ken4ord Posted May 27, 2013 Share Posted May 27, 2013 Well I finally made it back to the African continent and I am totally stoked to be here in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It has been three months and we are starting to get settled in, finally found a house and car and sometime in the near future I will try to find some work so we can stay for a while. I must say Ethiopia is much different than I expected, I guess I was still thinking of the days Sally Struthers. It is amazing up north is like southern Utah, huge washes, massive sandstone walls and free standing towers. Up along the border of Etriea there is some cool columnar basalt walls maybe 200m tall, granite and quartzite walls as well. In Addis we are working setting up a sporto wall (Amora Gedel), we got 9 routes established so far from 5.9-5.12(?) and many more to put in. Then there are other places throughout the country with some of the bigger and badder routes going at 8a and up to 850m. http://www.dpmclimbing.com/climbing-videos/watch/edu-marin-and-marco-jubes-samayata-ethiopia http://www.mountainproject.com/scripts/Search?query=Ethiopia&Submit=Search Again the mountain biking is off the hook, crazy. Tons of 1000m+ technical descents and I have barely scratched the surface. The weekend before last we did an 80km ride with 2500m of climbing and descending. I had a continuous 1000m drop off a volcano that was just a blast, (can't wait for the body armor to arrive and I think I might have to invest in a full face helmet again). Tomorrow the girls are off from school so we are going hiking and clearing trail for a mountain bike race this next weekend. Then there is all the history this country has castles, Rastafarian birth place, many different tribal ethic groups, rock hewn churches, Queen Sheeba, the Three Kings resting place, Lucy, and on and on. Then their love of alcoholic beverages (I am definitely digging the Tej, a local mead), coffee and khat. What a fun place. So expect some TR's in the future and if Ethiopia is on your radar drop me a line. Cheers PS- I'll work on getting some pics up when I get a chance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete_H Posted May 27, 2013 Share Posted May 27, 2013 You live an interesting life Ken Ford! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ken4ord Posted May 27, 2013 Author Share Posted May 27, 2013 Pete, you do a pretty good job yourself, keeping life interesting. We should catch up this summer, I will be back in town end of July and a good portion of August. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glassgowkiss Posted May 28, 2013 Share Posted May 28, 2013 i am interested in some bike pictures and terrain picture for downhill biking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt_warfield Posted May 28, 2013 Share Posted May 28, 2013 (edited) I am interested in your perspective on Ethiopia's bad blood with Somalia. But as with others I enjoy posts from people not getting cheated in life so thanks for the info and look forward to more. Edited May 28, 2013 by matt_warfield Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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