Contents: Tours (3) Cycling info pages (1)

Ethiopia (all)

All descriptions are in English, unless otherwise noted.

Tours

Cycling The Road Less Travelled
by Spiros Analytis and Maria Abagis, tour started January 2008, submitted 19 November 2007

Africa: Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia, SouthAfrica

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.

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

Asia, Africa, Europe, America, Australia: Russia, Ethiopia

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.

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

Europe, Asia, Africa: Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia, SouthAfrica

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

Africa: Algeria, Benin, Botswana, BurkinaFaso, Cameroon, IvoryCoast, Zaire, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, SierraLeone, Sudan, Somalia, SouthAfrica, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zaire, Zambia, Zimbabwe

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.