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Today I liked myself!
At 70 km from departure I stopped at the FM International Hotel, where I knew there was a internet point, I ate a fantastic cake, with fresh avocado and mango juice and … two cappuccinos … when I was about to start off again a torrential storm rages … the waiter told me ‘it is better you stay here tonight …’ surely the place was very beautiful … also today I was not feeling too well … but for me 40 km more per day are important … also because the Wadi Halfa ferry, only way into Egypt from Sudan, leaves only on Wednesdays, so if I want to reach the Paralympics … I have to catch it on the 8th August or the 15th at the latest … so I said ‘no thank you’ I put on my rain mantle and I went out … the usher wanted to escort me to the bicycle under the umbrella … at least up to that point I did not get wet …
The first 15 kilometers are downhill, after all the uphill to reach Debre Marcos, I always liked going downhill under the rain, it is like feeling a double sense of freedom, then the usual downhill followed by uphill, so many passes without a name which in Europe, would have a sign post with the altitude a hotel, a bar and some kiosks … here the maximum you can find are some small metal chapels with orthodox priests … The last 10 kilometers you go down again, there is the sun, but at the same time it rains heavily, in a strange way it is as if the water was coming down from a shower not working properly, so there are areas where just a few drops fall down and others where it pours, luckily it lasts short.
The geography does not change much since I left Addis, green valleys as far as the eye can see, cows more than in Switzerland, some freshly ploughed areas, the only difference is the presence of tortuous creeks and rivers full of water the color of mud, which probably sooner or later will end up in the Nile. Along the road there is a lot of people and it is cold, but many, mainly women walk barefoot on the tar, many although without shoes have an umbrella, which they use to bludgeon cows and mainly donkeys. We are in the rain season, and the schools are closed, the holidays are like in Italy, from June to September, that is also why there are so many children around. Many small shepards crack their whips when I pass, to greet and to ask for money, when they do it too close to me I tell them off, obviously it is an euphemism, …
At times I see faces with the typical Italian features … I cannot just make war … the people move a lot between these mountains, and I have the idea that many are still living in conditions not much different from those found by our soldiers seventy years ago, houses made out of mud, essential clothing, devastating weights on women’s backs, sticks, gigs, whips, donkey carts, … the only modernity for some the cell phone …
Being strong and of good courage awarded me, because when I arrived in Dembecha, I found only one hotel, the Makal, which for 100 birr, 5 euro, gave me a room on the second floor with hot water, other than TV and parquet … if I think of what I ate this morning I want to vomit not because it was bad but because I do not have any appetite after having eaten some crap … very likely thing in a journey like this …
Today I met a couple, he South African and she Romanian, who were going back to Romania by car, … then just before the last downhill a guy on a bicycle, who greeted and hugged me as if he had seen Pantani … there are very few bicycles around but who uses them every day has often a passion for it …
Dejen N 10° 17.698’ E 38° 12.394’ – Dembecha N 10° 55’ E 37° 48.333’
116 km