CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Addis Ababa it runs 173 km to Addis Ababa; allow about 3 h 41 of riding. The stops in between: Balchit, Atebella, Kella and Wofi. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,700 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
At about 2,350 metres, Addis Ababa is one of the highest capitals on Earth, and you feel it in the first hour: the sun is strong, the air is thin and cool, and a flight of stairs is a small event. The city sits in a bowl of eucalyptus-covered hills, founded in the 1880s by Emperor Menelik II and his wife Taytu, whose name for it, the new flower, stuck. It is a sprawling, restless, cheerful place, and the pace of building is astonishing.
Read the complete Addis Ababa write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Addis Ababa is where the day begins. Next is Balchit.
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.
Read the complete Balchit write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Balchit comes up about 41 km into the recorded legs. Next is Atebella.
Atebella lies among the farmlands that stretch south-west of Sebeta, and what there is to say about it is really a description of the countryside. The plateau here is a patchwork of small plots, divided by hedges of cactus and euphorbia, and dotted with trees whose silhouettes look like umbrellas. It is a landscape shaped by generations of smallholders, and in the early morning, with the sun low and the mist lying in the hollows, it looks as though it has hardly changed in a century. Cattle with long horns are driven along the road by boys with sticks.
Read the complete Atebella write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
At least about 64 km into the recorded legs you reach Atebella. Next is Kella.
Kella is another small name on the plateau south-west of the capital, and its interest lies in what you pass on the way. The old road leads out of Addis Ababa through Sebeta, a town that grew around a railway and market, and beyond it climbs gently into high farmland, with slopes of green and tan, groves of eucalyptus and, in the distance, the shape of the mountains that rim the Rift. At this latitude and height the sun is strong, but the air is cool, and the clarity of the light is memorable.
Read the complete Kella write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kella, about halfway. Next is Wofi.
Wofi sits at 64 km, about halfway. Next is back through Kella.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kella write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Kella comes up about 97 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Atebella.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Atebella write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 104 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Atebella. Next is back through Balchit.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Balchit write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Balchit, late in the day. Next is Addis Ababa.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Addis Ababa write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 173 km.
Addis Ababa → Balchit is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Balchit → Atebella is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Atebella → Kella is 13 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kella → Wofi is 6 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Wofi → back through Kella is 14 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kella → back through Atebella is 7 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Atebella → back through Balchit is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Balchit → Addis Ababa is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.