Ethiopia is listed as one of the world poorest countries, and very few people have cars there. Nevertheless, hitchhiking there is possible and completely doable, although it might require some patience of yours. Ethiopians probably see a hitcher as having a robbery or banditry motive since hitchhiking is an unknown concept there, however, white guys might have a bonus. Taxis might stop for you if you use a wrong hitchhiking technique. In rural areas, faranji might do hitchhiking when public transport is absent although payment can be expected in a matter of contribution to the high cost of fuel (according to the Lonely Planet). Nevertheless, it is possible to catch some free rides. Just tell the driver clearly you won't pay when boarding a vehicle.
Information | |
Language: | Amharic |
Capital: | Addis Ababa |
Population: | 78,254,090 |
Currency: | Birr (ETB) |
Hitchability: | (average) |
More info: | AVP Free Encyclopedia (Russian) |
Meet fellow hitchhikers on Trustroots | |
<map lat='9.622414142924805' lng='38.60595703125' zoom='5' view='0' float='right' /> |
The country's car license plate system is very specific: the colour states 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 (generally 35, other numbers simply specify the origins of the local organisation) while CD (White/Yellow/Black) represents the embassies cars where the first number specifies the country. The 2 letters of the city of registration also appears on the license plate, both in Latin alphabet and local Amharic. For example, AA stands for Addis Ababa.
Contents
Borders
The border with Djibouti through Galafi is accessible only (in some places only?) by hitching with the load of truckers who drive on the road between Djibouti Harbour and Awash where a payment of about 150-200Birr (from Logiya) can be expected.
There are borders with:
Cities
Caution
There are Landmines in the border regions to Somalia, Sudan, Eritrea and Kenia! Don't use the road Bure-Assab!
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)