Day 39: Lake Tana – Bahir Dar

Well, this morning we’re counting the price of waiting with children surrounding the vehicles. The amount of kit stolen from Rob’s bike is pretty impressive. Camping stove, screw rivers, fuel funnels, and the old punctured inner tube from my bike. That, plus the fact lots of the kids throw stones have really changed our view/feelings of Ethiopia. From a joyous beautiful place, it’s now a tense and conflicting experience. We’re all tense passing villages, are we going to get waves or stones!?

The morning couldn’t have started off much worse, well, that’s not true. Cheesy scrambled eggs followed by pancakes with syrup for breakfast cannot be beaten! But, then we leave. We don’t have a big day ahead, approx 130 miles, thankfully. My fuel range is approx 300 miles, and I’m currently at about 260. The first five petrol stations have no petrol. Shit. Shit. Shit. Then, another front tyre puncture, thankfully a slow puncture. This is shit, and I’m worrying about the time left in the day for getting  to our destination. Rob Roy and Rob head off looking for fuel whilst I carry out another tyre repair. All sorted though, and it’s time to split up.

I’m looking forwards to riding alone, but it’s actually really sad to split from Rob. We’ll catch up later, and whilst some days have been challenging, many more have been good fun. And being able to laugh at each other has been brilliant. Ultimately we have different time frames, and it’s time for us to go our own ways. We’ll catch up in SA probably. Rob heads off with Rob Roy, up into the Simian mountains, and I head towards Addis Ababa with Brian and Anna in their 4x4. It’s a pretty good deal, Rob’s going to get to do some cool touring that I’d love to do, but B&A have a similar time scale to myself.

The ride to Bahir Dar has some spectacular views, and fantastic mountain switch back tarmac to enjoy, it’s got to be one of the best. But, due to the front tyre pics I’ve had, I’ve no confidence in the front of the bike. This isn’t a bad thing, as it means I ride more conservatively, which is probably safer and would def keep mum happy . And also, due to the hostility of some of the locals, I’m a little tense. These feelings together really take the magic away from the experience. But some of the views are still above this, and simply staggering.

75% of the population (total population 85million) live in the countryside, and the roads are littered with people, it’s quite astonishing. Some of the animals are so cute, especially the six puppies from the campsite which were the cutest things in the world!