Distance: 82.3 km
Ride time: 5:35:12
Average: 14.7 km/h
Max speed: 48.2 km/h
Total: 52236 km
Thanks to the hospitality shown by Sakti and his wife, I had enjoyed my stay in Addis Ababa tremendously – even though the outcome of my visa applications had not been in my favour.
After the challenging cycling in southern Ethiopia I was pretty excited to find out what the northern part of the country would be like. I had heard from a few cyclists that the kids could be expected to behave slightly better up here in the mountainous north. I could only hope this prediction would turn out to be true…
Today’s cycling was rather uneventful. I was waiting until noon for a rain shower to pass before I started to climb my way out of Addis Ababa. Reaching the pass at 2800 m it was cold and wet. After a quick descend down the other side of the pass I was back on the country side – but still close enough to the capital that the kids hardly noticed when I passed by.
Ethiopia is entering the rainy season, and I was spending another couple of hours in a restaurant waiting for a new storm to clear. With those long breaks I’m wondering how long time it will take for me to cover the remaining part of Ethiopia.
With only 30 minutes of daylight to spare I arrived in Muke Turi and easily found a cheap guesthouse for the night. It feels good to be back on the road. Hoping the kids will remain quiet over the coming days.
