The stages mentioned here are approximate. The list is an estimation based on the 2004 and 2005 tour. Therefore, the actual route might very well differ. Furthermore, though the organisation takes great care in its planning, route changes may occur at the last minute due to accessibility, weather, road conditions and politics.

Ethiopia

We took it easy today, especially because there were only 65km's to go and also because we had not slept very well for the 3rd night in a row. That is eating up on your conditions, we can assure you.

We reached the border in Matema, spend out last Dinar on soft drinks and had a very quick and easy exit out of Sudan with customs and an even more easy entry into Ethiopia, especially if you compare that with the time (and money!) it took in Wadi.

Funny to see how a border can change everything:

1. The people, not only the way they approach you, but also in numbers, they come to you in hurdles and walk over the campsite "inspecting" our tents and bikes!
2. The dogs, we never had to use our Dazzer in Sudan, only once in Egypt, but 2 hours into Ethiopia we surprised the dogs and some of locals with our ultrasonic machine that immobilizes dogs that like to go for you.
3. The hospitality; there was a cold shower at camp, but after a couple of us had used it, we were told that it was not for tourists, only for local people that work there. When I tried to get a shower in the local Hotel (more a brothel) I had to negotiate for 15 minutes to get a bucket of water with which I could take a primitive shower.

Our local guide in Sudan, who planned to go with us to Addis, did not get permission to leave Sudan and had to go back to Khartoum. Fortunately we had a nice evening with him and the new Ethiopian guide Wendy. She invited Jenny and me to join her for a traditional coffee ceremony that we enjoyed, despite the fact that we could not drink the final product of the ceremony.

Tomorrow we will see the first real mountains. Still 2 days to go before we have our first rest day, that means 185km and over 3000m altitude difference! Can we do that? Jenny and I decided to try till lunch and see if we still have enough energy for the rest.

Well, mother nature decided for us. Kees became ill and Jenny decided to join him on the truck, as she had not had a good night sleep for almost 4 nights in a row. So this was the first truck day for both of us.

We took the opportunity, arriving in camp so early, to take a bit more rest and were the whole afternoon lying under a tree. In the tree we say monkeys disappearing when we arrived and where we heard a lot of birds giving us the feeling that we where Adam and Eva for a while.

As today was announced as the second hardest day of the tour and we both felt not fit, we decided to have another truck day. Many of us decided likewise, so it became crowded in the trucks with people and bikes.

One of the trucks got a flat tire. It definitely takes a bit longer to change a flat on a truck than on a bike!

The landscape was beautiful with very steep climbs (riders were doing 5 to 6 km's per hour), plenty of nice villages and enthusiastic people waving and greeting us. Unfortunately, the riders sometimes also experienced stone throwing kids. One of us was hit by a big rock thrown by a boy that almost could not lift the stone!

After 3 breathtaking hairpins to the Goha hotel we got "assistance" from 3 little boys "helping" our driver to master the hairpins.

Kees' beard and his little cap, has started people here to believe he is a local and a muslim! It's time for a shave!

Is it because of the 13th? Kees illness did not improve and he stayed the whole day in bed, feeling sorry for himself. So, there was no time to send this report from Gondar, it has to wait!

Kees had to take the truck for one more day, as he was still too weak after 3 days of almost not eating anything. Jenny joined Judy and Huberte and went for the scenic ride out of Gondar to the Bandir Dar around lake Tana, that would take two days.

The morning gave a big surprise, Midhad rejoined the group! He managed to get all the paperwork done by going back to Khartoum and hitchhike back to Gondar. What a determination!

We first went in convoy to the sign that gave us the distance to both Bandir Dar and Addis Abeba.

Jenny is greeting everybody she sees with the Arabic greeting "Salam". Once got a special response back, the person she was greeting also came from Holland. You find them everywhere!

In general we find that when you friendly greet the people here, including the children, they stay friendly as well and do not throw stones that they might have in their hand. Some of our colleague riders however have different experiences unfortunately, many have had a stone or two thrown at them.

The landscape is breathtaking, we both felt that some of the roads, who btw are paved recently and are in perfect state, reminded us of the back roads near our house in France, so we almost feel at home.

This day, Valentine's day, delivered bad news for our Dutch friend Arnold, he fell (like last year) with his bike and broke his left leg (last year his right leg/hip) and is on his way back to Holland again. We all feel very sorry for him and like to wish him a quick return to good health and perhaps better luck in 2007? The Dutch say, "3 keer scheepsrecht" isn't it?

