I forgot to mention in the previous update that due to the very heavy Givi top box and the leverage it broke the back part of my bikes frame. So after I overhauled the front shocks seals I stripped the back part of the bike. Carl the German owner from Jungle Junction had just the right size pipe which we inserted into the frame and Carl welded it up for me again and his helper painted it neatly again and the bike was again A for away. The last night I met an Australian couple Michael and Tanya there that is touring Africa by bike and from their info they are experienced bikers and have even crossed the Australian desert on the same two 650 Suzuki bikes before. I also met a French couple who is already on the road for 4 years with their 3 kids in a camper. The next day I had to meet Uwe Schmidt at 1pm on the Equator. It was only about 240km from Jungle Junction and although I was pushing like mad I could not make good time. I pushed as hard as I could as I don’t like to be late for appointments but when 1pm came I was still 20km from the Equator. I then stopped to phone him but he was still 40km away. So when I reached the Equator I bought myself a Coke a Cola at a spaza shop which is right on the Equator and chatted to the owner and some people who was sitting around a table outside her shop chewing that green stuff that they also chew here in Ethiopia. They offered me some as well but I turned it down as it makes the people who chew it in a trance. I got my tripod out and took some photos so long and then Uwe arrived. We took more pictures and Uwe had to answer all the questions of the locals then as he had the bigger bike. The two of us then decided to go for lunch and look for accommodation. The place I had lunch at with my son 5 years ago I could not find and before long we were on the open road again. We turned right on the A2 Moyale road toward Ethiopia and tried at a place about 10km from the turn off for some accommodation but it was not good. The 2nd place was much better and we booked in there. Uwe is like my son as has to eat to keep going and we had a lovely lunch together although slightly delayed. We stayed in two separate rooms which was clean and nice. The next morning we were off and as Uwe like to travel slower than me at 90km and myself at 110 we decided to split up again. Uwe is a real adventurer and likes to take lots of photos and I think he is a very good person as he gives to a lot of people in many ways. We passed each other quite a few times during the cause of the day. At Marsabit I booked into a hotel 2 km out of town. A strictly Muslim hotel. I ask them if they sell alcohol as I like a glass of wine with my food. They said no but I can buy it at the gate and they will put it in the fridge for me. So I went to the gate to buy but the guy pointed to an informal village about 300 metres across the road. Buy now I was hungry after riding the whole day and ordered a warm beer not by choice and some goat meat at a very reasonable price from the old tannie. The beer and the meat went off very well( honger is die beste kok) I bought two more beers and went back to the hotel where indeed they did put it into the fridge for me but when I sat in the lounge later and ask for the beer I was told that I can only have it in my room. I never had the beer and put it in my luggage the next morning. When I was about to leave a very nice young guy came to see me off and we had about a 15 min discussion about the Muslim religion. According to them the hotel is built on Holy ground. Different strokes for different folks. Then it I was off towards the border. At a very small village called Turbi I stopped for my daily Coke a Cola at a Spaza shop. After my Coke a Muslim guy by the name of Masai walked up to me, he spoke quite good English. He enquired about my trip and I gave him all the details. He asked very good questions and wanted to know if I was paying for the trip myself or am I getting a sponsorship from somewhere. I told him no the first part up to England I am financing myself and hopefully the 2nd part of the trip I am trying to get a sponsor. He then suggests that he will sell some of his cattle to finance my trip, I was blown away. That is why I always say that a stranger is just a friend that you have not met yet. Here I thought the Muslims are crazy just the night before and here a proper old style Muslim come and offer a Christian who he does not know at all part of his very hard worked for money. I think this gesture and old Masai,s face will stay with me till I die one day. I obviously turned down his offer but really thanked him for his generous spirit and I think if there could be more people on planet earth like old Masai then this world will be so different. I was already a long way down the road while I was still waving old Masai goodbye and I made myself a promise that one day I am coming back to say hello to old Masai. I must just say that I had similar offers from people on Facebook and the Wilddog forum which I also turned down. I am looking for a multi-National company to sponsor my 2nd half and thanks to all who offered and also to those who already gave. At the border the Kenyan side told me they think I am going to have a tuff time on the Ethiopian side due to the recent Xenophobia attacks in SA. Being a seasoned border crosser by now I thought different. I quickly leant hello and thank you in the Ethiopian langue and when I got to the other side I used it with the border control and they even smiled at me. After customs the guy came with me to check the VIN no on the bike and off I went. In Ethiopia I found the government officials very efficient and the private sector very slack in a lot of cases. I