Position 09:00.755N 38:44.808E In the centre of Addis Ababa......!
Completed 96 km today to finish Section 2 of the tour... 3588km (on official
books!) done now...it feels real good relaxing in my hotel room in Addis!
The objective of today's ride was to get to the city boundary (88km or so)
by 2pm to connect to the police escort into the city....so with that in mind
I set out at 7 h30 at a leisurely pace just enjoying the scenery and the
windless conditions al on my own..... people seemed very friendly and the
road was great being undulating but heading down.....then too good to be
true, after 60km a headwind picked up as luck would have it for a few long
straight sections.....and then, a huge hill, which saw me going back up to
2700m...the last part of which reminded me of Constantia Nek in Cape Town.
That was until I reached the top which happened to be the place where we
connected to the escort, but which was a typical (by now) Ethiopian trading
village....3rd world chaos! But there some 300m below lay Addis.
Once the whole group arrived and the 2pm escort arrived we slowly descended
in convoy down this winding hill and then through the surprisingly wide and
orderly streets of Addis.
Another life time experience comes to an end but the memories will remain,
and the highlights from Gondar captured in my next newsletter to
you...should be out by 22nd Feb...
As I celebrate tonight I'd like to thank you for your support so far, and
hope you enjoy ?being with me' for the next section to Nairobi too!
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