Round and round we go

Stage 34
Day Total: 105km
Terrain: 40% dirt/gravel, 60% pavement

I woke early this morning, not due to excitement or the fact that it was my birthday. Instead, I awoke early because one of the early risers – a group of 5 or 6 who set their alarms for roughly 4:30am each morning –
set his tent next to mine. To each his own, but when you really can’t start riding until 7am, I don’t fully understand the need to wake so early. In any case, I beat some of the queues for the pump, locker access, and water and had some free time on my hands. At that point, Kendra brought me an improvised birthday cake: a PVM energy bar with 4 candles. She chose the strawberry-chocolate flavor, which if you are really desperate for dessert (like I am at this point), tastes a lot like Neopolitan ice cream. I blew out the candles… and then they lit up again. Damn trick candles! The whole experience set the tone for a great day of riding and a very pleasant birthday in a remote area of Ethiopia.

The cast of regulars set out for the day and we rode together on newly paved roads. A beautiful morning greeted us with proper temperatures and scenic landscapes. Then the road ended and we were riding on groomed dirt that will likely be paved in the coming months. Good fun as the dust kicked up and ground got rough! This carried on for about 20km with stretches of rough gravel and loose dirt thrown in to keep things interesting. The locals were out in force, their fanatacism for our presence at all-time highs. The combination of the road, the people, the buildings and the vegetation made it feel as if we had entered an entirely different country. This trend would continue throughout the day as the road carved through banana trees, mango forests, and multiple small villages. Admittedly, the mischief levels were high today – I got a good size rock in the foot, hit with sticks, had gravel thrown into my path and even watched a small girl shove a live, baby monkey into another rider’s face. What fun! Honestly, it’s all part of the experience and if nothing else helped to create a day of memories not soon forgotten.

The group became very separated over the gravel but I finally caught back up to the two Pauls. We rode together into lunch, with Paul W leaving a bit ahead of us to take his time in the gravel. UK Paul was very eager to catch up to him and summoned us away from the lunch truck. We caught up quickly enough and rode together for some time. Dennis would join us, ride off the front, and disappear, only to be caught on the 4km climb into camp. UK Paul picked up the pace a bit and I had no answer – he has become quite strong in the past 2 weeks.

Arriving at camp, I rode for the timing system to clock-in for the day, nearly running over my father who decided that even though my ride was not officially over he would start inundating me with details about the hotel. He had not ridden on the day and had apparently secured a hotel room. He was quite proud, but in reality the rooms were not all that great as they are quite hot and there is no running water in the entire compound after 8am. I had a bucket shower and a couple of beers to celebrate.

Kendra, Kari, Paul, Jorg, and myself all went to dinner last night to cap off a memorable birthday. Various fried foods were offered up with a heaping portion of Ethiopian national food for good measure.