The Blue Nile Gorge (of death)

Hello everyone! I've reached Addis Ababa, capital city of Ethiopia. I'm glad to say that my perception of Ethiopia has been changing, the closer I got to the city. The people have been much friendlier and more welcoming. The stone throwing has continued, but all the riders have learned to deal with it. We have also developed some techniques for avoiding any sort of projectile, ranging from stones to cow dung. I'm still dealing with constant requests for money and "You you you" yelling from the kids, but it's all in good fun.

My odometer reads over 3600km now! It blows my mind how fast we're covering ground here. But there are a few large obstacles that constantly sit in my way... The hills. Always uphill. You wake up, you go uphill. You eat lunch, then go uphill. There are these things called false flats, where it looks like you're going down, but really it's up. So, even the downhills are uphills! I can say that I am becoming a decent climber, though. I have not walked up any hills since before Gonder. Even the Blue Nile Gorge I climbed all on my bike. That was a hard day. It started with a 50km cycle through rolling hills to lunch. After lunch, we had a beautiful 1300m downhill. My brakes got a lot of use because you basically have to keep them on, or you lose control and go off the cliff. The Gorge is beautiful, though. It's like the Grand Canyon, only way more awesome because it's in Africa. I stopped to take a few pictures, but it's hard to capture the magnitude of this thing with photos. Anyway, as you're going down, you're thinking "Crap, I have to go back up this thing". Once you're at the bottom, you stop and take some pictures and prepare for the climb to come. Now, the climb is tough. Really, really tough. Imagine cycling out of the Grand Canyon. It's a 1500m climb within 20km of switch backs. I unofficially timed myself, and did ok. I climbed in about 2hrs, 10 mins. That's 50 minutes behind the first place racer, but actually way ahead of many of the other cyclists. Not too bad for a first climb! And I didn't die! Although, for about 2 hours, I felt like I was going to. My big goal for the climb was to not walk up any section, which I achieved. I averaged less than 10km/h for most of the climb, which is silly, cause I can walk up it at about 6. It can get a little discouraging as you finally struggle to climb a section, only to turn a corner and see another, steeper switchback. And that process repeats itself, about 30 times. I am pretty used to climbing, now, though. We've been climbing up and down every day for a total of about 11,950m. That's higher than Everest! It's sure made the flats of Egypt look easy.

Now, there is not a whole lot of good story to tell since Bahir Dar. It's really been a beautiful ride through the hills, with a lot of scenery. Two days ago, we camped on the edge of the Gorge. It was breath-taking. You are cleaning your bike or eating (or both, if you're me) and you just look up and see this massive scar running through the earth! It's so incredible. The bugs haven't been bad, although we haven't really seen much wildlife. We did have a rider run into a cow, though. And I have seen some monkeys hanging around in a tree. One of the craziest things I saw were some mechanics changing bearings on their pistons right on the side of the road. They just stopped their truck and started working! It's crazy! Also, there are people who carry such huge loads of straw or wood on their backs. It hurts me just to watch them walk!

My experience here just keeps getting better. I love looking around and seeing nothing that is familiar to me. The trees are neat, the birds are neat, the whole countryside is awesome! Also, when it comes to the riders, the bike is a great equalizer. It doesn't matter what job you have or how much money you have. You are now the same as every other rider, and everyone is leveled. Only skill on the bike matters. Everyone seems to be getting along pretty well, although there is a big gap left by Adrian. Ryan and I are constantly making jokes with reference to him to try and relive the memories. Mad Dog, if you read this, you are missed, buddy.

Anyway, I'll post some pics. I'm sorry I couldn't have put some more humour in for you guys, but climbing is really not that funny. It's like a stair master for 6 hours a day. Only you can't turn the power down. And there are no water fountains. Or women on the treadmill in front of you to gawk at. However, there will be some good stuff on the next dirt section and when I do a safari, which I have signed up for. (1.5 days of camping).

Thanks everyone for your support and encouragement! I hope I keep you entertained!

Danimal