I’d planned my trip to Ethiopia for so long that when I finally left, it felt very dreamlike, as if I was only acting out the stages for flying to Africa. But there was no mistaking the reality of Terminal 3 at Toronto’s international airport. If it wasn’t real then who was that man who handed me a brochure and offered to “shrink-wrap” my luggage?

My luggage was also extremely real: two giant cardboard boxes tipping the scales at 70 lbs each. I rented a cart for a dollar and trundled around the terminal. Everyone got out of my way. The long but thin box held my dismantled bicycle plus an assortment of clothing, tools and spare parts. The other box held my BOB trailer plus everything the adventurer needs to camp his way across Africa.

By design, I was hours early. By luck, there was a sole woman sitting at one of the Alitalia check-in counters. Check-in for my flight wasn’t for a while yet, but she looked at my enormous boxes, heaved a sigh and waved me over. You’d have thought she was personally responsible for supplying the power to lift the 747 off the ground.

I’d anticipated a hundred scenarios where my bike would cause problems, but she checked me in, slapped some “HEAVY” warning labels on my boxes and told me to bring them to the oversized baggage conveyor. No penalties. No last-minute rule that Alitalia wouldn’t take bikes. Nothing but her heavy sighs as she wondered why passengers and their baggage had to come in so many awkward shapes and sizes.

Freed of my luggage, I wandered around the airport hopelessly adrift in that euphoric state that always accompanies a departure. I had to resist the impulse to run up to strangers and ask them where they were going so we could share our happiness in being on the move. I overheard six jovial black men sitting at a table speaking in what sounded like an African language. In my giddy state I nearly went up to them with a big goofy grin on my face to ask them where they were from. I saw the headline in my mind and giggled. “Mad Traveller Terrorizes Airport – Dozens Traumatized.”

Tags: BOB, Ethiopia Bike Trip, HEAVY