful with well-kept lawns that we can camp on. There are good clay tennis courts. But the rooms... extremely basic, and the WCs and showers (which we could use if camping) leave quite a lot to be desired - I'm sure city health inspectors would close the place down if it was in Canada. One wonders how it is that one part of a facility can be of such good quality while another is at the extreme opposite end of the spectrum.

Reality check - to put it in perspective, remember that the TdA is a camping excursion. The sites are chosen to facilitate camping and this location meets that objective. Some people chose to take cabs to more comfortable hotels in town. For us, for all its limitations, the room here gives us a chance to plug in the computer and work on the pictures and blog, and it is convenient for tomorrow's departure. We're not in Canada, so don't expect Canadian standards. The shower - yes it's cold, but we haven't had a hot shower since the middle of January, so why worry about that now.

We got into town after cleaning bikes Tuesday morning. The only ATMs that take foreign bank cards are in the Sheraton and Hilton hotels, so we go there - we need some cash both for everyday stuff and to pay for planned activities during the time that we can't go through Kenya. Neither machine will accept our bank cards, but Ursula managed to get a cash advance on her Visa card, so we're still solvent. We took the opportunity to enjoy a coffee and ice cream sundae - first ice cream in almost two months - at the Sheraton. It was great but more perspective - it cost three times as much as our pizza with a bottle of wine and a bottle of water for dinner near the hotel.

Addis Ababa has the largest souk in Africa. We went there with some of our fellow cyclists on Wednesday morning. We found lots of narrow alleys, lots of shops full of merchandise - and lots of people going every which way. There is probably lots of charm and interesting stuff, but we didn't find it and concluded that you have to spend a lot more than two hours to get properly oriented in a market that size.

Arrival in Addis Ababa

Monday 18 Feb - Debre Libanos to Addis Ababa - 100 km with a 10 km convoy into Addis Ababa at the finish.

Immediately up-hill from the start. Ursula's turn to pick up some sort of bug and she opted to ride the truck after starting out in the morning - we're discovering that this is the smart thing to do. Amongst the group, many are suffering various ailments - to some degree, we are all run down from five weeks of continual physical, mental, and psychological demand. We're close to 10,000 feet altitude and like runners after a marathon, immune systems are low. Rae rides to lunch, then also rides the truck to the Hotel Guenet where we will have two rest days in Addis Ababa. It is the end of a stage of the Tour, so we bid farewell to a couple of Toronto riders, Mike and Eric.

Haystacks in the shape of pyramids - completely different from any other haystack we've seen in Ethiopia.


The countryside is reminiscent of southern Alberta.


A modern hotel about 50 km outside Addis Ababa - the proprietor formerly an aeronautical engineer with Boeing - so many of the facilities we have seen have been allowed to run down - hopefully there can be more of this to attract foreign tourism and elevate the standard of living here.


Another surprise - there are public fussball and ping-pong tables in every town.


Addis Ababa must be nearby....


We assemble for the convoy into Addis Ababa


Convoy into Addis Ababa

The Jema River Gorge

Sunday 17 Feb - 90 kilometres today from atop the Blue Nile Gorge to Debre Libanos - again with lots of hills. The destination had views into another gorge, the Jema river, which feeds into the Blue Nile. But the hills mercifully did not include a descent and climb of the Jema Gorge

Ever-present children - most of them just want to wave and say hello.


The Jema river gorge.




Portuguese bridge dating back to ?? with the Jema river gorge behind.


A black kite soared in the updrafts at the gorge edge while we enjoyed a beer on the patio of a hotel about half a kilometer from the camp.

The Nile Gorge

Saturday 16 Feb - The Blue Nile Gorge.

A 60 km ride to Dejen on the north side of the Gorge, then an 18 km descent followed by a 22 km climb (over 1600 metres / 5000 feet vertical) to Gohatsion on the south side. Camp is on the rim at the top on the site of a Canadian NGO aid site that TdA supports.

The morning ride has enough hills to be challenging.

There is major grain production in this area, worked by hand along the road.


Cattle are used to beat the grain - nothing is mechanized.


The wind blows away the chaff.


All this wheat has been stacked by hand and will be carried by hand probably to the roadside.


Approaching the Blue Nile Gorge - over 5000 feet deep - the photo hardly does justice to the perspective.


The descent is steep and dangerous. Heavy trucks climb at about 10 km/hr. Much of the road is dirt. In Ethiopia that means very very rough, huge rocks and loose gravel, not at all forgiving. We have seen many wrecked trucks and busses, probable victims of brake failure on the descent.


The scenery is spectacular with a lot of similarity to the Grand Canyon although not the narrow vertical-walled part. Probably the most attractive scene is the Blue Nile from the bridge, and we can't take photos - the bridge is considered critical infrastructure. A new bridge is under construction. Temperature at the bottom was in the 40s, but low teens at night at the top (about 10,000 feet).


