Blood, sweat and gears in the Ethiopian highlands! 04 Dec 2011

This is a very quick post just to let everyone know we have made it into Ethiopia and are presently in Gonder, not far from Lake Tana.

Since leaving Khartoum we have had some of the toughest days of riding on our trip so far, particularly since entering Ethiopia, some of the climbs are on par with the Alps, but with the African sun to spice things up! On top of that you have millions of kids shouting "YOU, YOU, YOU, YOU, MONEY" and sometimes throwing stones and grabbing your bike and bags. Usually this is no more then a bit tiring, but unfortunately today one of those cheeky kids got his greasy fingers on James' fuel bottle for the camping stove. So now we can't cook or, worse, make coffee, and the kid has an MSR fuel bottle which he probably doesn't know what to do with! Apart from that Ethiopia has been a welcome change from the dusty desert of Sudan, the scenery has steadily become more and more spectacular and it is nice to see and hear a bit of wildlife again.

As for our wheel dilemma, my lovely girlfriend Jo has been an incredible help and arranged for a new set of rims and some other spare parts to be sent by DHL to Bahir Dar, which is about 2 days cycling away. This is a big relief for us, so now we just have to get ourselves there and then build up the new wheels. So far our current rims don't seem to be deteriorating too much, so they should get us to Bahir Dar with a bit of luck.

We will hopefully have Internet in Bahir Dar and will post a more comprehensive blog about our travels since Khartoum... stay tuned!

Mark
PS we have not been able to send SMS's since entering Ethiopia (local or UK SIM), so please excuse the lack of communication.