| Date: | 06/09/2004 |
| Title: | more bikers |
| Location: | addis abeba, ethiopia (2447 m) |
| Text: | 53 194 kilometres on the road i picked up my passport in the afternoon, complete with my new sudanese visa. they say it's very hot in sudan at the moment – i can't wait to get there as it's rainy terribly cold here. as i returned to the baro hotel a big motorbike with german licence plates caught my eyes. 'overland traveller,' i thought, 'excellent! it would be great to have company on the way north.' jochen, the german biker, was an overlander but like most travellers, he was going south, not north. we exchanged a lot of information and contacts for our respective ways and he knew an italian-ethiopian who was planning to drive to india via egypt on his africa twin. he managed to get hold of mauro who we met in the evening for a beer. he didn't have much time but we agreed to stay in touch and to meet in gondar in about a week. jochen, who had been stuck in addis for several weeks, recommended the armenian sports club for diner which turned out to be great value. powerfully built, two metres tall, but with a gentle, if not slightly dull face, he looked like a mild hearted giant who couldn't hurt a fly. a bit shy in appearance and with a stutter, he would have passed as a professional boxer, a road construction worker or a mechanic. but one should never judge a book by its cover: to my surprise he turned out to have mastered economics and a law in germany! |