The truck is climbing on a paved surface. In the background is the dirt and rock that makes up most of the descent.


Cliffs on the north side of the Gorge.


Rae and Ursula part way down the descent - that's why we're still smiling - we sure weren't on the way up the other side.


This bird and its partner entertained us with some impromptu aerobatics before landing in a field as we descended into the Gorge.


The Blue Nile Gorge - The bridge is hidden from view. The road on the other side winds all the way up to the plateau in the centre - one tough afternoon climb.


The cows know to get into the shade as afternoon temperatures reach the 40s in the gorge.


The descent toward the new bridge under construction.


The Blue Nile - looking east up the river. We weren't allowed to take photos while crossing the bridge for security reasons. One of our group was even ushered off the bridge when he stopped to wait for his wife. So don't let the word out about there being a bridge across the Blue Nile.


The Blue Nile Gorge - we came down from the very top of this photo and eventually through the narrower valley where you can see a small section of the road.


The Blue Nile Gorge - last look at the Nile.


The Blue Nile Gorge - steep climb on very rough road.


The Blue Nile Gorge - the ascent just never ends.


The Blue Nile Gorge - Bike mechanic Bucky is riding sweep today. As far as we are concerned, he's entitled to his king of the mountain jersey today.


The climb was mostly paved but there were a few kilometres of rocky dirt. It took us over four hours. Five weeks ago we crossed the Nile for the first time. Now we bid it farewell.

Bahir Dar to Addis Ababa - part 2

Friday 15 Feb - Bure to another bush camp past Debre Markos.

More hills. We sure appreciate granny for inventing that little wheel on the crank. Without those low gears, it would be impossible. Camp is at the top of a long steep ascent through a village. The kids remain persistent - "gimme your money" - "where are you go" (they seldom understand the reply) - "money money money money money" - "gimme your clothes" - "pen, pen" (the kid has a pen in his hand). The demand for handouts is onerous - it is constant and repeated and forceful - demands, not requests. There is stone-throwing (stones the size of baseballs) and stick-swinging (they all carry sticks). Some of our fellow riders sport significant bruises as a result. Nobody yet has any broken bones - last year someone's jaw was broken. We've seen some kids standing, stones in hand, premeditated and waiting to throw them at riders. Kindness has been repaid by stone-throwing. Our Ethiopian riders tell us that we don't want to know what some of the kids (teens mainly) are saying. Of course we know that most of these kids are looking forward to tough lives. Food, health, education, and opportunity are all lacking in this over-populated country.

Water is still carried long distances by young and old, most often by the females.


There are lots of cattle. Beef is reportedly exported to Saudi Arabia.


When it's 30+ degrees and the sun is directly overhead, the destination may be Addis Ababa, but the short-term is a coke, hopefully cold.


The staff all work on our meals, even Tour d'Afrique founder Henry Gold.


Melvin drives one of the trucks and prepares meals when he gets into camp.


Miles is the chef and mastermind behind the menus, nutrition, and how to purchase it all locally as the trucks leapfrog ahead of us.


Bike mechanic Luke also pitches in with the food preparation.


Jeff is our other Zimbabwean driver who also prepares dinner.


Here we find Luke fixing someone's bike - he and Buckie keep us on the road.


Interesting trees nearby the campsite.

Ursula and Liz (trainee leader) with kids who appeared out of the woods and followed us on the walk.

Bahir Dar to Addis Ababa - Part 1

Thursday 14 Feb - The first of five riding days from Bahir Dar to Addis Ababa. Today is to a bush camp near Bure.

First riding day after a really nice and needed rest. 160 km with lots of hills, so it was a tough enough day. Rae felt better refreshed than he'd been since the start, but it turned out to be the day for him to bonk and come into camp totally drained, stomach not at all good that night. Imodium to the rescue.

People are on the move constantly all along the road.


Cow dung is collected as fuel.


Sheep wander the road too... when and where they want.


These rather large geese feed in the fields.


Colourful bird on the roadside wires.


Left-overs from the 1980s-90s civil strife are not infrequent along the road. Whenever you stop to take pictures, kids materialize instantly out of nowhere.


Stop for a coke or a coffee and there is an instant audience that literally has to be pushed away. It's difficult for us to adjust to how little space they give you.


Infants are frequently carried by youngsters that are only a few years older, such is the heirarchy of family responsibility... and unfortunately a symptom of Ethiopia's over-population.


Sunset at camp near Bure.

Khartoum to Gonder, Ethiopia

Khartoum to Gonder, Ethiopia - six riding days - Monday 4 Feb to Saturday 9 Feb. Hard surface roads for four days in Sudan, then two days of really tough dirt and rock roads in Ethiopia.

