Route Map

Route Map

Monday, March 29, 2010

Half Way To Capetown!! 5850km to GO!

Reflections on Tanzania





The countries seem to be flying by at this point, just as we get our money changed into one currency we are crossing another border, getting ready to change into a different currency. Tanzania gave us a run for our money with difficult dirt roads and long days, but is wrapping up with some nice paved roads with short days (110km and under)..We have had several days of rain but have been lucky because it is the rainy season in Tanzania and we haven’t had as much we could have. Tanzania has been so beautiful. It is lush and green and rainforesty. There are huge fields of sunflower crops which remind me of my friend Jess Kayser. It is definitely a welcome relief from the desert landscape that we have gotten used to. The rest day in Iringa was a chance for most people to overhaul the drive trains on their bikes if they hadn’t already done it at some point on the trip. New handlebar tape, cassettes, chains, cables will make the second half of the trip more enjoyable and ensure that the bikes actually make it to Capetown. In a couple of days we will be crossing the border into Malawi (our 6th country). We will be staying on a beach on Lake Malawi for our first rest day. I have been getting more and more tired as the trip has been going by. I have slowed on my blog updates to allow myself more time to actually “rest” on rest days as our “rest days” are already filled with mile long lists of errands to prepare for the next week of riding. By the time that hand laundry, bike maintenance, and snack shopping is done, the actual “rest time“ is minimal. So I apologize for the lack of communication at this point and thank everyone for the support that I have been getting.

Tanzanian Dirt Roads ALMOST broke my body and spirit, ALMOST (50 hour bike week)

Where The Pavement Begins....Heaven



Iringa, Tanzania AT LAST!! The last seven days have been the most difficult days for me on the trip thus far… Having logged almost 50 hours on my bike this week, this is the most hard earned rest day that I have gotten to. The dirt in Tanzania is a mixture of thick sand, chunky rocks and dirt and clay making the rides very long. Mix in a lot of up hill climbing (a lot) and difficult tedious downhill sections on the dirt and I would have to say this might have been more difficult for me than Northern Kenya. Two days this week I arrived at camp after 6pm which is disheartening because you change out of your biking clothes, baby wipe and then go to rider’s meeting, wipe the bike down and prepare for the next day of riding. No real time to recoup. I have also been plagued lately with an incurable case of insomnia which on top of the hours and hours in the saddle is slowly killing me. I The nerves in my right hand have also decided they have had enough of the endless banging around on the dirt and they are not allowing my fingers to function properly anymore. My index finger and middle finger on my right hand are stuck together and will not separate independently of me pulling them apart. It is not painful, but it makes handwriting and typing next to impossible… Hopefully this will go away when I stop riding every day. Obviously that would have to happen in my right hand. There were defiantly a few days this week I wanted to pack the trip in, but it seems that when things get really low something cool happens to remind us where we are, like twenty monkeys walking out on the road in front of us or a chameleon crossing to the road.

My rest day turned out to be very eventful as I have been having problems with my big toe on my right foot ever since Dinder Park, My bike shoe is a little tight and it has given me a black toe and I took bets around camp for everyone to put in a date when they thought that the toe nail would fall off for good. It seemed like a fun game at the time…However today the fun game turned to be not so enjoyable when I snagged the toe nail on the ground when I bent down and it tore the nail off and now it is dangling by a thread. There was a lot of blood and a lot of pain and now I am trying to devise a plan to squeeze this painful mess into my bike shoe tomorrow. After I stopped crying, one of the riders asked me who one the bet…I guess I had that coming… Luckily one of the other girls on the trip had gotten an infected ingrown toenail on her same big toe and has been in the hospital twice on the trip, once to have it removed and once when it got infected so I have an expert to help me through the pain of this less than enjoyable injury….And thus I didn’t get on the internet to post this blog and all that will have to wait until the next rest day in Malawi…

Monday, March 15, 2010

A new one to add to the mix – Tar!!




