A woman is walking her young son across the street. He’s dawdling across the road and she turns to him and says; “Don’t look where you’ve been, look where you’re going”. Anon, courtesy of Mr.T.D.A. White, Ba, Ma. I guess it’s a pretty good metaphor for the 4th decade of my life. How was my 30th birthday? It was fun. I didn’t wake up with a woman I loved, or any woman for that matter. But I did wake up to great friends, champagne and a paradise beach. I even got some cool presents. What more could I want... I guess [View Full Entry]

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Another US$50 visa in my passport and I roll down the hill into Tanzania. There’s a small hotel just across the street and I take a room for US$2. Its clean, has a double bed, mosey net and even a towel. There’s no running water but there’s a couple of clean titled bathrooms with large buckets of water in them. I have a bucket shower and use the clean towel provided hoping that everywhere in Tanzania can be this cheap and decent. I head to a restaurant and order a Kilimanjaro beer. A fat guy gets up from another table and [View Full Entry]

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I alight from the bus in Nairobi. I’m not in a bus station but a rather shabby looking street. I’m trying to get my bike and bags out of the bus, but the pavement is covered in boxes waiting to be put on the bus. In the crazy squash everyone seems to be fighting to get there luggage off and others to get their luggage on. I manage to drag Harvey out, fit the panniers and cycle off. I chose a random direction as I have no idea where I am. The road isn’t paved and I bump up and down [View Full Entry]

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The Ethiopian immigration officers hand is hovering, he has the stamp in his hand but for some reason he's hesitating and it’s been in mid air for the last fifthteen seconds. He’ already studied my visa so I’m unsure about the delay. Then - smack. Stamped. I'm officially out of the country. Why it took him so long I don't know. I'll put it down to the oddities of Ethiopia. I wonder over to Kenya. The Kenyan immigration officer tells me the guy that issue's visa's isn't around so I sit for a ten minutes looking around the office. It’s full [View Full Entry]

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It’s 5am and I’m standing in the forecourt of the Hilton Hotel, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It’s raining hard and it’s cold. Its not tropical rain it’s like British February rain. The bellboy goes to close the door on the airport shuttle bus, but I stop him and lean into the bus and kiss my girl for one last time. It’s very flitting, the door is slammed shut and the bus drives away. I sit on a bench in the forecourt and light a cigarette. I’m full of emotion but have no way to release it. I light another cigarette from the [View Full Entry]

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I’m standing in the police station and everyone is shouting, no that’s wrong, screaming at each other. I was quite drunk but adrenaline has kicked in and I now feel very sober. I’m trying to work out who is on my side and who is against me, it’s difficult as all I see is a bunch of drunken men screaming at each other. The police man sits behind a counter, a cigarette hangs from his mouth and a machine gun stands between his knees. He has a truncheon in his hand and occasionally a random crazy drunk will march into the [View Full Entry]

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We wonder through the mud and into the maze of people. Sudan is one of the least densely populated countries in Africa, Ethiopia the 2nd highest, it shows. The border town is full of people. We acquire a “friend” he takes us to immigration. A circular mud hut, thatched roof, no power, a short way from the road in the middle of a small village. This was immigration! I’d seen some pretty shoddy immigration offices before, often corrugated huts in the middle of nowhere, sleeping officers dismayed at having to do some work. Normally a flag guides your way and confirms [View Full Entry]

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As the heat soared and soared I tried to imagine the cool of the Ethiopian mountains, only a week away. I’d started feeling a little rundown, blamed it on the heat and decided to leave Khartoum. I awoke the following morning at 5am after sleeping in what felt like a sauna. My Throat hurt and my head was blocked. I wasn’t up to the ride but had just enough time left on my visa to leave the following day. As the day progressed I realized I was developing a cold, I decided to ignore it and still planned to depart the [View Full Entry]

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So I sit on the street and drink a coffee. Its a few degrees over 40c and the water for the coffee is being boiled on a charcoal fire, so its probably about 100C where I am sitting. I sit on an up turned Nestle powered milk can, its a good stood. The coffee pot is an old can that's had a spout welded onto it. The coffee is good, its not too sweet and has been flavored with ginger and cardamom. It has a bite and clears my sleepy head. Frankincense burns in a small pot and the air smells [View Full Entry]

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"Don't cycle in the North of Sudan, many foreigner die trying to do this", "Why do they die" I Replied, "Wild animals", the immigration officer replied. The guide book has a section on banditry, Osama bin laden used to call this home, slavery in is still a problem and even more tragically Darfur and genocide keep popping up in the news. This was Sudan. Would its live up its horrendous media image, I would have to wait and see. I was happy to be here, nervous and extremely anxious about the cycling but glad to have got so far. Another thing [View Full Entry]

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