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…
Category: Ethiopia Bike Trip 1998-1999
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034 – Gomando
“Father, father, where are you go?” Five minutes into the new day and I already had my first entourage of children. They didn’t call me “ferenji”, however. Not even “you you.” It seems I’d been promoted. I was now “father.” “Father, father, where are you go?” cried the children. All…
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033 – Muketuri
The Land The next morning the manager and the two young men watched with mute disappointment as one by one I carried my bags out into the street and attached them to my bike. Their eyes followed each one with a “give me” appeal that for once went unvoiced. It…
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032 – Addis Abeba to Sululta
Traveller as Hunter-Gatherer I took it slow when I finally dragged myself out of bed. I had no definite destination for that day. My goal was simply to break the inertia that had started to grip me while waiting for the rainy season to end. Even if I only made…
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031 – “Hyena! They eat you!”
I was about to crawl into bed around 10:00 p.m. I was fully packed and organized and overloaded. Suddenly Tadale saw me about to sneak into my room. “Douglas! Are you fine?” he bellowed and shook my hand. The momentum carried him into my room, the last place I wanted…
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030 – Special People
The Ethiopian premiere of “Endurance” turned out to be interesting in ways that I didn’t anticipate, but which I think Abiy did. He seemed to have misgivings from the first and it had nothing to do with the 150-birr ticket price as I’d thought. His fears that he did not…
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029 – Opulence
It was a shower and shave day for me and I steeled myself for the shock and plunged my head under the ice-cold water. The flow of water was very meagre on top of being refrigerated, which made it even more of a shock. A heavy flow would mean I…
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028 – A Blessing In Disguise
The more time I had to mull over the wallet-snatching incident the more it seemed like a blessing in disguise. It told me more about the country in a moment than I might have learned in months. It became a touchstone in helping me interpret what was going on around…
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027 – Tiger Spirit
Allen turned out to be a bit of a surprise. When I met him he was unshaven and wore a pair of jeans and a dirty t-shirt. From that (despite the lack of the signature knapsack over the shoulder) I assumed he was a backpacker. But he was coming from…
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026 – The Swarm Gang
I met Allen the day I had my wallet stolen. I’d ridden my bike to the Piazza to get some pictures developed and on the way back I followed a road that curved high above Addis. Below me was the massive complex of the new Sheraton Hotel and on impulse…