So our last day in Kenya had to be nothing less than epic to end off our journey through this country. It was a 160km day, which is the first century ride that we have done in quite a while, actually since February 17. Our legs and bodies have taken a break from the long distances and with my bruised hip I wasn’t really looking so forward to the day. Early on, a man on the road looked bewildered at me and said “Aren’t you going to church?”… This statement made me panic because I knew that nothing good could come from the fact that- No, in fact I wasn’t going to church- instead I am riding my bike through Africa… I said to the person I was riding with, “nothing good will come of that statement, in fact something bad is going to happen today…” Not 20km later, I had my 16th flat tire of the trip, the tube exploded going downhill and blew my rear tire off…. Luckily (again) I wasn’t going fast enough for this to cause me to crash. I got the tire changed and continued on this incredibly long day. At around 95km, the road construction started. There was a clear diversion road, which was dirt and then the road that they were working on… We started to ride onto the dirt road, when the road worker waved at us to go on the “closed road” It looked much smoother and better than the dirt road so we opted for this. Little did we know it had “just” been newly tared. YIKES. I thought dirt roads were bad. Within 3km, we were riding on freshly wet tared roads, with the tar flicking all over our drive trains, cables, bodies and faces… and it was slippery, very slippery. We had to get off. Just then we saw two riders on the side of the road, one had just crashed and was covered head to toe in tar, with cuts underneath. What a nightmare. We sorted this situation and cleaned our bike and bodies the best we could with diesel from the truck when it stopped to get the injured rider. We carried our bikes across the way back onto the dirt road. The road construction continued for kilometers and kilometers… we now rode on the dirt. It was a long long hot day covered head to toe in tar. When we finally did arrive at camp it was a hectic mess of petrol and rags and riders covered with tar. This is a lot harder of a clean up job than mud. This is the kind of clean up job I would have loved to pay someone $200 shillings to clean for me. Yet Another epic Kenyan day. We will cross the border tomorrow morning and have our first riding day into Tanzania. I cannot even begin to imagine what Tanzania has in store for us. We just need to pray to the rain gods not to give us rain, apparently it makes the dirt roads of Tanzania an absolute nightmare.

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Into Nairobi- My Crash

Ahhh. Kenya was supposed to get easier after the Northern Section but today didn’t feel easier. The convoy that needs to happen to “safely” get a group of 60 bike riders into a major city is pretty intense as we have now experienced it in Cairo, Khartoum and Addis Ababa, But Nairobi is a lot more difficult. To eliminate this, the TDA did a search for a new route to get us to the Indaba camp on the southern side of the city without having to go through the middle of the city and without having to do a 3-4 hour convoy. The plan was to ride 65km to lunch, then as riders arrived, to separate into three convoys based on riding speeds. We arrived to lunch only about 10mins after the middle convoy left. That meant an hour and a half wait until the next convoy left. This is a long rest when you still have another 75km to ride. The ride all day was very very hilly, it was really hot and people are starting to feel pretty tired. We had about 1500m of climbing, which was another reminder of Ethiopia. We got into the convoy with the remaining riders, which was only about 10 people because, again a bunch of riders had either gone ahead to Nairobi or had gotten on the truck to avoid the day. The convoy felt dangerous due to the crazy drivers and the fact there was a lot of road construction, etc. After a 30km convoy on the highway, we were again released on our own to complete the last 40ish kilometers to camp…Hills, hills, hills. Two of the Kenyan riders rode with us to ensure we wouldn’t miss the turns and a TDA staff was also positioned at all the turns (there were a few). I imagine finding lost riders in Nairobi would be a bit of a nightmare. We approached Karen (a small suburb of Nairobi) where most of the ex-pats live, and the embassies and consulates are all around here. After the Ex-pat mall the traffic became an absolute nightmare, especially because it was after 5pm at this point. I was riding with American Dan and Rick at this point. Sharita (tour director) stopped and told us the traffic was too dangerous, and there had already been an accident and that we should ride on the dirt shoulder. I rode in front for a bit and then told Dan he should go ahead. He did, and Rick and I continued to ride. Just outside the hospital, there was a section of the shoulder that ended and we had to get onto the sidewalk, I misjudged the curb and hit it on an edge going very fast, instead of head on. I went down hard, cleared the sidewalk (although my bike and derailleur hit the sidewalk very nicely and very hard) and I landed in the road- with the traffic!!! A minibus had to swerve to miss hitting me. When I opened my eyes, I saw Rick’s face and thought that it must have been bad because he looked really worried. I lucked out and had put my jacket on just before we left the mall, so I only got a small cut on my elbow and didn’t get the usual roadrash that people have been getting, but landed with my entire weight onto my hip. Tonight, my entire right side feels very stiff like I was in an accident (probably because I was). There is also a very large baseball sized contusion on the hip bone. Good thing I have a rest day to recover, fix my brakes and relax before our two riding days into Arusha, Tanzania and our half way mark. My body definitely did not need this, but it could have been MUCH MUCH worse. I guess it is only my second crash in almost 50 days of riding which is very good odds. I am counting my lucky stars that the minibus did not run over me… :)

