Ethiopia
Hitchhiking in Ethiopia is possible. The country is listed as one of the world poorest countries. It might be that Ethiopians see a hitcher as having a robbery or banditry motive without as hitching is an unknown concept, however, white guys might have a bonus. Without the right technique, mostly taxis will stop to pick you up. In rural areas 'faranji' might hitch with NGO's or some private cars when public transport is absent, but payment can be expected in matter to contribute with the high cost of fuel (says Lonely Planet). Nevertheless, it is possible to catch some free rides. That one does not pay has to made clear before getting into the vehicle.
The country's Car License Plate system is based on a specific system, The colour state the status of the ownership (Blue for Private / Black for Government / Orange for Businesses or NGOs / Red for Taxis). The NGOs plate always starts with a number (35 being the general trend, other numbers simply specify a country of origin of the organisation) while CD (White/Yellow/Black) represents the embassies cars and the first number specifies the country. Also appears on the License Plate the 2 letters of the city of registration, both in latin alphabet and amharic. For example AA stand for Addis Ababa.
Borders
The border with Djibouti through Galafi is at some point only accessible by hitching with the load of truckers doing the road between Djibouti Harbour and Awash, where a payment of about 150-200Birr (from Logiya) will be expected.
There are borders with:
- Eritrea: Border crossing is currently closed since the 1998 war
- Djibouti: via Logiya and Galafi or via Dire Dawa and Gelille
- Somalia/Somaliland: via Jijiga (to Somaliland)
- Kenya: via Moyale
- Sudan: via Metemat, note that Visa are required in advance and take up to one month to obtain.
Cities
Links
- My time in Ethiopia, August 19, 2005 by Hologram
- Ethiopia at Wikitravel
- Ethiopia on digihitch
- Articles on abgefahren-ev.de/blogs about Ethiopia (de)
