Day 28 - Feb 5

Today we left the dirt road and got back on the pavement!  YAY!  Or at least happier.  The pavement was a good upgrade to what we have been on but it was the rough chip seal like we ran into through most of Texas.  

It was a very good day of riding despite the rough chip seal surface.  I started out a bit slow but then started to listen to some of my songs that I had stored.  The pace began to quicken and the bike dancing commenced.  :)

I began passing one rider after another.  Speeding along, dipping and weaving to the music.  It was fabulous.  The kilometers melted before the fidelity of the music.  It was a wonderful thing.  Pretty quickly before I even knew it I had danced away 60 kilometers.  

After lunch it was a quick 34k to the Sudanese border.  We got a quick interrogation and forms filled out and checked and then on the way to the Ethiopian border.  There we were checked for Ebola, finger printed and then off we go.

Once on the Ethiopian side we rode through the town of Metema.  Imagine a border town where on one side it is hard line Islamic law with women having the traditional burka and no alcohol sold or consumed.  The other side of the border is a wide open place eager to satisfy all the pent up vice the Islamic side has suppressed....  that is Metema.  There were bars, stores of all kinds and rooms that you could rent by the hour (accompaniment supplied).  Fairly decadent little town.

Once past the border I was riding for about 4k and heading up a hill towards our camp site.  A pickup truck jeep thing passed me with about 6-8 guys in the back of the truck.  They were all armed with AK47s.  They passed me but stopped farther up the hill.  My first thought was... I am about to be robbed.  They turned their truck around and started to head back towards the border town.  I was relieved... no robbery today.  But then about 50 yards ahead of me they pulled their truck across the road blocking the way.  A guy got out of the passenger side and pulled his semi automatic pistol out and waived it for me to stop.  Also, one of the Ak47 lads jumped out of the back and joined him.  They were yelling things in Arabic and waiving their weapons gesturing to stop.  There was not a uniform, official cap, ensignea or anything official in the group.  So I gestured that I did not comprehend and pedaled faster passing the two nice gentleman.  By now I was about 400 meters to the campsite.  I did not turnaround to look but I did hear yelling.  I pulled off the road at the campsite at a breakneck pace and blew out a tire.  I quickly told the staff member ... We have a problem!  By now the truck full of armed men had pulled into the camp.   The staff member quickly called the Ethiopian interpreter.  Words were exchanged and they pulled their truck off to the side.  Pretty soon a couple of other vehicles showed up with beers, water, sodas and juice for sale.  Also a man who would convert US dollars to Ethiopian Birrs.  We had our own black market.  The interpreter said they were "militia".  Instead of robbing me they found a better means of commerce.  So the story ended happily!