Everything is Relative

In each country that we ride through, we are lucky enough to have a small number of local riders and racers join the tour to ride with us. It has been really cool because not only have they been a nice change to the group, they also know where they are going and are able to speak the language. In Ethiopia our riders helped protect us from the rock-wielding children and now in Kenya our local riders were able to help lead our convoy into Nairobi. One of the local riders here in Kenya has only one leg, he is an amputee from the waist down. The crazy thing is, he is faster than almost all of the riders that are on this tour with two legs. It has been incredibly humbling and an honor to ride with him, he is also famous in Kenya and people that see him want to take his picture and meet him. While we complain and talk about our shortcomings, this man has taken his and become an elite athlete and makes due with what he has in nothing but an amazing way. It has opened my eyes to the power of the human spirit and what it is to have resolve.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Northern Kenya- In like a lion, Out like a Lamb


Today was our last day on “dirt”. The first 7km were on the smoothest, flattest dirt known to man, and then suddenly at 7km, we hit the new pavement!! Freedom, for the first time in days, no matter what was to come on this pavement, we were all in heaven.

This afternoon rolling into Isiolo Kenya, we stopped at the shell station where the local “entrepreneurs” had taken advantage of our dirty dirty bikes and were charging 200 shillings to wash our bikes and bike shoes (about 2.50) Best $2.50 I have ever spent in my life! They rolled the bikes into a puddle and cleaned cleaned away. My shoes have never been so white! And my bike has never been so happy, it was like a little spa day for her since she has worked so so hard over the last two months.

Now we are on our way to Mount Kenya (where I will be thinking about my dear friend Chris Hatton- who has stood on this summit twice!) and to Nunyuki (the equator), where I will also get the privilege of meeting Chris’s dear friend Mathoni who has agreed to come meet me! I am looking forward to this so so much.

