awayonmybike: Week 16 - Addis Ababa, a city that gives and (tries to) take

Most of this week has been spent in Addis Ababa organising the final two visas I need for Africa - in fact this had been the longest stop in one place of the trip. The sequence was Monday morning apply for Egyptian visa, Wednesday afternoon collect it, Thursday morning apply for Sudanese transit visa and Friday afternoon collect that - mission accomplished: I now have everything to finish my south to north journey through Africa.

Hanging around Addis was an "interesting" experience. It is the hardest of the cities I have visited in ramming home the difference between the haves and have-nots of the world. The place is booming and crowded and noisy and bustling and full of people trying to make a living anyway they can; offering shoe shine (or its more modern equivalent for trainers of cleaning using no more than a small bottle of water and a sponge), or check your weight on an old set of bathroom scales are two of the most popular ones with literally hundreds of people offering each of these services. The streets were also full of beggars, most looking desperately sad cases, and street kids, predominantly teenage boys, running wild and stealing what they could to survive. The latter group were a challenge as over the five days I was there I experienced two attempts on me, one close to being a mugging.

Ethiopia is considered the cradle of mankind and one of the "must do's" when in Addis is visit Lucy - our oldest, upright walking, ancestor, a hard to comprehend 3.3 million years old (our species, homo-sapiens, by comparison appeared only 200,000 years ago). The whole exhibition containing her, and many other remains (some much older) was really world class and at 5 cents equivalent entry fee the bargain of the trip (so good I visited whenever I passed - 3 times in all).

Looking a bit battered after 3.3 million years.

And how she might once have been- all 120cm of her.

When you stay in hostels or hotels in a city one of the big unknowns is always the quality of the other guests, always far more important than your physical surroundings. In Addis I scored a winner, a hostel with a great ambience and four other sociable Cape to Cairo travelers staying, one heading north with me and three south. The crazy part was three of them were cyclists - and cycling through Ethiopia was trialling them all: unfortunately local kids, in a way that happens in no other country, target them by throwing stones or trying to steal things of their bikes as they struggle up the many hills, unpleasant experiences I don't have as my speed protects me.

Nino from Switzerland heading south

And Peter from Holland, heading north.

All in all I was glad to leave Addis on Saturday morning. My target was the town of Bahir Dar two days ride away. Most of the trip is across the high plateau that forms a lot of the north half of Ethiopia (Addis itself is at 2700 metres which makes it the highest capital I've visited), but in one place you cross the Blue Nile river gorge - in a few kilometre plunging down from 2500 metres to 1200 metres then just as quickly climbing up to 1200 metres (I didn't even like to think about doing this on a bicycle - but at the top I met Peter who I'd previously met in Addis, he was lookin a bit more weary than me).

What happens when two buses come together - I'm only surprised I didn't see more like this.

Blue Nile Gorge plunging below.

Road surface down

It was steep - but not quite as bad as the sign suggests.

Typical scenery on the high plateau that forms much of northern Ethiopia

Bahir Dar is part of the tourist circuit in Ethiopia. It sits on the edge of its largest lake, which is the source of the Blue Nile (previously in Uganda I'd seen the source of the White Nile, when I get to Khartoum I'll see them coming together before flowing onto Egypt). The lake also hosts a series of peninsulars and islands containing some 37 monasteries dating as far back as far as the 14th century. It was in this town I met the other side of Ethiopia, Zewdu a local who Megan had met when she was in the town in January, showed me great hospitality and friendship during my two nights in town, including a free boat trip out to soon of the monasteries with one of his friends.