i'm on the edge of a cliff in ethiopia i'm riding a bike and i'm simultaneously flying my drone and
i am totally out of breath and yes there are about 20 monkeys in front of me and yes i am camping in
a place that no tourists have ever been to before but that my friends is not where the story starts
the story starts here in addis ababa ethiopia i'm visiting a childhood friend that lives here and to
be honest i don't know how he does it the power is constantly out the traffic is crazy the pollution
is nuts and at the same time it's a pretty rad place and i'll hand it to him but you know what
i feel like i'm the only traveler in addis ababa given the pandemic and even on the plane i was on
i was the only non-ethiopian person there someone turned and asked me what are you and let me tell
you i stuck out everywhere but more on that in another video because why am i biking in ethiopia
so i had reached out to every single tour operator to see the sites of ethiopia and
nobody was doing their normal tours and instead
all of them were joining forces to do one big tour and they called it ride the rift
the ride was five days long with riding bikes hiking and running every day and when i first
signed up almost nobody was also signed up and i was scared i was stalking some of the writers on
social media i know i admit and they were they were good they were all men and they were all
guys that raced in cycling clubs and in an old life i was a really fierce cyclist i raced a lot
i used to do hundred mile bike rides triathlons i taught spin classes but that was an old life
so with the feeling of pure terror i started working out really hard spinning every day and
getting my legs in shape and when it was goat time i hopped onto the bus with wait there are 50 other
people on this trip and family and kids oh well awesome we drove four hours north of addis ababa
and as i sat on the bus the landscape was just so different it was page roads for a little bit but
not the entire time and we couldn't actually drive to the campsite because it was too
difficult to drive so we walked it was a long bus ride but we made it to the campsite
camp life was not what i expected it to be i was expecting something rugged you know like pain in
the bushes and freeze-dried food that you warm up with hot water but it was really supported
i mean it wasn't the five-star resort that i was saying last month empire document but i was really
excited i mean look at this oh baby there's home sweet home right there i'm moving in i
want to give you a sweet tour of my new home they even provided a tent and a mat for me to sleep on
and all i had to bring was a sleeping bag and a pillow and they even built bathrooms it might
be a 20 bedroom but it's only a three bathroom okay okay this is where the magic happens and
they also built showers but standing in the mud with high winds and cold temperatures attempting
to bucket shower was well maybe a little too refreshing for me so i only did it welcome
to the shower and yes don't you worry your girl brought a lot of deodorant i've just finished
wiping myself down with baby wipes so shower done this is so much more amazing than i expected
i was really expecting the worst look at my great setup you know what was hard for me about
camp life two things one was stressing about my electronics i know it sounds silly but i wanted
to fly my drone and i had three cameras in me to capture this for you and the second thing it's
really cold tonight and when i say cold i mean 30s and 40s which might not seem so bad that
i'm in a tent and also the winds are as insane as you see them here really really cold tonight
and those dogs yesterday that were going crazy they're not dogs they're hyenas and other animals
good night so you think i walked all the way to those bathrooms when i needed to go pee in the
middle of the night heck no i squat right outside my tent staring up into a sky of a million stars
and listening to the sounds of the hyenas and praying i wouldn't pee on myself given how strong
the winds were i slept very little on this trip but it wasn't a big deal every morning i'd wake
up to watch the sun rise and that was followed by a breakfast of something that was like a pb
j and coffee that tasted like gasoline eggs if we were lucky and then we would do a long bike
ride and have all kinds of crazy adventures if you want to hear about the rides watch the next video
but let's talk about who who was on this trip almost no one was actually from ethiopia it was
all expats from italy from germany from the uk and even someone from my hometown of san diego these
people were diplomats they worked for the embassy ngos or other similar types of work and they all
lived in addis i was the only visitor but i was so thankful to not be the only woman it's nice to
have other ladies on the bike ride because then you can scope out great places like this one to
go pee as quickly as you can before before others come it's pretty barren and open around here so
finding a place to go pee that was sheltered or not near tons of animals was something i became
very good at but i needed those trees because it meant i was exposed to the elements all day
and no i didn't get lip injections sunscreen can only help so much but you know what grab
a drink this is the start of a series share that like button and subscribe if you haven't already
next up on this party the bike rides i'll see ya in the next adventure ciao