Northern Kenya- Day Five- WET WET WET


We woke up this morning to a torrential thunder storm and crazy pouring rain. It was interesting to see a bunch of people not used to the rain packing up their tents and organizing themselves…Some “hardy souls” or better yet, ignorant people chose to sleep in the “dry” river bed, Not a great idea when the night before looks like rain, luckily the rain didn’t start until this morning. It was no real use trying to stay dry, as the rain was so heavy and we were all clad in our biking gear. I ate a very quick breakfast and rolled out to get the day underway. Many, many people opted to not ride right from the beginning (riding in the rain is uncomfortable and it has become a theme for several people that if it is “uncomfortable” it is better off to get in the truck. Interesting concept when riding across Africa as there are parts of everyday that are “uncomfortable”). As I got about 2km down the road, I realized that I had forgotten my water bottles (full) that I had neatly stacked beside my bike. So this is the kind of day it is going to be, I thought. I rode back and got them and started biking. I rode the first 30 km by myself, a very slow process, averaging about 11km an hour over sandy, sopping wet, extremely corrugated terrain. An 87km ride in soaking bike shorts over corrugation doesn’t help for chafing and saddle sores let me tell you.. It is a lesson in patience and distraction of the discomfort. After about the first 10km it was obvious it was going to be a day of riding through puddle after puddle after puddle. Soaking wet socks, shoes, shorts, and shirts… This is the day. Today is about the most abusive day that I could imagine for our bikes. The bikes were in water up to our knees every few kilometers as we had to ride through all this water. The bike shop (where the One bike mechanic can help with bikes) went well into the darkness. My bike sounded horrendous all day long and after lunch I lost both my front and rear disk brakes… I met up with Australian Dan who wasn’t feeling well (he is generally one of the fast riders) and we rode the rest of the day together. It poured on and off all day long. Dripping wet and extremely muddy we rolled into lunch, a quick stop as it was very cold to stop for very long due to the fact that we were all dripping wet. Northern Kenya again lived up to it’s legendary difficulty as 24 riders rode the truck to camp… Several other riders have opted after our rest day to go ahead to Isiolo, Kenya to bypass the “dirt section”. There are construction crews starting on paving the road so this afternoon we found a section of road under construction without corrugation, a welcome break for our battered bodies… With all this road paving the “Tour D’Afrique “ is drastically changing, maybe The Infamous Northern Kenya Dirt section will be completely paved over by next year. A sad thought, I think they might have to do some reconnaissance of a new route to maintain the difficulty of this race as it has already changed so drastically since it began in 2003. Tomorrow is our last day on the dirt until after Arusha, Tanzania where we start with dirt all over again. Apparently tomorrow the pavement will start after a mere 10km, we are all very excited to see the pavement again! I don’t know who will be more excited, me or my bike! I went to the mechanic tonight, and found out that both my disk brake pads (front and rear) are done. Unluckily I only ended up bringing one set, hard to decide whether I want front brakes or rear brakes… It is funny how we bring so much stuff to prepare for anything that could happen, but then when you really really need something, you don’t have it and it becomes an absolute logistical, stressful dilemma. I am trying to arrange with one of the sectional riders to get some disk brake pads brought in, hopefully in Nairobi but we will see. So many things that I wished I had more of, tire tubes, brake pads, chamois cream and of course wine gums… because I am in withdrawl everyday.

We are seeing on and off several groups driving from Cairo to Capetown. We have met two dudes from England, driving their souped up landcruiser down, a guy on a motorcycle from Germany. The craziest girls, two Spanish girls that are driving their Minivan from Spain to Capetown. We see them all the time on these roads as daily, something else breaks on their Minivan… It is absolutely the craziest thing I have ever seen as this is CLEARLY a road for 4 wheel drives only. Their minivan would probably not even get them across Canada, let alone Africa! Even our overland trucks barely make it some days…. We will see how far they get. They had problems with their drive shaft yesterday and blew a hole in their aluminum oil pan. Nuts.

Day Six tomorrow. I am almost EFI for the Northern Kenya section, which I am super stoked about because less than half the people so far have rode all these horribly wonderful days… One last day and then the day after tomorrow we will reach the equator!

