Ethiopian Vehicles

I really had no idea what to expect upon landing in Ethiopia. All I've seen is the little blurbs during the Olympics leading me to believe that everyone is tall and runs fast. We flew into the capitol city of Addis Ababa, population 3.4 million, and my first impression was a very urban. modern city with crazy traffic. Mini-buses running around all over the place. Shortly after arriving, we then flew to Bahir Dar, population 200,000. After Addis Ababa, it felt wonderfully "rural". A much better location for me to get acclimated.

One of the most popular vehicles in this area are the three-wheeled, two cycle bajaj. The local names for them are the words for "virus" and "mosquito" since they appeared all of a sudden and seem to be everywhere. The drivers seem to be pretty fearless. These photos are a quiet road at the outskirts of town and the donkey carts were almost as numerous as powered vehicles. Very few individuals would be able to afford a private vehicle as a gallon of fuel is a significant portion of the income for the average laborer.

Westerns seem to all drive Toyota Land Cruisers. Not the ones that were typically sold in the U.S. but they sort of looked like older models. The station wagon and pickup versions are both popular and all are diesel and naturally aspirated. No computers, turbochargers, automatic transmissions or anything that can't be repaired with basic tools. Diesel Toyota crew cab trucks with really short beds also seem to be pretty popular. When we asked about the going rate for a used Land Cruiser, I was floored by the answer... $48K USD! I guess the import taxes are horrendous on anything brought into the country.

This is in a more rural area about 150 km northeast of Addis Ababa and there were very few vehicles of any kind. The cart was the most common form of wheeled transportation. The reality is, most people walked anywhere they needed to go. There were a lot of donkeys carrying plastic water jugs and bags of grain. Goats and oxen seemed to wander the roads freely. I don't know how people manage to keep track of their livestock.

Out here, I saw my first camel that wasn't in a zoo. They seemed to be able to carry much larger loads than the donkeys though there weren't very many of them. They must be more expensive. Once we ventured off of the main road, we encountered very few vehicles and very little pavement. When we arrived at the small rural church, the right torsion bar mount had broken and the radiator had sprung a leak. The driver did get both fixed by that evening but it may indicate how rough the road was.

This is back in downtown Bahir Dar with horse drawn carts delivering 55 gallon drums of something. Beautiful paved roads and located on the largest lake in Ethiopia. On any of the roads, all of the vehicles are mixed. Carts, bicycles, motorcycles, trucks, buses, etc. Lots of horns honking but no anger. I don't know if it was cultural or not but even with the crazy traffic, I never saw anyone loose their temper.