Unhinged in Ethiopia

After confrontations with AK-47-armed policemen in Xinjiang, China, and being thrown off his bicycle by gusts of wind in Mongolia's Gobi Desert, George Balarezo cycles across Ethiopia-Africa's most mountainous country and, as it happens, a repository for the continent's richest cultural legacy. He's assaulted daily by stone-hurling children, crashes a wedding party, scales a cliff with Ethiopian Orthodox monks, and sweats it out in the Afar Triangle-with the world's highest average temperature, it's earned its nickname of "hell on earth"-and witnesses the miracles of Ethiopian spirituality alongside murderers, cancer patients, and the mentally ill. It is a soul-stirring adventure that tests the limits of his sanity and gifts him invaluable life lessons that he is eager to share.