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‘I think I am the first ferenje who stays over for the night here’ I say to the couple escorting me to the hotel with no signpost.
‘Noooo … there was another one in September two years ago …’ they answer … we laughed for five minutes. They kept saying ‘not the first, the second!’ …
There was a drawing on my school book in primary school which pictured slaves building the pyramids, I remember the never ending rows of slaves carrying one stone each. Continue reading
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‘Quando ghe nè più, ghe nè a mo!’, is a say from where I come from, which would translate something like when there is nothing left, there is still a lot.
If last night at five, while I was going forth and back from the toilet, somebody would have told me … you will do 94 km I would have laughed … I thought the stomach was a strong point of my poor body … instead some spicy food betrayed me … I had the lucidity to drink salts and to eat some dextrose sweets to have a bit of energy to start again … when the alarm went off at 6,56 I switch it off … I am finally sleeping well … for breakfast I manage to drink some tea in which I put as much sugar as possible and I eat three doughy Enervit cereal bars which Serena gave me in Nairobi and are getting finished …
On the way back from the last trip to the toilet, at 5,11 I receive a message from Giorgia, who says she has woken up with a craving for crackers Doria, myself too I would eat a packet crunchy and with the salt on top I think, neither me nor her will satisfy this craving … the food visions come often on this journey today in a mountain village there is a smell of goat … which made me crave goat cheese … the little one is moving a lot hopefully he will turn …
At the beginning you go down to 1800 meters of Finote Selam, where I stop to take a tea, the waiter, embodied by my guardian angel, brings me without me asking some focaccia bread, which I managed to eat very slowly. Then the uphill starts again slowly slowly until the 2536 of Kosober, a uphill of 13 kilometers is a living death. Immediately after Finote Selam I bought for 2 birr, a plastic bag with a dozen yellow lemons, small, bitter and juicy … at the end I will have only three left … they have a very thin skin I peel then with my teeth and hands and then I chew them in a mouth full … it seems to me that my body appreciates and needs it … as I write I am feeling a bit hungry … let’s hope for the best …
Today with energies next to zero I did not take many pictures, I never looked at the altitude, I stopped many times, to buy something to drink, to put oil on the chain, to eat lemons, to speak to people. In a typical mountain village there was a gathering of male farmers waiting for the distribution of fertilizer, I was thirsty and I wanted some water, a young guy went from hut shop to hut shop , at the end he managed to find only a Fanta pineapple, excellent for digestion, I left hime the change as a tip for all the effort he put … 22 kilometers from Kosober I stopped to lubrify the chain, as usual a circle was formed, with elders and younths asking me where I was coming from, where I am going, which nationality I am … tire, chain and paper (map) are also Aramaic words … These stops helped to start again with a smile …
Dembecha N 10° 55’ E 37° 48.333’ – Kosober N 10° 95’ E 36° 93.333
94 km
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3111 over the sea level?
A beautiful stage, with crazy gradients in the day in which I am feeling the worst, I have nausea I cannot eat, I force myself to gulp down a couple of cereal bars with some tea. I do not know if the cause is the cold, the altitude or some dry barley I ate yesterday afternoon. Continue reading
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Today I liked myself!
At 70 km from departure I stopped at the FM International Hotel, where I knew there was a internet point, I ate a fantastic cake, with fresh avocado and mango juice and … two cappuccinos … when I was about to start off again a torrential storm rages … the waiter told me ‘it is better you stay here tonight …’ surely the place was very beautiful … also today I was not feeling too well … but for me 40 km more per day are important … Continue reading
What is this? Spriz … Is it for me? Actually no … but I drank it already …Departure on a uphill!
Thanks to my two stingy colleagues who did not hide the 200 USD I had asked in the tires, and did not even let me know, I spent much of the morning trying to buy dollars which I will need in Sudan. Changing dollars into birr is very easy, you can do it at all the banks and hotels. Continue reading
Today I am more tired than many other days when I cycle more than 8 hours!
I had to pick up the tires of the bicycle that the others are finished and Giorgia and Serena sent me from Lusaka …
Time 9,30 cargo airport of Addis Ababa, a tour between offices begins, which reminded me of an old Italian movie of the 60s …
Daring I head towards a warehouse, the boss looks at my documents, asks me questions on the trip and keeps me there ten minutes, to then tell me that first of all I have to go the custom. Here an officer opens asking me ‘the document which demonstrates that I am a tourist’, I explain that I am going to London by bicycle and when I crossed the border I was not given anything, nor was I asked to fill in anything. ‘Impossible, without that document you cannot go ahead’. I insist. He asks his secretary, a goose with a miniskirt and porn star red shoes, who speaks better English than him to explain to me. Continue reading
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It is pouring!
For the first time I have to take out my rain cape, considering we are in the rain season I have also been lucky … after a dozen of kilometers the rain let its place to the sun.
The road goes up with very pedalable uphills, the traffic is the most intense up to now, the level of CO2 very high, the road is narrow and a almost fall in climbing back from the small side passage where I ended up because of a exceptional transport, let me understand I have to concentrate to the max. Continue reading
24 km/h on average absolute record of this journey!
This wonderful final part of the Rift Valley with fields, lakes and even vineyards … it has passed fast but not too fast not be admired.
When you go like this you would never get off the bicycle, it is like making love for hours with the woman you love.
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Are they stealing my bicycle?
After a stage like the one of yesterday in the morning you are dazed a bit dwelling between a mix of euphoria and desire to stay under the blankets until midday.
I have to get up necessarily there is somebody getting my bicycle from the veranda outside my room!
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Coffee Cola?
In the villages in Ethiopia there is not much difference between dinner and breakfast, last night njera with two types of lentils and this morning the same, with a coffee instead of a beer … the injera has never thrilled me much with that acidic aftertaste, the first time I saw it in a restaurant in Addis I thought it was a small towel, here by now I eat it without any problem because, like yesterday, at times it is the only carbohydrate available.
