Articles tagged with: bike
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 …
043 – Bahir Dar to Werota
Leaving Bahir Dar
The streets of Bahir Dar were quiet and cold as I cycled through them. A group of men made swishing sounds as they swept up the road with large palm branches. Boys from a school scoccer team chattered and kicked a tattered ball back and forth. The only other people on the street padded by silently on their bare feet and stared at …
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 …
040 – To Bahir Dar
“Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation”
Inside the bus to Bahir Dar there was a big poster of Jesus on his knees looking heavenward and praying. A tiny angel hovered above him holding a glass of some kind. The caption read, “Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation.” I had a long time to look at that sentence and think about …
039 – A Night in Amanuel
The Toe TAL Hoe Tal
The town that Azmo had sent me to was called Amanuel and it was as he said only 5 km away. But it was all uphill and I was soon reduced to pushing the bike almost continuously. I tried from time to time to pedal, but my rear wheel simply spun out from under me on the loose rock.
I looked at …
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 …
036 – Into The Gorge
It was still dark at 5:35 in the morning when I stepped outside my room. There was a hard cold wind blowing but the sky was clear. I could see the stars.
Occasionally I heard the sound of one of the big dinosaur trucks roaring down the road. Traffic had started. Like me they were making the trip into the gorge as early as possible, hoping …
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 …