Kees went from the camp on his bike to meet Jenny and the other girls. He stopped with some others at a cafe and almost missed Jenny as she was flying by at high speed!

This was the first time that we needed to put a rope around the camp, as many Ethiopians wanted to see what these stupid cyclist were doing (and perhaps take something away as well?) It does generate an opportunity however to make nice pictures of them.

We are both back on the road and happy that the illness of Kees does no longer withhold him from cycling. Rita, the time keeper, is cycling today as well and she went with us.

Our "lunch stop" was at 40km, and with the roads in such a perfect state we were flying rather than cycling and had more a second breakfast than a lunch.

In Bandir Dar, there where we are finishing this report, Kees took the decision to have his beard removed to feel more clean. He went to the local barbershop, where he got a real good treatment from the barber. Jenny enjoyed it as well as she feels that kissing Kees is not so easy with the beard!

Tomorrow we have a rest day, this almost feels like a real holiday.....

In the hotel we had a real breakfast in the morning and then went of to go to a Monastery on the other side of the lake. We were shuttled to the boats and had a one hour trip to a place where a very interesting Monastery is build.

The buildings is like a church, round in shape with a outer and an inner circle and a middle part that is not accessible other then by the monks themselves. The walls of the inner circle are beautiful decorated with paintings explaining the bible as we know it. Unfortunately our photo camera was Out of Order during that visit, so we only have a video (for which we had to pay 100 Birr = 10euro), so be patient if you want to see the images!

On our way back to Bahir Dar we visited two islands, or better, the women visited the island that was accessible for them and the men another one. The latter island is not allowed for women! On the "women island" Jenny saw women making shawls in the color of the flag of Ethiopia, yellow, green and red.

The trip back over Lake Tana was long, as we also visited the point where the Bleu Nile starts to flow out of the Lake. It's funny to see that it flows in southern direction; you might expect it to go North towards Egypt, but the Bleu Nile makes a huge turn in Ethiopia towards the north after it exits the lake.

Later in the afternoon we did some shopping and had a wonderful fruit cocktail on a terrace with two of the other cyclists.

We took an early breakfast as to be ready for the departure in convoy, but we could have left later as the hotel did not want us (the whole group) to leave and kept the gates closed for a while. What was happening? One of us had given his laundry to the hotel and missed a very expensive cycling trouser. He did not want to pay his bill in compensation for the los of the trouser, but that was not accepted by the hotel at first.

Out of town we had a beautiful road ahead of us and also many kilometers, 160 in total. This was needed today and tomorrow to reach a camp close to the Bleu Nile Gorge, as the roads through it are closed due to building activities on the bridge and road after 10:00 am.

The countryside looks magnificent again, it sometimes reminds us of the mountains in Northern Italy and sometimes the Belgium Ardennes.

Alongside the road we often saw some old tanks, they are left behind during the Second WW by the Italians, kids are still using it as a playing ground.

When we are on the road we greet all people with Salam, we think about 100times per km, so you can image that at the end of the day we are getting quite tired of that. But we do this to "neutralize" the stone throwing children as much as possible. It works pretty well, we only have an average of 1 stone a day, much better than some of the other riders we heard. It might also be due to the fact that a couple is treated differently then a couple of riders together or one single person.

When we go uphill, they run with us, asking for money. They are great runners! We once had someone going at 15km/h uphill with us and still talking and talking. We cannot give anything and our approach is to start a one way conversation, saying that they should start going to school, find a job, milk the cows, etc. etc. It works pretty well to keep them from throwing the stones after they had stopped running after us.

To be able to finish the 160kms we had a "bit by bit" approach. First go to the lunch truck at 70km, then to the afternoon stop at 125km and as we still felt OK, we finished today half an hour before the sun went down. Pretty proud, especially after the illness of the days before.

Jenny's 63rd birthday! She got a Happy Birthday song in the morning and an artificial rose for her bike!

As we again had 160km ahead of us, we left early. When Kees was installing his odometer on his bike aside the road, a truck went by and almost touched his bike. That would have been the end of that day of cycling for him! As we were at an altitude of about 2500m, the temperature was still low and on top of that the sun was not visible yet as it was hiding behind the clouds.

The roads are roller coasting up and down. At the end of one of these climes, as we were taking a short braek, a car stopped, asking us where we were going. It appeared that they were from Belgium. Our Belgium riders just left the scene a minute before, so they only could talk with us Dutchies.

