Distance: 71.0 km
Ride time: 5:22:53
Average: 13.2 km/h
Max speed: 33.1 km/h
Total: 51383 km
Waking up in a a new country is always exciting – and especially in a place like Ethiopia. Among cyclists there are many stories about this place. Stories about the mountains to climb and the places to see, but also stories about kids going crazy and throwing rocks after you in the small villages. Such are the challenges ahead…
For now, however, everything was quiet in Omerate as I had my breakfast in the yard of my cheap guesthouse. I had a chat with two road engineers from Addis Ababa who are working in the big construction zone I was passing yesterday. Super friendly guys, and I got some detailed information about the state of the roads in this part of the country.
The last days before arriving in Omerate I had been cycling on sandy tracks in the middle of nowhere. The road itself has now improved tremendously. On the other hand, this is still a very desolated part of Ethiopia – home to the Omo Valley tribes it’s a very interesting place to be. Suddenly you see woman walking around without covering their breasts – something I haven’t seen before in Africa.
During the day the road climbed steadily to 900 meters of altitude – a very good thing since the temperature was coming down a few degrees accordingly. It really was a hot ride along Lake Turkana.
I found myself another cheap guesthouse for the night, and this place even had electricity. There was no ATM or places to buy a sim cards in town, so I still feel pretty isolated from the rest of the world. Oh well, maybe tomorrow 🙂
I’d be nervous touching that power point!