Muddy Mayhem




Day Four- Northern Kenya

Northern Kenya is working us with all its magic. After an overnight storm in Marsabit, we were faced with a morning of crazy strong swirly winds (mainly headwinds and crosswinds though, obviously- No tail winds in Northern Kenya!). The Indaba (truck crew) were very concerned about the state of the roads mainly for getting the trucks to camp without getting them stuck. Riders were also concerned knowing that the roads were bound to be thick clay mud and corrugated loose sand. We are giving these last few days of this our all because we only (sigh) have five and a half total days of the hellish Northern Kenya roads before we get our long deserved pavement for a little while until we reach the dirt roads again in Tanzania. Today was tough- mentally maybe tougher for me than our day four mando race day. It was 97km with at least 85% of it seriously corrugated. There were sections that the mud was so thick it became difficult to ride as the mud collected on the bike tires making it like biking through molasses. This morning we were told to make sure we ask the locals before we take photos. They are now decorated in beautiful jewelry and very colorful. It seems that some of the front riders were taking photos but potentially not asking, which led to major problems for us riders in the back, or maybe there was just a group of crazy knife wielding women who were just crazy. One group of riders got stopped with a chain of locals, when the riders slowed down, One rider got a Machete held to her chest in a threatening way. Another rider was in a stand off with (possibly?) the same crazy woman who wielded her machete then tried to throw a large rock. When myself and Analise reached this woman, she was shaking the machete at Analise in a crazy manner, I shouted at the woman , what was she doing, as I rode by she did the same to me, and then as I passed by she threw the machete at my back hard, it hit me just below my neck and luckily the handle, not the blade hit me. It is the first time I have actually feared my safety since being in Africa. I am not even sure this woman had any idea the implications this machete throwing incident could have caused. CRAZY.

We arrived at lunch to learn that our truck that had been rescued from Gondor, Ethiopia was stuck in a huge mud puddle and our trucks had to help him and then get through themselves. As we approached, the one truck was finally out after 2 solid hours of effort and then one of our trucks made it through. At this point, myself and Rick, Analise, Dana and myself started to make our way through “the puddle”, riding through was questionable so we opted to walk our bikes through. It meant wet socks and shoes, but at least no problems. At points the puddle came up to my mid thighs and almost to the top tube on the bike. It was super deep. The trucks drove through next and it was very exciting, they all made it through, thank goodness because without our trucks, we have not got our equipment.

The afternoon was another battle with this equatorial sun. We are two days away now from crossing the equator on our bikes (the equator is in a town called Nanyuki). The sun, the temperature, the doxycycline (for malaria) and the long long long days on the bike are messing with my body and I am suffering from extreme heat rash on the backs of my ankles, upper thighs and arms. It is very uncomfortable and making the days even more difficult than they already are….

Two more days till pavement- oh boy will my body and bike be happy to see that pavement… You cannot appreciate it as much as when you are riding on the most questionable “roads” you have ever seen. Kenya is definitely one of my favorite countries so far for the shear beauty of the landscape here. It is stunning.

Friday, March 5, 2010

The Infamous Northern Kenya

Day One

I have been hearing about the infamous Northern Kenya since I signed up for this tour last year, so today I finally got my first taste of what this place has to offer. This is the most remote stretch of the bike ride that we will do. It feels very very remote, maybe due to the fact that the roads are not paved, or just the small numbers of people and vehicles on the road. Every once in a while you would see a soldier dressed in military fatigues come out of the bush next to the road. In 2008 this stretch was too dangerous so the riders had to fly over. We got lucky ( I guess depending on how you look at it) that we get to ride it! Today was supposed to be the easy day of the four unpaved, which it was, luckily. We got lucky because we have Dinder to compare everything to at this point and Dinder (I reckon) was much harder than today was. Tomorrow is supposed to be the beginning of the difficult roads. I have to prepare myself. It will be a double bike short day, this is my strategy to prevent saddle sores when there will clearly be some seriously bad roads and one pair of bike shorts will not even begin to protect my butt. Next, I have decided to tape my forearms to prevent the swollen painful arms I had the last time. I am well prepared now having been through Dinder, I have traded my 32mm tires for 2.1 inch mountain bike tires, my thudbuster seatpost for a little bit of suspension. The infamous washboard, unpaved, lava rock roads are very beautiful to look at however they were never designed to be used by bikes or vehicles for that matter, the trucks have just as hard of a time to maneuver over the roads as us. The trucks are able to drive approximately 10-12km/hr, so just about as fast as the bikes. Kenya is gorgeous so far, with mountains in the distance and savanna in the forefront.

