Cycling From Cairo To Capetown: Ethiopia - TanzaniaArba Minch, Ethiopia
The next day my good friend David Pennington got talking to a local man; James who invited Dave and a friend (me) back to his house for dinner. It was an amazing experience. We ate lamb tibs and drank coca cola it was magnificent. A real piece of Ethiopian hospitality. James's mother the beloved cook is 33 years old, James is 22 years old but despite such a challenging task she seems to have done very well. She has 2 younger children and is already a grandmother ! Following dinner, David and I cycled down to a local bar for a drink on the way home. It was my watering hole from the previous night of breakdancing so there were some familiar faces and Rastafarians who asked us to "pray" with them. After more drink then tribal dancing we went to a hole in the wall of a nightclub. As we sat outside with our bikes talking to the local talent the drunk locals told us what a good idea it would be to give them our precious bikes. We were surrounded by about 15 locals and a drunk Kenyan safari leader who had joined us for a drink was looking for a fight with all of them- it was his birthday after all. 
Luckily a local rival gang arrived and a fight broke out between the 2 groups of toothless delinquents. We waited for the right time. Looking as cool as we could, as if we would be staying all night in the one spot. Then we burst onto our bikes. We scrambled to the sounds of smashing bottles and shouting locals. The only route to our camp direction was right through the center of the group. Those who tried to follow us were caught by rival gang members. All the time that little voice in my head kept shouting "don't get a puncture, don't get a puncture". We made it to camp down a dusty rocky road and I did get a flat but fortunately it was downhill when it happened. I went to bed at around 2am counting myself very lucky. Bye-Bye-Bike I waved good-bye to my bike today with a slight smirk on my face. Happy on one hand to let my saddle sores heal and tackle the task of Kilimanjaro but on the other hand disappointed I can’t cycle through Kenya due to the current civil uprest. However my bike will travel through Kenya on a trusted truck. We offset the distance covered in Kenya by cycling through the Omo Valley of Ethiopia instead of taking the shorter route by the highway from Addis. Let's move on. No time to regret, a large mountain awaits me and I haven’t climbed anything higher than the hill behind Tipp town before. Time to focus… Monday March 3rd : TanzaniaKilimanjaro : The Roof of Africa
Kilimanjaro “If you’re going to take me down before the top, I’d better be bleeding out my ears” Rodney Pennington, a friend and fellow climber. Armed with a group of friends I went to prove the saying that Kili is an easy climb. It’s not. There is no better way to describe this adventure then ; taxing. I am not a walker. I decided to scale Kili in 4 days, with a 2 day descent. Armed with chocolate, whiskey and Konyagi Gin I set upon my quest with a group of 7 friends. There was 3 days of 4-8 hours trekking then we went to a high altitude of 4000 meters and then down again to acclimatize. On the final ascent to Uhuru Peak (The Roof of Africa) we were woken at 11pm. The objective was to witness the most spectacular sunrise on the continent. Perhaps the most spectacular in the world. Kilimanjaro is the highest free standing mountain in the world. Hence the panoramic view is the best in the world : there is one other peak in your view and the peak of Kili is very long and broad with plenty of room to roam around. We had 4 hours sleep, woke up at 11pm. Had some coffee. Started climbing and get to the top for sunrise at 6.15am.
It was a six or seven hour climb, most of which was spent looking at the person in front of me's boots and thinking about how much I dig sea level. We made it, but only just. It was freezing (-35 degrees with windchill), snowing and with gale winds almost blowing us down. I had packed a cheap bottle of Cava – the idea was to pretend it was champagne at the top and make some friends. I guess I didn't forsee what the final day held. Unfortunately it weighed about 2 liters. This combined with my rucksack of 3 liters of water and all my rain and cold gear (trousers and jackets) was enough to give me the bends. Then there was the altitude. A friend of mine Rod Pennington lost it with the altitude. He wasn’t able to concentrate and when he was 2 meters away from the summit photo point this was what 38 kilometers of walking uphill was about, the arduous last 4 days of climbing without a bicycle, the peak of the mountain and our African trip ; he said “I’m going down to the tent, see you there”. I grabbed him and forced him to get in a photo. He almost thanked me later.
Everyone in my group felt the altitude. We were all nauseous, dizzy, totally confused. Some people were getting sick.By now any thought of cava had left me. When I took someone else’s photo at the top I had to take off my gloves to do so and believe me my fingers are still sore as I type this. A good 7/8 minutes was spent at the top admiring the sunrise. Well above the clouds with a glacier to my left it was probably one of the most amazing moments of my life. You want to stay there for a while enjoy a drink, more photos. But you can’t. At least I couldn’t. The altitude was crushing me. Once the adrenaline wears off and you realize how cold it is and that you have 2 days to get to ground level all you want is to get there. To jump off the mountain. But it's not that easy. But for those few minutes everything is quite, any sound will travel for miles, dizzy people scuffling to the top- taking their picture, admiring the view and stumbling down on the 3 hour descent. Kili for me is a rite of passage for the inexperienced to achieve something beyond themselves and witness an unimaginable sunrise above the clouds. When we reached the office our guide told us that 40% of the people who tried to summit that day didn’t make it. Everyone in our group made it. This made our nausea seem less amateur and more authentic. To quote Rod one last time “We climbed it because it’s there”. Kilimanjaro Fast Facts 
March 16th On Yer Bike After a crazy debauchorous night at the infamous "Masi Camp" disco in Arusha and with no sleep at all but a few litres of rum, I got back on the bike again and journeyed out of Arusha. The road feels exceptionally good, smooth and with a tailwind a pretty sweet day back in the saddle. However I am warned that even though we travel through the capital city of Dodoma, the roads won’t be paved again until a town called Iringa ! that’s 9 days of cycling away.
The roads are corrugated and sandy. The days are roasting and the nights are humid and wet. The tropical landscape is beautiful but I can't really appreciate it through all my sweat, reckon I'm starting to loose weight. Every 80kms or so there's a bustling town with people obstructing and cattle markets. I decided to wander into one and was pretty much assaulted by a swarm of farmers looking to sell me a cow or if I stick around a young camel. Time to cycle on!If I do any clothes washing it’s impossible to dry things out. There are lot’s of different types of monkeys on the roads but as I am not very good at describing them (they move quick) let’s just say they’re hairy ones. There is also a lot of snakes on the roads, both dead and alive. This includes the Black Mamba which one bite can kill you in less then 15 minutes.
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