stopped at the first hotel just across the border. A bit of a lousy place but the food was good. They made me some goat meat with potatoes in a little cast iron pot but underneath are a little place where they put some coal in and as the meat has got a lot of chillies on and for that reason you have to eat it slowly. The coals then keep your food hot even if you take half an hour to eat. (See Photo of the pot come stove come plate) The next morning early I was off as I wanted to make it to Addis Abeba in two days. I had no breakfast and I pushed over 460km for the day and if you take the road conditions into consideration it was very good going. I booked into a very neat hotel called Delight hotel in a town called Dilla. The town was a dump but the hotel was very good, there were no camping. I told the receptionists that I needed two very strong guys to carry my baggage up the 4 floors. They thought it was going to be a piece of cake but when they got to the top floor they were dragging my heavy bag across the floor to my room. I had my first meal of the day that night on the stoep overlooking a very busy street. My bike was parked outside the entrance which was open to the street but the hotel staff assured me that my bike was safe. I then put all my bungee cords through the back wheel and tied it tight. The next morning instead of the usual 5.15 am call for prayer for the Muslims the call came at 4.15am. For the first time I heard the dogs disagree and across town you could hear their howling. I had 370km to do for the day with difficult road conditions. I left early and I thought I would get to Addis Abeba early but I was wrong. A lot of the roads are under construction and the roads that you have to travel on leaves a lot to be desired. Old potholed roads or bad dirt roads. At one place the road was quite good and then all of a sudden there was a big brown pool of water, I thought no problem as even with my heavy load which by now I am quite used to it should be no problem. I wasted no time but boy I did not expect a metre deep pool of water but it still went ok as the water came completely over the engine and over my knees as I was sitting and then as I was making the exit on the other side the front wheel hit a rock under the muddy water and due the bike being very light on the front wheel due to the load at the back the front wheel jumped un expectantly into the air and within a split second I was in the water. I then quickly jumped up and pulled my cell phone out of my jeans pocked and put it in a water tight pocket higher up in my jacket. Then also completely un expectantly about 5 guys was there to help me pick up the bike and an older guy was very concern and wanted to know if I was injured. Although my left knee was sore I assured them I was ok. Now the reason I was surprised that 5 guys helped me was because for the last two days all along the road people would shout at me and I had a feeling they don’t like visitors to their country. I was also stopped 3 times buy customs to check my Carnet and they were also not very friendly. The 4th stop was to check my passport. In Ethiopia they drive on the right hand side of the road so at one place there were beautiful scenery on the first day and because my side stand is on the left and due the camber of the road I parked on the left side as my bike would just fall over if I park on the right. Although I was well off the road a taxi driver came charging at my bike because I have the audacity to park on the wrong side of the road. He was blowing his hooter and had to swerve at the last minute due to rocks stacked next to the road in front of my bike. About 100km before Addis Abeba I went through a little town and had to ask directions as my GPS did not have the maps on for Ethiopia or Sudan even though I paid for them when I purchased them on the internet and I could see they were definitely included. At a beginning of a brand new highway I stopped at some cops to asked directions. I was not allowed on the HI way and when I ask further directions I was just ignored, very rude officers of the law. I eventually found my way around and entering Addis was hectic. No GPS and it is a big city and I stopped at a railway crossing where some police officers were standing and I asked them directions which they did not know either. They then told me to go because it is dangerous there according to them. I said what you mean it’s dangerous as there are 5 cops with Kalashnikovs and now they want me to move to an area that I do not even know but luckily then my phone rang and it was the lady from House Holland that I phoned earlier. I gave the phone to the one cop to talk to the lady. After he gave the phone back he just said 7km on and you must go now. So after asking many more times later I found Wims House Holland after some hectic traffic. Wim the Hollander died the year before but his Ethiopian wife still runs the place but the camping is not available any more. She is a friendly lady and I must say for all the unfriendly people I met here I also met some very friendly ones. The next day I went to DHL to check if my tyres have arrived. Rahel from Wims House Holland allowed her security guard to take me to DHL. Bad news as it looked like the tyres were still in Kenya but as it was Friday they told me to come back on Monday as it was possible that the stuff was send and a new tracking number was issued. Back at Wims Holland house in the mean time I met Eveline van Hooren from Holland and her friend Phillip from Belgium. The 3 of us had a good chat and she arranged with her dad in Holland that I can go with him on his boat on the grachte in Holland when I get there for a while and I can even load