Cycling The Globe

Distance: 125.3 km
Ride time: 6:53:30
Average: 18.2 km/h
Max speed: 50.8 km/h
Total: 51783 km

Cities in Ethiopia are like safe havens; you can cycle around in relative anonymity and the kids will mostly leave you alone. Once again the butterflies were back as I left Arba Minch in the morning and headed into the unknown country side along Lake Abaya.

Luckily the kids were behaving much better today compared to yesterday, and I was able to enjoy most of the ride.

The nature has been a positive surprise; green and lush hills dotted with fields and small villages. Even the temperature is once again pleasant up here at 1200 m.

The day ended with a long but not too steep ascent up towards the city of Sodo at 2000 m. The temperature continued to drop, and during the last hour I was putting on my long sleeved shirt; what a change compared to a couple of days ago at the lowlands around Lake Turkana.

I was almost running out of energy on the climb but found a nice looking restaurant just in time for a snack. Every restaurant in Ethiopia has sign on the wall saying “Don’t pay without a bill”.

The problem is that the bill is often written in Amharic which I don’t really understand. Today I did however realize that the people were trying to charge me for two portions instead of one. When I confronted the waiter he just laughed and gave me a new bill with a reduced price – “If it works, it works” seems to be the mentality around here. Luckily the food is good and cheap anyway.

Guest houses are also cheap in Ethiopia – so affordable that I usually don’t take the cheapest room I can find but a step up. Nothing too fancy, but 8-10$ gets you a comfortable room. With rain clouds hanging over Sodo as I settled in for the night I was happy not to be in my tent.

Tomorrow I will be back for more Ethiopian adventures.