Monday - 140 km with a 12 km police-escort out of Khartoum - and apolice escort is done here with sirens wailing the whole time.

Not an encouraging day - a lot of headwind - garbage and plastic bags everywhere so not at all scenic. And we're hitting the heat - close to 40 today and mid-forties for the next four days.

We finished okay today and had a very pleasant surprise to find sand and relatively clean water on the banks of the Nile about 500 metres from the campsite. Here we are modeling our galabayas after a swim in the Nile and getting cleaned up.

Camp itself was an area that is wandered by cows and goats. You know what they leave behind so careful where you step. And thorns!

Tuesday - to another desert camp. We made 145 km in 45 degree heat helped by some soft drink breaks. This is typical of these rest places.

The type of construction for the local population changed and the villages looked a bit nearer. The scenery benefitted from the appearance of some hills. Other than that it could have been a very flat very dry place anywhere.

We got into camp and found Melvin getting the afternoon soup and snack ready.

Wednesday - another 140 km with tough headwinds. Landscape was essentially plains with lots of trees around but not much sign of where they get there water from. There must be a wetter season sometime.

And the villages really looked nice with their thatch construction.

Ursula had a couple of flat tires. That delayed us enough that we stopped at lunch and rode to camp on the lunch truck. The second flat was really the first flat for the second time, problem being that the glueless patches that work really well in Canada don't like the heat. The glue melts. Temperature was over 45 in the sun.

Tour leader Duncan just smiles and says nobody said it was going to be easy and went on to brief about how tomorrow wouldn't be easier.

Thursday - our last day in Sudan. 150 km today and still over 40 in the shade, and lots of headwind. Mercifully we were able to stay with a peleton for a bit of that.

Then the retaining nut backed off Rae's cassette. Got it back on and tightened it by hand but avoided the two small gears to be safe (not that Rae could generate the necessary speed to use them anyway).

We had a friendly escort from the Sudanese military who followed us for a while with this jeep with a forward firing machine gun in the back. I guess they didn't want us to turn around and stay in Sudan.

We crossed the border - formalities signing out first with the Sudanese police then with immigration. Then getting through Ethiopian immigration - some waited a couple of hours to get their passports processed. We also got our first beer in over two weeks - Sudan is dry in more ways than one. The border is at a river - nice new bridge leads from the paved Sudan road to the dust and dirt and rock Ethiopian road into the village of Matema which like all these villages is teeming with people and donkeys and cattle, trucks and carts parked anywhere and everywhere. Friendly people, but you have to watch the kids - they'll steal anything that isn't bolted down.

Friday - 100 km on dirt and rock and dust all day. When we say dust, we mean unbelievable amounts of dust. The road was so rough that anything over about 12 km/hour was impossible for us.

And the heat was again 45 degrees. We got slowed down by another flat for Ursula, then later the heat was too much so we called it a day at the lunch truck.

The day had its merits. The scenery in Ethiopia is quite lovely.

Starting to get into to hills somewhat like parts of the US southwest.

Many homes looking much like those in southern Sudan.


Villages typically have all sorts of buildings with corrugated steel roofs and either stick and thatch or mud-brick sides. And dust everywhere.

People and donkeys everywhere. Dust doesn't bother them.

We were glad we didn't try to finish. Not only the road conditions and heat, but we're now into hills and gradients as much as 13 percent. Camp was again a field shared with the animals.

It was near a village that doesn't have any electricity although projects are in work to change that.

Saturday - Riding conditions pretty much same as yesterday but more hills. We opted to ride the lunch bus to the lunch stop - took them two and a half hours to cover 60 km - and ride to camp from there.

Early morning, a look into the valley to where we were going and all you see is dust.

All along the route, people were making their way to a village, perhaps 6 or 8 km away. Most on foot, perhaps carrying a single rooster that they will presumably barter in the market for something else.

Others with donkeys laden with some sort of goods.

Villages as usual are busy. Shops everywhere. Always lots of inventory on display. How to they eke out an existence?

And if there are taxis, albeit pulled by donkeys, there must be customers.

And relatively rugged beauty to the area.

Lots of agriculture and there must be water sources because there are rivers which provide for irrigation as well as being places to wash clothes, people, and cars.

End of the day - we ride into Gonder on a paved road and do an Alp d'Huez-like climb to a hotel to either camp or get a room.

We're lucky. We get a room. We get a shower, first one in three weeks. The run-off looks like our bathtub at home after we've washing the dog after the dog.

Sunday is a rest day. Rest doesn't mean rest. Rest means you don't ride. Instead you clean and service bicycles, do laundry (we're letting the hotel do that), and all the other housekeeping.

Two riding days to Bahir Dar for a rest day, then four riding days to Addis Ababa.