We are entering the areas where animals are likely to be seen. Today we saw baboons, tomorrow there is the chance of seeing giraffes in the wild which would be very very cool. The weather is getting warm again, which is good and bad. It is sticky humid hot now though. It makes sleeping somewhat difficult. There are also starting to be a lot of bugs of all sorts and we get “snake warnings” at camp now so that we don’t go out to dig a hole at night and get a snake surprise.

Day Two

Started out “easy”, and then after lunch became a Northern Kenyan Road (see below). There were hundreds of large millipedes walking across the road today. I had to stop and pick one up and get a picture with it to show my nephews. They were the same kind of millipedes that they have at the bug zoo. Oh yeah, we didn’t see any giraffes either. 

Day Three

Close your eyes for a minute; now imagine the worst road you can think of off the top of your head (this is a hard activity for people that live in the city). Next, cover this road in loose lava rock (from the size of small gravel to grapefruit size) add some loose deep sand and deep tire ruts, the occasional thick clay and kilometers and kilometers of washboard corrugation and then imagine the temperature hovering around 40C with 45% humidity and now imagine that you are riding this on a touring bike with no shocks instead of a mountain bike- Welcome to Northern Kenya. It is some of the most difficult riding that I have ever done in my life. It requires an insane amount of patience and a crazy amount of concentration or you will come off your bike. Several people took spills today, mainly just scrapes and cuts but luckily, no real big accidents. Today was our mando riding day for Northern Kenya, 88km. When push comes to shove, today is the kind of day that shows you what you are made of. At last night’s rider meeting, Kelsey announced that today’s riding day would be one of the three hardest days on tour. This morning, 16 riders, got on the trucks without even getting on their bikes. I was excited to get the chance to try the infamous riding and just push as hard as I could and if worse came to worse I would get on the truck. The morning was slow and I was riding alone. Time seemed to go on forever and it was really really hot, My face was sweating from the time I left the camp. By the time I got to lunch, several more people were on the truck. The afternoon was spent riding with Rick and then we were joined by Dave (who I rode Dinder with) and Laura. It was so hot that I could feel my skin burning. I actually even got blisters, I kept putting sunscreen on but it didn’t help. The day just seemed to go on and on and on. After lunch we came on a bunch of riders sitting under trees along the route waiting for the lunch truck to pick them up. As the day heated up it was very tempting to get on the truck. That is the difficult part of this trip, it is entirely you vs. you. There is always a truck you can get on eventually if you want to, but it is hard for stubborn people like me, I would rather take my time and eventually get to camp then to quit and have to deal with my own anger about that. Also we are here to ride across Africa on our bikes, not the trucks. I can only really get on the truck when I am not feeling well. By the time we rolled into camp at 6:30pm we were four of the last riders to make it to camp. Out of the 61 riders, 31 riders finished the mando day today. I am sore and really tired but really glad that I did it. We are now at our rest day in Marsibit, Kenya. Then we have two more days of unpaved Northern Kenya roads before we reach Isiolo and are on our way to Nairobi. In 9 days we will arrive in Arusha, the half way point for distance and time of the trip. Crazy to think that I have almost ridden halfway across Africa already. Crazy.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

“Welcome to Yabello”