For the second time during the trip we saw some monkeys running of in the woods, they appeared gray/white and had a very long tail. Not sure how they are called, but we will find out. Taking a photo is not possible, the moment you see them they are running off.

After about 50km more and more people where at the roadsides, all walking in the same direction. They were going to a market in the next village. Funny to see that after you passed that town the same process is happening from the other direction. They all have to walk on the left side of the road, we know this as an elderly man was walking on the right side and got beaten up by a policeman directing him to the other side.

At 100kms in a town called Debe Marcos it was already quite late, we thought we were not going to make the finish that day and took a coke stop together with Ron, the rider from Colorado. We thought finishing at 125km at the afternoon stop. Just before that stop, we were able to get in touch with our daughters, who could wish Jenny a happy birthday and we also heard that we "only" had 25km to go, so we went for it to try to finish on this special day.

There were some tough stretches, some of the road was no longer paved and the children (who already had seen so many cyclist passing that day) became more aggressive!

Just before we finished we almost had a problem, one the riders that was ahead of us hit a sheep that decided to jump in front of his bike when he was in a downhill. Fortunately he only had some minor injuries and could finish that day.

Just before the sun went down we made it and Jenny got a thundering applause from all the riders and staff who already had starting eating their evening meal.

After 2 days of 160km, we took the option to jump on the lunch truck that evening, who left to go to the other side of the Gorge due to the fact that the Gorge is closed from 10:00am to 3:00pm. Otherwise there would be a risk of riders who arrive on the other side and do not find anybody to feed them. So we opted for an extra rest day as the goal of finishing the day on Jenny's birthday was more important than the difficult roads in the Gorge.Finding the campsite in the evening was a challenge, we drown up and down the road several times and had to ask in a hotel if they knew the place.

What a luxury, we did not had to get up early and on top of that slept very well at the campsite of the CPAR organization. Miles, our cook, got us some fresh bread, so no porridge today! Around 11, we took a walk into the Gorge, to see the first riders arriving and to our great surprise we indeed saw the local Ethiopian rider Addis driving up the road. He did the Gorge from the bottom to the top in about 2 hours, mind you; it is 22km long and has 1600meters hight difference from bottom to top!

The rest of the day, we spend as a rest day, so some videoing, some washing and above all rest to be prepared from the two remaining days to Addis Ababa.

This was a relative easy day, we only had two significant climbs, but towards the highest point of the Tour, 3108m on my odometer with some stunning views of the mountains of Ethiopia. Only one stone throwing kind, that we chased into his back garden. A lot of people going to market and a very early ride into camp, where we found a bottle of red win in the local bar, so indeed an easy day again!

The night was hectic, around 20:00 a thunderstorm, with hailstones came over our campsite, causing problems for some of our tents and making the campsite look like a winter sport paradise as the hailstones made the ground totally white!

In the morning everything was back to normal, except for Jenny's stomach, who after eating beans the day before decided to make strange noises and give her enough pain to stop after 30kms and get a lift to the lunchtruck to recover, after which she felt perfectly happy to continue the trip to Addis.

If you stop for a drink, or something else, there are always children around. Most ask for money as already explained before, and that is not always nice if you quietly like to go to the toilet, but it also gives the opportunity to make pictures of their beautiful faces:

Haystacks in a pyramid shape are new to us, we did not know the existence of it.

The finish was on the last ascent before going down to Addis in a convoy, so we had to wait till everybody was there, at which point some rains started to fall and a bit of thunders as well. Children tried to entertain us with signing and dancing. Johnny took a video and later showed it to the children, which of course they liked a lot.

We like to close this newsletter by thanking everybody for the birthday wishes for Jenny and look forward to see more notes in on our website.

Yesterday evening we went to an Italian restaurant and were for 2 hours back in Europe in terms of food, environment, guests and yes also a bit the price we paid! But we loved it, it was exactly what we needed after 6 weeks of pedaling along the African roads and mostly sleeping in the tent and eating food that is best described as "basic".

The morning of our rest day we spend in the usual way, getting up a bit later, doing Internet, cleaning the bikes and our clothes. We got a new saddle and new gear shifters with the help of our supplier Vittorio, our daughter and a Belgian cyclist who joined us here in Addis.

