World Run II / Reports

The map shows the position of which the pictures for the day are taken (if any). The start and finish markers are placed at the first and last valid registered position. This is not nessesary the actual start and finish position, if GSM or GPS signals was not available.

Goto: 2009-04-20 2009-04-22 Africa

2009-04-21:
Distance today: 42.0 km (Accumulated: 12674.8 km)
Elapsed time: 04:04:08
Country: Africa

Start 07:13am. at km-marker 397 on the main road to Addis Abeba. 14c, clear and l. wind. Finish 13:28pm. at km-marker 355 onthe main road to Addis Abeba. 29c, humid, clouds and no wind.

An uneventfull stage. A little bit of stonethrowing from the kids but they didnt hit the legs.

Have begun to read the African Economist and "Ethiopian History" to get a better understanding of this contry ... As well as to stay intellectually afloat ;-)
Not much to keep a political scientist on his toes here - and yet again: to try to comprehend this culture w. its moments of hostility and surprising contradictions takes all the sociological insight I can muster ! ;-)

I am aware that the best way to achieve that knowledge is 'to live the culture', and this is in fact one of the facinating side-effects of running around our Globe and a thing wich amazed me when doing the first world running5 years ago: you get benieth the surface of the contries you run through, adapt their pace and culture unrivalled of any other way of travel I know of.Perhaps the universal 'language' of running and making an effort is; it was there way before we got a language. Any two runners who runs next to each other knows that language reguardless of culture; and the response you get is much more direct, even compared to when you after weeks of running have learned their language (each language seems to hold the same ancient questions and the same way of posing them and the same limitations, could be that is whywe havent progressed in our answering of the basic philosophical questions for thousands of years now ! That is the philosophical project of the wr1 and wr2, to pose questions and understand our world with the bodys way of perception beyond the given answers of the language.. :-)

Perhaps becauce of theintensity of that way of movement - you notice every stone on the road, the villages, city's and emptiness straight across the contries; experiense thesubtle changes in dialect and behavior.

And that is a Wonderfull oppotunity to understand our mutual Planet :-)
A planet wich has a fascinating variation but also a distinct 'One-ness' that trancends words and language.

However; when you 'live Ethiopia' the world run way you certainly get the full impact:

- todays example: When we tried to set our tents after the run we had to keep moving for 5h. Each time the empty hidden spot w. a valley or mountainview got flooded' w. kids and teenagers within minutes. Gone was peace, quiet & relaxation. Hello: screaming, long repetetions of "Where You Go ?" and "GIVE ME .. !!" and other 'amusements'.

The tactic is to find a place just as it gets dark - that is the Only chance you get to privacy and sleep here.
NB: In Ethiopia gprs-service (global phone roaming service) is not yet avaliable for datatransmission. Therefore the Live-gps data cant be transmittetto the website as usual. It may first be avaliable in Kenya. Untill then traditional documentation is used: photo, logbook, video, wittness etc. !