Home » Ethiopia » Cycle to the Summit Part 14 - Bahir Dahr to Addis Ababa

A few days of rest and then it was time to do battle with the roads and children of north Ethiopia. Said goodbye to the Blue Nile for the last time. Negotiated bad roads and 1000m gorge. Hit tarmac and rolled into Addis Ababa for some ice-cream!

Cycle to the Summit Part 14 - Bahir Dahr to Addis Ababa

Toby Hammond
2006-06-25 19:56:13

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the time. That is until one child stole both waterbottles out of her panniers, then it was a frantic chase into the village with the kids barricading themselves in houses and refusing to come out. We all felt exhausted at the end of each day. The constant yelling 'You...You...You..Give me money!' and having to be on guard wore us down more than the cycling. It was a welcoming retreat to stay with Mark and Debra on route in Injibara, away from the kids, stones and bad roads. The words from Mark's lips "the tarmac starts way before the gorge" were as sweet as our desert that night and our spirits were lifted by such news and hardy dinner. We had anticipated 400km more of bad dirt roads, it was now only a days ride away to some form of tarmac, and we would take anything remotely resembling tarmac as being better than the current state of road. The ride from Injibara included a fantastic crater lake which would have been fantastic if it were not for the 200 onlookers looking at us looking at the lake. Later that day we came across a field of horses dressed up and apparently no where to go. We went over to the large crowd of people, to whom the horses belonged, and left quickly when we realised it was a funeral and we had attracted more attention than the deceased.

The Gorge

There appears to be some correlation between proximity to the Blue Nile Gorge and the aggression shown by the children. In one town of no name just before the gorge we received what I have termed a 'Royal Stoning'. As we pedalled through the main road hundreds of children lined the streets, yelling and swearing (bearable) at us before finally pelting us with stones and attempting to jam sticks in our spokes (unbearable). It was with great relief that this was the worst incident we experienced and with bigger concerns on our mind (1000m gorge) we rode on. The next day we made our descent on the northern side of the Blue Nile Gorge. A chat to some tourist ...

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