About 50 kilometre north of Dilla we met Sharita van der Merwe from Polokwane, South Africa. She was heading towards the Kenyan border and seeing her with all her gear, we just had to stop and say hello. She is on her way home to South Africa, started in Egypt with a lot of hassle and had to fly over Sudan.

Using a bicycle and being alone is not the easiest combination. In Egypt the authorities didn't allow her to move without escort, and not exactly what Sharita had in mind. In Ethiopia she has struggled through dense populated areas, because of horrible manners from the locals. Everything from spitting, hitting, throwing stones/sugarcane, and sadly, a lot of verbal abuse. We wish Sharita all the best in the south.