my bike on as we well. We will sail from one place to another where I will get off again. This has been a dream of mine for a long time. I will have to brush up on my Dutch as he does not speak English but what an opportunity. The grachte always fascinated me as the water is on different levels and if the boat wants to go to the higher level then they close a slues behind it and after that they open the one in front the boat rises to the new level. And if the boat wants to go to a lower level then it is Vice Versa. After wasting 5 days in Addis Abbeba I found out that DHL never send my tyres from Nairobi. They quoted me 10 US Dollar to send it on to Addis which they never did. The quote now is R2400 Rand plus some taxes so I immediately phoned my wife to buy new tyres and to send it on to Khartoum in North Sudan as I do not trust Nairobi DHL any more. In the meantime on the way from the border to House Holland the one front shock started to leak. This was the shock that did not leak before but I changed both seals anyway. Carl from Jungle Junction showed me a trick. You have to take the little springs inside the oil seal and shorten them. So I thought I will put the old oil seal which I kept and did not leak before back and just do that little trick with it. So I needed shock oil again and again I went off to the KTM dealer which was not too far from House Holland. There I met the sole owner, mechanic, sole KTM importer for Ethiopia, tour operator etc. Flavio is an Italian Ethiopian and the two of us immediately clicked. He sold me the same fork oil as the KTM dealer in Nairobi and of I went to overhaul the one front shock again. I used the restaurant tables outside at House Holland to put tools and bike parts on and Rahel had no problem with that. At the same time I took the front tyre off the rim and turned it around like Flavio suggested. I also adjusted the front forks again as it was twisted from the last fall in the water. As the wi fi was not working at house Holland I ask Flavio if I could use his at his shop and he had no problem. While there we had such a nice chat while he is working on the bikes and myself busy on the net. He told me that he was going to take 3 American tourists out on 4 KTM 500 off road bikes for a tour to Lalibela and thereafter to Lake Tana. They were going on the Tuesday and as my GPS maps were not working so I asked him if I could joint them as it will take me a day just to get out of Addis Abbeba by myself. He agreed and so the Tuesday 6-40am I was at his shop for our 7am appointment. The Americans, Joe and his wife Gene and David only arrived at 1 am in the morning and so that morning they were a little slow out of bed and we only got away closer to 10 am. The road to Lalibela is really a bikers dream. About 150km out of Addis the winding roads started and that was how it was all the way for the rest of what was left of the 700km route. After lunch David’s bike had a puncher due to a nail. We quickly changed the tube and off we went again. The first night we slept over in a small town and as the hotel where they stayed was too expensive, I booked into a small place almost next door for R84. The 2nd day it was raining in the morning. Eventually we hit a gravel road for 60km. On one bend David the one American used too much front brake and fell with the bike landing on him. It happened right in front of me and Flavio and I quickly lifted the bike off him. David was convinced his leg was fractured. A few minutes later a 4x4 Toyota pickup arrived and was going the same direction to Lalibela and it was the only vehicle for the day to go in the same direction than us. Flavio ask them if they would take David and the bike along. They agreed and we loaded the bike on the back and tied it down with rope that I had in my kit. The mountains and gravel roads here are a lot like Lesotho. Joe and Gene his wife was going a bit slow so Flavio rode with them as I went ahead a bit. Eventually I stopped on top of a mountain to wait for them. I waited a long time and eventually decided to turn back. About 2km back I found them where Genes bike had a flat tyre. I helped them to change the tube but when we pumped it with a hand pump it went flat again. We took the wheel off again and I gave my rear tube to Flavio and we fitted it again and this time I took my electric pump out of my luggage which was right at the bottom and I had to unpack everything. We quickly pumped the tyre and by now it was getting dark and that was the last thing that Flavio wanted as the 2 Americans were not experienced adventure riders yet. So while we packed up Flavio send them ahead so long. Flavio’s bike did not have a light and going over the mountain passes in the dark was extremely difficult. There were cattle and donkeys and you name what in the road. Eventually we caught up with the two Americans and miraculously we made it to Lalibela well after dark. The next morning they took David to the hospital for x-rays and indeed his leg was fractured. His trip is over after only two days of a 3 week Africa trip. We went to the Churches of Lalibela today and what amazing structures these are. There are about 10 churches chopped out of solid rock. We only visited 3 of them with a guide that Flavio organized and half way through the tour my camera went flat. I then used my cell phone and a little later even that battery went flat. Never the less it was a fantastic experience that I will never forget and coming here was really worthwhile and I had a fantastic bike ride. So tomorrow we are off to Lake Tana and the falls at the Blue Nile. I am going to start copying lots of photos over now. Big job. Keep the comments coming, as i said it keeps me going.
