This page was last updated Di 04 April 2023.

Contents: Tours (13)    Cycling info pages (1)   

Ethiopia (all)

This page lists all reports that for Ethiopia including those that involve other countries too.
Click here for a list of reports that involve only Ethiopia.
All descriptions are in English, unless otherwise noted.

Tours

Journey to Lalibela
by Erik Nomden, tour started January 2015, submitted 29 January 2016
Africa: Ethiopia
language: en, nl

A journey to the heart of Dark Africa. Bike tour with Marco Duiker, Willem Hoffmans and Marc Dirckx in Ethiopia. From the big rumbling capital Addis Abbeba we go back in time, following small unpaved backroads through mediaevil style villages, leading to the glorious old testament evoking atmosphere of the rock-hewn churches from Lalibela.

See all 19 reports by Erik Nomden

On the road in the mountainous heartland of Ethiopia
Cycle touring around the world
by Sam Thomson, tour started February 2013, submitted 24 November 2013

In January 2013 I set on to see the world by bike.

Me in Sudan crossing the sahara and a little dirty.
A bicycle ride across Africa with Tour D'Afrique
by Mike Vermeulen, tour started January 2013, submitted 12 December 2012

Tour D'Afrique is a four month, 12,000km supported bicycle ride from Cairo, Egypt to Capetown, South Africa. This is an account from the 11th time the ride was held, in 2013.

See all 4 reports by Mike Vermeulen

Istanbul to ... Cape Town
by Will and Carrie, tour started February 2010, submitted 7 March 2010

To seek adventure and escape from the mundane we left New Zealand to travel overland from India to Cape Town in August 09. Whilst in Iran we met two crazy Frenchmen cycling from Beijing to Paris. It took little encouragement to be convinced of the benefits of travelling by the most efficient means yet to be invented. The humble bicycle. Whilst we have little experience of bicycles or bicycle touring, we are excited by the possibility of travelling slowly, village to village, rather than the tedious bus rides from city to city.

We will head south from Istanbul, with no timeframe and no destination. (we head home when the money runs out)

Just a crazy desire to be free and experience the wonders of this beautiful world.

Caz in Turkey
Originally round-the-world but now much more interesting
by Tom Allen, tour started June 2007, submitted 22 January 2010

This is my travel blog of several years on the road. It started life as a round-the-world trip, but before long I realised that A-to-B cycling isn't as interesting as getting off the beaten track and really exploring a place. So since I left home I've had as much time off the bike as on it, earnt more than I've spent, learnt a new language, met an amazing girl and got married to her! Eager to travel by bike as a couple, we're currently seeing where this new dimension takes us.

I prefer to write about the way the trip affects me psychologically and about the cultural, political and historical curiousities I encounter. It's an uncomfortably personal story at times, but I think it's more interesting than reading pages of distance measurements, road conditions and visa hassles.

My creative outlet comes through photography and video which I also share on the site - I carry 6kg of camera equipment and don't regret it for a second!

Sleeping under the Saharan stars
Tour of Gondwana
by Michael Ayers, tour started May 2005, submitted 20 January 2010

My goal for this Tour was to visit all of the major inhabited parts of the former supercontinent of Gondwana. Today, those places are mostly located in the Southern Hemisphere. Another aspect of my plan was to avoid long airplane trips by crossing oceans on container ships. That part of my Tour frequently caused problems, but I did hold fast to that idea, more or less. I traveled alone during 40 months and covered a little over 86,000 km by bike in 44 countries. My primary interest was the simple joy of cycling in new places, but I also concentrated on Natural History, Flora and Fauna, Ancient Sites and Diverse Cultures. My site contains sections describing Tour preparations, detailed logs, photos, posts written during the Tour, and a collection of essays written once it was complete.

Gyatso-La, at 5,220 meters, the highest pass of the Tour, in Tibet
A simple life on a beautiful world... and on a bicycle
by Hervé Neukomm, tour started September 2004, submitted 1 June 2009
language: en, fr, es, pt

I left home in September 2004. I was supposed to cycle to Tibet in 7-8 months. Until now, I never reached Tibet and I'm still on the road. A cold winter in Turkey make me change my itinery and then my travel's philosophy. I decided that the performance was not that important but the road itself brings me everything. In almost a total of 2 years where I worked as a safari tour guide in Namibia, I had enough money to continue and live the dream further and further. Soon, I will attempt to buy a boat in Amazonia and turn it into a bicyle-boat to cross the Amazonas on its bigest highways: the rivers! This tour is still in process and I will keep it updated on my website. nature, dirt roads, cultures and wildlife lover..

