Cycling through Ethiopia – Not for the faint of heart
When people think of Ethiopia, images of famine, poverty and drought often come to mind. The last place on earth one would think of cycling would be the mountainous country of East Africa. Yet it is exactly here that my husband and I decided to cycle as part of the longest bicycle race in the world, the Tour d’Afrique is a journey of 12,000 cyclists from Cairo, Egypt to Cape Town, South Africa.
I think the general feeling is that we will not be cycling in Ethiopia again. Ever. Children are little terrors that make cycling a miserable experience. You are on your bike for 5 hours a day constantly on the lookout for rocks to be thrown, sticks to be pushed, and whips to be cracked. Meanwhile, there are gangs of children lining the roads yelling give me money, give me a pen, where are you going and, of course, the infamous you, you, you.
It’s a pity, because the landscape is beautiful. However, it is the landscape that is killing us. We are here in Ethiopia for 21 days with an altitude gain of 19,000 m (yes, 19,000 meters). Not only are the climbs epic, the roads are terrible and sometimes non-existent. We bike down undulating roads that shake our bodies as if we’ve been put in a washing machine on the spin cycle. At the end of the day, our muscles continue to contract from the constant pounding they faced on the rocky trails. Trucks driving down the unpaved roads throw dust in our faces and the heat can be unbearable. Sometimes piles of rocks pile up in the middle of the road and we have to get off the bikes and carry them over the unstable masses.
Every day we climbed relentlessly with a constant crowd of kids running past us clutching our Camelbacks and bike bags. We have encountered children jumping in front of us, handfuls of gravel thrown in our faces and one person even tried to smash my ankles.
The scenery is beautiful though and sometimes after a long climb we can have epic descents. One day we had a 20 km descent on a paved road to the camp. We stayed in the village of Debra Markos and enjoyed a wonderful afternoon overlooking an incredible gorge from the terrace of a German hotel.
Our toughest, but most rewarding ascent was the Blue Nile Gorge. It started with a 22km descent over rough roads after riding 60km in the morning just to get there. Once we reached the bottom, we started another 22km ascent up the other side with steep grades of 10 to 12 percent. And to make it more interesting, they turned it into a time trial. Wow! It was quite an achievement to reach the top in less than 3 hours. Dave did it in 2:30 and I did it in 2:45. He made the little scenic cave drive in Ontario look like a pothole.
The gorge itself is impressive! Too bad they don’t allow photos for security reasons. I guess you’ll have to check it in Google Earth.
I have to say that Ethiopia has really chewed us up and spit us out. Most people have suffered from diarrhea and vomiting.
Ethiopia is a wonderful country that I really think people should visit, I just don’t think anyone should cycle the roads there. Take it from a crazy Canuck that barely survived.