The evening we went with a group to another Italian restaurant, called Top View. And that was exactly what it was, a beautiful view over Addis with the run going down and again wonderful Italian food, but this time the food was a bit more modestly prices. Just a thought: The Ethopians are proud that they ousted the Italians during WW2, but there are plenty of Italian restaurants in town and it is not only the Europeans who eat there!

It rained today again for the 6th day in a row, not much but Randy starts to get worried about the early start of the rainy season and the impact this could have on our roads further down south. Well, that is the only thing we absolutely have not under control, so we have to wait and see.

We had a terrible night, almost the whole night there was priest on a loudspeaker on a Coptic church praying and singing songs! We think God is going to love this guy, but we could kill him!

We left in convoy, as always after a rest day and had to go through a very busy city with lot of traffic jams and worse, lot of fumes from the exhaust pipes. As a tip for next years participants, take mouth caps with you to wear them when you are in this situation, it might keep you healthier.

Two local riders helped guiding us our of town, and we also have a new rider from Belgium, Rudi (who btw brought us the spareparts and also some clothing for Jenny and our favorite tea, Rooibos. Thanks Rudi!)

The landscape did change a bit, would say more tropical, but also richer, as there was much more industry down south of Addis. But we still saw the monkeys with their loads, often walking on their own, while their master is still drinking coffee in the local pub.

Houses are as before, not very hygienic, but they clean the ground in front of their house, while next to their house they leave the cartons, tins, papers, etc. just as it is!

Handshaking in Ethiopia is not complete with touching each others right shoulder afterwards, for the man that is.

Alongside the road the plastic bottles/containers were sold wrapped in rope. We only saw that on the road out of Addis, elsewhere they were just plastic and clear visible on top of the many busses that are passing us.

After a while we turned right, direction Shashemene, the rastatown where they adore Bob Marley.

That road goes alongside a couple of lakes and we saw more birds, among others the Maribo.

The area is rich on grass here, we could see that from the many haystacks next to the huts.

Almost at the end of the day we meet Mihad, our cyclist from Sudan, who invited us to eat the local food (indura), that was prepared in the kitchen behind the pub.

The camp was nice in the middle of nowhere, but even there we got a lot of spectators, just watching us. Only a couple of days more, this phenomenon will disappear in Kenya we have been promised!

During the night we had another thunderstorm and rain, but fortunately the morning was dry, but the ground was not, our shoes were quickly dirty with 2 to 3 cm of mud and the trucks could not leave and had a 2 hours struggle to get out of the mud on the road.

The road was almost flat alongside the lake and we camped at a wonderful site along the Lake Lagano. Many of us took a dive in the water, safe we were told, although the color of the water was not inviting (brown) and the water felt a bit oily. Refreshing it was indeed and we also could clean our dirty tent from the muddy departure that morning.

In a local pub we could order pizza, so many of us did so. Well ordering was not a problem, but delivering was another issue, we finally had to split up 5 pizzas between us and Jenny and I ordered the local indura with egg to get more food. But surprise surprise, they had red wine, so the small piece of pizza and the wonderful indura was consumed in the French way!

Before we arrived at the campsite, we saw two accidents, or actually the result of it, the first was a truck (we briefly thought it was one of ours!) and one minibus. The minibus was upside down with a lot of blood on the road. If you see how they drive, it's a miracle that only a few are having an accident!

How a beautiful spot can be spoiled! Around 22:00 the evening before, the local yought came to the lake and started a party with music so load that nobody could sleep! Yes it is there country and yes it was Saturday night, but was it really needed to let us almost vibrate on the bases of the loudspeakers? Many of us asked them to turn the music down, but only at 4 o'clock they stopped the party. We needed to get up at 6:00, so as a revenge the crew from African Routes blew their horns loud and frequently at that time and the lunch truck started music that was almost as loud as they had done during the night. It does not solve anything of course, but the reaction can be understood.

Today we have to clime about 1200m, that is get in shape for the day after, where we have to clime almost the double in meters.

We saw a couple of monkeys on the road, wildlife is increasing!

We had to take shelter from a thunderstorm twice, but fortunately did not get too wet.

Along the road today we have said a million times Salam to all the children to call us with "You, you, you!", but at the campsite the number of spectators reached a record. We tried to make the best out of it buy learning them to do the Wave!

A lot of climbing today, 2100 meter in total. One of us had something to celebrate and invited everybody on a fruitjuice, very nice and a good initiative! Thanks Ron!