Yabello, Ethiopia- a small town (Very Small) on the way to the border town of Moyale, Ethiopia (our last day off in Ethiopia after a long three week stint). This is the smallest place that we have had a day off in thus far on the tour, with no internet, no restaurants and no real shops. The one shop in the town was sold out of virtually all the chocolate and biscuits that they had within a 100km radius after only a short time. After a few days of moderate rain, some (a lot) of spirits (not mine :) ) were dampened and people were struggling to see the positives of this more “typical” African village. It is really interesting what rain does to a group that is not used to rain and not used to camping in the rain. Luckily I think if anything is my expertise on this trip, camping in the rain is it. We were put up in the Yabello motel, essentially a gas station that they have adapted into a rustic motel (with some interesting fancy rooms with “rain shower head showers”…those of us that were still interested in “roughing it” fought over spots on the small sections of lawn and dirt out front of the hotel and those that were lucky enough to reach the hotel in time (some riders skipped out on the ride to ensure their hotel room…which is definitely a questionable act, but at this point in the game people are showing their true colors) were able to camp in “relatively” dry rooms. The rain came down hard, virtually all day and night. It was definitely a good test for people’s gear and patience. Gear and patience failed for several people as a result. Some riders tried to do laundry or gave it to the hotel to get cleaned. I opted for dry dirty laundry compared to the riders that at the end of the rest day were stuck with clean wet riding clothes… 100% humidity makes it hard to line dry things. On the road to Yabello the terrain started to drastically change, with red soil, termite mounds and camels everywhere. It was beautiful. The people also started to look differently. Darker skin, much more colorful clothing and way more subdued than the people in other areas along the way. Actually even the people started to thin out considerably as we approach the Kenyan border. The northern part of Kenya is probably the most remote and politically dangerous section along the whole route. Moyale (the bordertown is the biggest town to the north) and Isiolo to the south with Marsabit (the next day off) in between.It is also the most difficult riding we will face on the entire tour. We are nervous as this entire section is unpaved, with difficult lava rock and dirt and corrugation along the entire route. Even the trucks will have a difficult time to get through this section. Storms and rain are predicted throughout the week will make this section even more difficult if that is even possible. But once we overcome this section we will be almost half way done the tour and through the worst (hopefully) that we will face. We are at around 4300km with 24710meters of climbing completed thus far. Of that I have rode just over 4000km. We are all getting stronger despite the fact that the day to day kilometers are wearing us down. We arrived in Kenya today. We start the difficult riding tomorrow.

Reflections On Ethiopia

As we enter our final three days of riding in Ethiopia I have definitely spent some time reflecting on the l time that we have spent here, which will be the longest time that we will spend in any one country on our tour across Africa (23 days total). Ethiopia was a test both physically and mentally and some days it was more a test of patience than anything else. Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries in the world and one of the most populated. With 75 million people in this tiny country, there seems to be people everywhere. This was evident on a daily basis as it was a rare time to stop along the side of the road and within minutes be surrounded by locals of all ages. Riding in pairs became necessary for the ability to deal with a flat tire or to take a pee stop without having your bike taken or stuff stolen from it. Lunch stops and campsites became a well monitored event as hundreds of villagers from nearby would stand around the thin string line put up watching our every detailed move. I imagine this is as close as I will ever feel to being a star in Hollywood being followed by the paparazzi. It is an overwhelming and claustrophobic feeling when you are always being watched. I think if I could describe Ethiopia in one word “claustrophobic” would be that word. It was amazing how the thin string line actually tended to keep the locals out, and the bizarre feeling of both being “inside” the line and the local people (in there own country) observing us from “outside” the line. Occasionally one of the locals would break through the line, only to be whipped or hit by whom ever was being paid to be security at the time. Only a few things were ever stolen from camp as people are on the top of their game at this point for monitoring our stuff. I think we can all say pretty surely that we are glad Ethiopia is coming to a close. I am ashamed to say that some days my empathy and compassion were tested by anger and frustration with the actions of locals. Stone throwing, shouting of “you you you” “give me money” “give me water” “ Ferengi (foreigner)” throwing dirt, whipping riders with sticks, and spitting on riders were a constant battle. Everything I have learned in my life has come in handy and been important to help me get through this country, even my military training was put to the test, observing the level of threat at all times from the hundreds of children and adults along side the road, checking for weapons and deciding how to respond… My patience was put to the ultimate test and I tried on a daily basis to find something I was thankful for and something that made me appreciate the people of this country. Ethiopia was also the ultimate test on people’s GI tracts as nearly every rider was stricken down at some point in the last three weeks with some form of stomach flu. Mine was particularly bad and took me out of riding for two days.

