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Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to Nairobi, Kenya (late April 2002)

Roundtheworldbybike
2005-11-18 11:09:33

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The question "why?" is always on everybody's lips. George Mallory tried to climb Everest "because it's there", Ranulph Fiennes explains his expeditions as "a way to pay the bills" whilst Robert Swan's Antarctic exploits are allegedly "a way to impress girls at parties". All are evasions; none are answers. For the truth is impossibly hard to enunciate. If you have to ask why, you will never understand.

The Sheraton in Addis Ababa is possibly Africa's finest hotel. Toilets I would happily live in, water fountains synchronised to light and music ('Rule Britannia' as I strolled by), free peanuts and cocktail-sipping high-flying business women who couldn't get enough of my (possibly slightly exaggerated) tales of heroic adventure.

I bumped into the cycling team I had ridden with for a while in the Sudan (www.cycletothesummit.org.uk � wonder if they'll reciprocate the link this time�?!) and decided to ride with them again as we headed south through Ethiopia. The first stage of Kenya is notoriously dangerous bandit country: there was no chance I would be allowed to ride alone, but I hoped that with five of us we may be allowed to cycle it. Besides, riding with company is good fun, the pace is relaxed, the hassle from kids is much easier to tolerate, and security is not an issue. In fact everything is much easier and much, much more fun. Any group of cyclists who have beers at lunchtime have to be worth tagging along with!

Mango vendorBeneath the dawn mists roll endless hills, forested and untouched far to the horizon. It is hard to cover enough miles: too much time is needed to stop and eat fruit from roadside vendors. Mangoes, bananas (no tangerines), guavas, pineapples, avocados, sugar cane and watermelon are all for sale at regular intervals. An enterprising Ethiopian could do a good trade with a roadside Indigestion tablets stall.

On the top of a mountain we meet a man ...