Around the salar of Coipaisan, in the Bolivian Altiplano
World Biking:share the adventure of cycling around the world
by Amaya Williams and Eric Schambion, tour started June 2006, submitted 20 May 2009

World Biking: The web's most comprehensive Africa Cycling Expedition. Eric and Amaya pedalled 55,000 kilometers and traversed 55 countries (37 in Africa) when they cycled from France to Cape Town via West Africa and then back to France via East Africa and the Middle East between 2006 and 2009. The next stage of their expedition beginning in June 2009 will take them across the USA and then through South America all the way to its southernmost tip, Ushuaia. Lots of photos, tales of their adventure plus touring tips, practical information and gear reviews.

See all 2 reports by Amaya Williams and Eric Schambion

Cycling in Western Sahara.
Bike touring in Asia, South America, Africa and the rest of the world eventually
by Tony Woo, submitted 5 October 2008

I began my first bike tour in Asia. A few years after I went to South America for another tour. My latest tour was a year through Africa. I am back in Canada to make enough money for another tour, hopefully this one will last at least 6 years or more. I will have 3000+ photos when I am finish with my Asia section.

Entrance from the main road to Aconcagua, the highest mountain in the Americas.
WorldTripping.net - Simon and Leah attempt to cycle around the world
by Simon Green & Leah Ingham, tour started 2004, submitted 3 October 2008

Lost in the Seses.
Blackness you could touch. No moon to guide us. No bike lights only Simon's tiny maglite. The road was barely a path, which pinged and cracked as we cycled along it. Simon held the torch in his mouth, and its light wound a curving trail on our ''road.'' Several times we almost crashed into one another. Mumbled curses firing from Simon, unable to release the full volley for fear of dropping his light. Undoubtedly, this was to my advantage and I was able to retaliate with much vitriol, winding him up even more.

Moonrise over the Nile. Abri.
Cycling The Road Less Travelled
by Spiros Analytis and Maria Abagis, tour started January 2008, submitted 19 November 2007

Welcome! We are Maria and Spiros, two slightly adventurous souls, who on January 12th, 2008 will begin a year long journey of a lifetime. The first part of our adventure will begin at the foot of the Pyramids in Giza, where we will embark on the 6th edition of the Tour D'Afrique. Starting in Cairo, Egypt and ending in Cape Town, South Africa, the Tour D'Afrique is a 12,000 km, 120 day cycling race/expedition across the exotic and intriguing African continent. More challenges and adventure are sure to follow as we then continue riding our bikes through Europe and Asia.

Our goal is to raise funds and awareness for WaterCan, a charity providing clean water and sanitation to impoverished communities, and Against Malaria which works to donate bed nets to fight Malaria, a devastating disease that kills over a million people a year.

See all 2 reports by Spiros Analytis and Maria Abagis

Round the World by Bike - 60 countries. 5 continents. 4 years. 46,000 miles
by Alastair Humphreys, tour started 2002, submitted 10 December 2006

The author is selling a book on his tour around the world, but has made several chapters available for free, in PDF format. Espcially the chapters on Ethiopia and Siberia are fascinating to read and among the best stories found on Trento Bike. This is true adventure. Here are two short paragraphs:

  • Ethiopia How can two sides of one village be so different? One hundred metres from Sudan and I had left behind Islam and North Africa and was into the continent's heart. The buildings, people and attitudes all felt different. The red dirt road was busy with pedestrians. Barefoot people and donkeys easily outnumbered the few fume-spewing, rattling vehicles. Women walked shaded beneath golf umbrellas, a strange sight in the African sun. Men bore a stout staff across their shoulders, their hands hooked over like wings. In Sudan the ladies flowed in colourful loose robes and men with bushy moustaches glided around in white galibayahs. In Ethiopia the men wore tight little shorts and tattered T-shirts, repaired many times, with a blanket draped over their willowy shoulders.

  • Siberia We rode on and on through a frigid emptiness of low hills white with snow or black leafless woods. The white road ahead on the wooded hillsides stood out like a photo negative. The horizon's high mountains looked enticing and I felt happy to be here, to be at the ends of the earth with my bicycle. ``I'm out here a thousand miles from my home, walking a road other men have gone down. I'm seeing a world of people and things,'' sang Dylan in my headphones.

Also check out the expedition advice.

world map with tour route
A bicycle tour from Switzerland to South Africa
by Herve, tour started September 2004, submitted 19 October 2006

I decide to leave Switzerland and cycle until Tibet. The road decide for me and I finally arrive one and an half year later in Cape Town, South Africa. This is a journey dedicated to freedom, people and nature. This tour may continue to South America but I'm still working as a tour guide in Namibia to get money for the next destinations.

Have a look on my cold stage in Turkey, nice time in Syria, amazing Sudanese crossing, wild Tanzanian experience, pure Namibia, etc... I hope you will enjoy and feel free to contact me.

Cycling info pages

Africa by Bicycle Travel Guide
by The International Bicycle Fund

Myths and misinformation about Africa; shows how safe, serene, and welcoming the continent as a whole has been and will be to travelers and tourists, despite frequent misrepresentations in the news. Contains a comprehensive list of African countries.