Ethiopia is definitely one of the most beautiful places I have ever been, rolling hills (mountains) and lush vegetation. Even on the worst day of biking all that was necessary was to look off to either side of the road, past the children and locals and an amazing viewpoint was always there to change the mood of the day. Today an Ethiopian runner ran along side my bike for around 20km, at one point I clocked him on my odometer as running 26km/hr. Amazing and humbling. The last few days have given us some serious climbing, with some hills looking like they were impossible to even fathom the possibility of getting your bike up, but it somehow seemed that every hill was eventually climbed and legs were tired later on. Over the 23 days we have had thousands of meters of climbing on our bikes. Some days felt like we were spinning our legs over and over again, going nowhere, but after enough effort and time we would eventually arrive at our destination, set up our tents, eat some food and go back to bed awaiting another day of the same.

My favorite things about Ethiopia have been the amazing triple, and quadruple layered juices. The copious amounts of livestock everywhere, in the road, in the fields, in the yards. Also the fact that I can now very accurately judge the speed of both cattle and goats so I don't hit them while biking by.

Ignorance isn’t Bliss, it is just embarrassing

Understandably some days here in Ethiopia are tough, people have been pushed to their max, with hills, altitude, rain, children, rocks, and more people around than anyone is used to in their lives back home. However within this frustration I feel like it is important to remember how fortunate we are to have been born in a developed country and just by that fortune to have the things we do and to not take these things for granted, especially health care and education. These are two of the things that if you look close enough, past the rock throwing and shouting; that is evident that this country is lacking. It has been frustrating for me at time to see how some of the riders have retaliated from the rock throwing and their ability to show compassion and empathy towards a country that we are guests in. I am not claiming to have not been frustrated at times, especially on days that I have been punched, had dirt thrown point blank in my eye, been whipped with sticks, been spit on in my face and laughed and mocked. However despite all of these things I can honestly say I do not feel ashamed of anything I have done in return, as I rarely do anything, except slow down and try and help them to understand why this is not okay.

Some riders I have heard have stolen children’s school books or shoes and rode ahead and dumped them. Some riders have thrown rocks back, or threatened them. Today one of the more educated riders, came into lunch very frustrated and said that we should “firebomb this whole country” because clearly it is a “sess pool”. I was shocked at this unbelievable and very offensive comment. To say such a thing about a country that we all chose to ride through, knowing the risks ahead of time of what we might face is a clear example of ignorance and the cause of so many of the injustices in the world. At times things like this make me embarrassed that I am a part of a group that has members that believe this type of behavior is acceptable.

When things have gotten me down or stressed me out I remember how lucky I am for the opportunity to see this part of the world. I remember that a lot of people in the world do not have the freedom to cross the borders and see other parts of the world. I feel incredibly blessed that I have had the opportunity to quality health care and that my life expectancy is more than 43 years old, and that I did not have to do manual labor at the age of five. I remember that I got the opportunity to go to university and high school and junior high and elementary school for that matter. I feel privileged that I go to bed every night with enough food to eat and I can drink the water out of the taps and I don’t have to worry that I might get diarrhea that will eventually kill me. I feel privileged that I was not pregnant and expecting my first baby when I was 12 years old or raising my 5th child before I was twenty years old. I think being in Africa has opened my eyes to the incredible injustices that we face every day in the world, and a lot of them occur solely based on where people are born. I always think about the poem “if the world was only 100 people” it is eye opening. We have enough, a lot of the world does not and that is an important reminder that Africa gives us on a daily basis. I want to thank Ethiopia for opening its arms to us in the ways it has. Although not all the interactions were great, in fact some of them were very difficult and frustrating, for every rock I had thrown at me, someone else said “welcome” or showed interest in my trip through their country. For every aggressive tone, there was a smiling face waving and cheering on the side of the road. Ethiopia has taught every rider on this tour a little something about themselves, their tolerance, their resolve and their ability to pick themselves back up when the going gets tough and keep going, this is something that I believe every Ethiopian does every day of their lives. If this is all Ethiopia has been for some people on this tour, let it be, but they do have this place to thank.