Distance: 70.8 km
Ride time: 3:57:53
Average: 17.9 km/h
Max speed: 53.6 km/h
Total: 52632 km
Another day in the mountains of Ethiopia, hanging out between 2100 and 2600 meters above sea level. Putting in distances above 70 km per day seems difficult – not so much because of the climbing but because you are forced to take some pretty long breaks here and there to wait out the rain showers.
The good thing is that all the rain makes the landscape lush and beautiful. I’m sure I will miss all the greenery once I reach the Sahara! Speaking of Sudan and Sahara; through a friend in Russia I have been put in contact with a person in Kharthoum who claims he will be able to issue a tourist visa with special approval from the foreign affairs. The price is rather high, but I think I’m going to give it a go.
In a couple of days it therefore looks like I will have to return to Addis Ababa by bus. For tonight I arrived in the very local town of Dangla. Since wild camping is really not an option here in Ethiopia I was happy to find a cheap guest house and settled in for the night.
Ethiopia is a very unique country in many ways; the language, the alphabet, the food, and even the way people look are very different from all the neighboring countries. It might have something to do with the fact that Ethiopia was never colonized by any western country.
They even use the clock in a different way than what we are used to. While my phone says it’s 8:30 am (and it’s set to the correct time zone), the rest of Ethiopia would say it’s 2:30. The system seems to be that the day starts at sunrise (which is at 6 am on my watch) and lasts for 12 hours. Then they have another 12 hours of night. The system works because Ethiopia is so close to the equator and the length of the day is pretty much the same year around. But oh well, a little confusing…
The sign at my cheap hotel room said there would be loud music in the bar downstairs until 3:30. At first I feared for my sleep until I luckily realized that it only means 9:30 pm in the way I know time 🙂
Wow. The scenery keeps on giving! As for the time and calendar, I assume official departments and organisations use what we are used to?
Hmm, not so sure Stephen. I’m pretty sure they think their way is more normal 🙂