Part of the landscape reminded us of Indonesia, plenty of banana trees and consequently a lot of green.

We passed one of the Americans, who told us that his frame had broken. Needless to say that he was not a happy man to say the least. In the evening a discussion started as how he could continue the trip, get a new frame, use some else's bike, etc. etc. Perhaps that in Nairobi he will be able to find a solution and in the meantime use a bike of someone that does not want or cannot cycle.

For a change no rain this night, but everything was still wet. We are again in a tropical landschap, but that changed into wood with planted trees (reminded us of the Ardennes again), and afterwards mountains with beautiful panorama's. The camels also came back into the pictures, we had not seen them so often since Sudan.

The women are dressed more colorful here, so that's why we took quickly some snapshots of them.

Dead animals are along the road often, in Sudan they stay there, even if they are on the road and nobody touches them. In Ethiopia the vultures are taking care of the cleaning. Needless to say the the smell when you pass it is horrible.

The "monuments' that the termites are able to make are fantastic. Here is a picture of just one of there termite mounds.

The 120km of today were long, especially the last 10 to 15kms, but we had a beautifull spot in Yabello with a room in a hotel and nice food and people. We kind of felt that we deserved that after 5 days, 570km and about 5000m in clime during these days!

As we had a hotel room and as everybody wanted a breakfast from the hotel, we asked for it in the room and surprise surprise, we got it! What a luxury. Paying was the African way, they came 3 times with a bill to pay for the 2 breakfast.

This time we had a real rest day, we only went to the local town taking local transport, bought a couple of things to eat and that was it.

In the evening a Danish cyclist arrived from Kenya, he came from Tanzania where he decided after 7 months of voluntary work to cycle back to Denmark. He bought the bicycle locally and had a tailor make the panniers. He hopes to be back in Aarhus early June.

Tomorrow we will depart on the second last day in Ethiopia.

It rained when we got out of bed, but we were so glad that we could leave our hotel room dry, and not with a wet tent. The rain was a "Dutch-rain" or drizzle most of the time, so on our way to the border we did not really suffer from anything else then getting a bit wet and dirty from the mud that came on our clothes. Contrary to the previous days, the number of people of the road had gone done with a factor 10 to 100, so no more "you-you"s, but a lot of beautiful colored birds.

We only had one major clime to a village called Mega, were we also saw the remains of a kind of castle. Randy told us that it was Italian from origin, but there is not indication on the spot that we did not find anything about it in the famous Lonely Planet.

After the clime and the village the view was spectacular, and arriving at camp there were no spectators for a change!

So tomorrow is the last day in Ethiopia, we feel that we have had a good impression of it, it's a beautiful country, with many people, especially children (80% of the population is under 20). We never had a real problem with the stone throwing, we tried always to stay friendly and made it clear when they had a stone in their hand that we would come after them if they had the courage to throw it. The elderly people are almost as friendly as in Sudan and especially the women are beautiful and colorful.

The cows and goats on the road are very intelligent, I had a claxon/horn on the bike and they stop crossing the road if you blow that horn. So a tip for those for next year, put a horn on your bike. It might look strange but it works very well (and btw buy a second one, mine stopped working in Addis and I had to buy a new one).

On the last day, one of us hit a child when descending from the village of Mega. The child turned around at the last moment and then the other way. Both biker and child were victims, but not too bad fortunately. Our nurse went back to see how the child was doing, and that was very much appreciated by the locals. The biker however did not cycle for several days and on top of that, the frame of his bike broke! So that is the 3rd frame on this trip with a problem!

Last day, plenty of camels again, and beautifull shaped termite moulds from white sand. We took this picture especially for our French friend Paul, he might get inspiration from it!

Kees felt ill and took the truck after Lunch, leaving Jenny to cycle with there "twin-sister" Judy (people are mixing up the two names). We had to wait at the frontier till 3 o'clock and had almost another 3 hours before everybody was able to get to the other site. We passed the time by eating our favorite Ethiopian food!

Last minute we found a bottle of red wine, so as we had to leave the bottle behind in the bar, but put it in our bottles to use it during our dinner. We are Dutch, but have French habits!

The evening was late with dinner and on top of that Jenny and I had to do the dishes, so by the time were finished our class of wine, it was close to 10 o'clock, about 2 hours after our normal(!) bedtime. Well tomorrow is not too difficult, but the other 2 days will be on the rocky roads to Marsabit.