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.