Articles tagged with: Ethiopia
Guinea 006
Thursday, December 14 9:00 a.m.
My first bike ride was a success in every way and I feel like the arrival portion of my journey is coming to a close. My Guinea has suddenly increased in size from the few blocks in my neighborhood which I’ve learned is called Taouyah to all of Conakry 1, 2 and 3 which covers about ten kilometres of the end …
045 – Gondar
A Ghost in a Silent World
The next morning my eyes snapped open at 4:30. A drunk man was wandering through the Nile Hotel banging on each door in turn, looking, as all Ethiopians seemed to do in the early morning, for a friend. I called out to him when he reached my door and I offered to be his friend if he would go back …
044 – To Infrance
The Escape of the Joads
It was still pitch black when I was woken up by the Joads, their truck, and their rooster. They wanted to get an early start and started warming up their truck at 4:45. Unfortunately it was right outside my door and to my lungs it felt like they’d run a hose from the exhaust pipe directly into my room. I had …
042 – The Blue Nile Falls
Speciation
The next day after a morning trip by bike to where the Blue Nile emerges from Lake Tana I returned to the Ghion to find Martin sitting in one of the lawn chairs on the grass. He was waiting for Andale, his right hand man on his project, and a second man from the Ministry of Agriculture. The two of them had helped him secure …
041 – The Ghion Hotel Crowd
In Search of the ‘Real’ Ethiopia
I woke up in the morning without a very clear idea of what I was going to do that day. I didn’t think I was going to do much. At most I thought I would have a cup of coffee, write in my journal, then ride into Bahir Dar and explore the city. As it turned out I never left …
038 – Slowing Down and Taking Pictures
Debre Markos was more complicated than most of the towns I’d passed through and it wasn’t entirely clear which road was the one that led out of town and headed north. I stopped to question a group of young boys, but they all pointed in different directions and I left them still arguing amongst themselves. The men wrapped up tightly in their shammas against the …
035 – Goha Tsiyon
Dula Deterrent
The map of Ethiopia which I’d bought in Canada was proving extremely inaccurate when it came to the names of towns, their positions and the distances between them. But I’d learned to trust it when it came to topography and so I wasn’t surprised when immediately outside of Gomando/Fiche the road began to climb. According to my map I would climb to well over …
033 – Muketuri
The Land
The next morning the manager and the two young men watched with mute disappointment as one by one I carried my bags out into the street and attached them to my bike. Their eyes followed each one with a “give me” appeal that for once went unvoiced.
It was a bright and cold morning and Sululta’s main street was already filled with farmers tightly wrapped …