7500 Miles

The group was significantly smaller when we left camp in the morning. Ten people had already gone ahead to Gonder from Sudan and another six hitched a ride ahead in the morning. The day was a “Mando Day.” Racers are allowed to drop their three longest stages from their total race times. Mando Days cannot be dropped, presumably because they are the most difficult days. The day did involve a lot of climbing, and was difficult. I am a bit used to climbing because of the terrain we have back home, so I didn’t find it as difficult as some did. I didn’t ride very fast, either.
The day took its toll in other ways as well. Our dinner truck lost its brakes on a downhill. The driver, in an attempt to bring it safely to a stop threw the transmission into a low gear. The engine responded with a loud bang and a gaping hole in the crankcase. The result is that we got an extra much-needed rest day in Gonder while the truck situation was sorted out. A second casualty occurred during the day. One of the fastest riders ran into a woman who jumped out in front of him. She was alright, but he ended up breaking his collarbone. He lost EFI status and will be missing many days of riding (if he is able to continue at all).
Gonder is a nice town high up in the hills. Our hotel, the Goha, is at the very top of the tallest hill. It provides a nice view, but a less pleasant bike ride to the top at the end of a long day. On the first rest day, I went with a group to visit the charity that Tony is raising money for. He has been donating money to a school in the area and they were very thankful for his contributions. They had named an entire wing “The Tony Block” in appreciation. We watched an intramural football game, then saw coffee beans being roasted and then ground with a mortar and pestle, before finally being turned into coffee over hot coals. Some popcorn was popped over those same coals while we watched a small dance performance by a few schoolgirls. One interesting way of improving school attendance was to build quality toilet stalls. Many of the homes don’t have their own toilets, so providing a place for the girls to go to the bathroom keeps them in school for a couple years longer.
We were all invited to visit the Dashen Brewery, so the first evening, we all went down to check it out. It has a big open beer garden, so we spent a lot of time hanging out and enjoying the free drinks there, happy to not be on our bikes.
I picked the right time to visit Ethiopia, as the 56 days before Easter everyone is fasting. That made it easy to always find fasting (vegetarian) food. The main staple food in Ethiopia is injera, a porous pancake-like bread made from the local grain tef. On top of the injera is a variety of spicy and delicious dishes. No silverware is used; you eat the food by tearing off pieces of the injera. We found a good restaurant in town that had a buffet. I ate lunch here twice.
Gonder’s big feature is a big castle grounds next to town, so I made sure to fit in a tour during the day. I am also having problems with sun sensitivity due to the doxycycline, so I went looking for Malarone as malaria prophylaxis replacement. I found a pharmacy that said they didn’t have it, but their supplier around the corner did. They sent a boy with me to the place “around the corner.” After a half-hour walk, we arrived at another pharmacy—a veterinary pharmacy. I decided not to buy anything.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 13th, 2010 at 21:43 and is filed under Ethiopia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.