Southwest of Addis Ababa the high plateau starts to roll, and the names on the map begin to belong to farms and villages rather than to cities. Balchit is one of those names, a small place in the Oromia highlands beyond Sebeta, and I will be straight with you that it is not a destination in its own right. What it offers is a sample of the country that surrounds the capital: red-brown fields, eucalyptus groves, round huts and squared houses with tin roofs, and a sky of enormous size at around two thousand metres above the sea.
Addis Ababa itself stands at roughly 2,350 metres, among the highest capitals in the world, and the thin air has a real effect on a motorcycle's power and on a rider's stamina. The plateau is farmed intensively, with teff, the tiny grain from which the sour pancake injera is made, wheat, barley and beans, and in the wet season from June to September the whole region goes bright green. Rain falls heavily in those months, often in the afternoon, so mornings are the best time to ride. The dry season, from October to February, is clearer, with cool nights and clean sunlit days.
The road west from the capital toward Sebeta and beyond is a main route, busy with trucks, minibuses, donkeys, goats and pedestrians, and driving habits are unpredictable. Surfaces on main roads are mostly paved but can be broken, and on side roads they turn to dirt, which becomes slippery when wet. Ride defensively, avoid the dark, and expect that livestock will appear without warning. The people of the villages are usually curious and friendly, and a greeting in Amharic or Oromo is met with delight.
Fuel is available in Sebeta, a town of about twenty thousand people some eighteen kilometres away, and in Addis Ababa, further along. Do not count on stations in the smaller places, and fill your tank whenever you can. Ethiopian coffee, served in the traditional ceremony with roasted beans and incense, is offered in many villages, and taking a cup is both polite and delicious. The smell of woodsmoke and eucalyptus, which drifts over the hills in the evening, is the smell of the highlands.