Day 17 Simian Park to Axum,
Well I woke up on my birthday missing my family like crazy. It felt very strange to be on the other side of the world and not even able to phone. I wasn’t offered breakfast in bed by these two jackasses, they don’t even like waking up!
It was a beautiful sight from the top of the mountains. Unfortunately a bit hazy so the pictures don’t do it justice.
We left to return to Debark to collect the balance of our luggage and to deposit our guard. Justin had him pillion but the guy wasn’t scared, apparently he sang the whole way and buried his rifle into J’s kidneys. We saw some ‘Bleeding heart’ or galatis Baboon on the way down.
We had thought the 250km form Debark to Axum would be a breeze. Well a big mistake. We dropped off an enormous plateau into a series of unbelievable valleys and mountain passes, all gravel and very slippery. I estimate we dropped 2500m in 50km. That’s like 1.5 x JHB to Durban before Heidelberg. The views were unbelievable but it took a lot of riding. After lunch my bike started to overheat, going down hill. We stopped to let it cool, checked the water levels, and started again but without luck. So we were on the sat phone to Eric at Umhlanga again. We stripped the bike, bled the water pump and we were on the way again. We were stopped on a very steep gravel road, not Mark’s idea of paradise for camping the night!
Shortly thereafter I dropped my bike by skidding to avoid a cow but fortunately no damage to me or the cow. I was having an eventful birthday.
We were very keen to get the contaminated fuel out of our bikes so ran them close to empty before filling again. At this stage we found we hadn’t resealed the tanks properly after stripping the fuel pumps. We only noticed leaks a km later by which time Justin had hit a centre island and totalled his luggage system. He didn’t fall but has done a lot of damage and will have to find a welder today.
Mark and I will visit the underground tombs and other heritage sites whilst he gets the damage repaired and then we‘re off to Makele. At least the roads improve a bit form here on. We’re now 1300km form Addis at the very north of the country, about 70km from the border with Eritea. e start heading south again now.
The load shedding here is very disruptive. Because of the lack of rain they can’t run the hydro electric schemes so half the country is turned off at a time. Today is Axum’s turn for power so I might be able to post to the blog and do some phoning.
Well I woke up on my birthday missing my family like crazy. It felt very strange to be on the other side of the world and not even able to phone. I wasn’t offered breakfast in bed by these two jackasses, they don’t even like waking up!
It was a beautiful sight from the top of the mountains. Unfortunately a bit hazy so the pictures don’t do it justice.
We left to return to Debark to collect the balance of our luggage and to deposit our guard. Justin had him pillion but the guy wasn’t scared, apparently he sang the whole way and buried his rifle into J’s kidneys. We saw some ‘Bleeding heart’ or galatis Baboon on the way down.
We had thought the 250km form Debark to Axum would be a breeze. Well a big mistake. We dropped off an enormous plateau into a series of unbelievable valleys and mountain passes, all gravel and very slippery. I estimate we dropped 2500m in 50km. That’s like 1.5 x JHB to Durban before Heidelberg. The views were unbelievable but it took a lot of riding. After lunch my bike started to overheat, going down hill. We stopped to let it cool, checked the water levels, and started again but without luck. So we were on the sat phone to Eric at Umhlanga again. We stripped the bike, bled the water pump and we were on the way again. We were stopped on a very steep gravel road, not Mark’s idea of paradise for camping the night!
Shortly thereafter I dropped my bike by skidding to avoid a cow but fortunately no damage to me or the cow. I was having an eventful birthday.
We were very keen to get the contaminated fuel out of our bikes so ran them close to empty before filling again. At this stage we found we hadn’t resealed the tanks properly after stripping the fuel pumps. We only noticed leaks a km later by which time Justin had hit a centre island and totalled his luggage system. He didn’t fall but has done a lot of damage and will have to find a welder today.
Mark and I will visit the underground tombs and other heritage sites whilst he gets the damage repaired and then we‘re off to Makele. At least the roads improve a bit form here on. We’re now 1300km form Addis at the very north of the country, about 70km from the border with Eritea. e start heading south again now.
The load shedding here is very disruptive. Because of the lack of rain they can’t run the hydro electric schemes so half the country is turned off at a time. Today is Axum’s turn for power so I might be able to post to the blog and do some phoning.
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