Trail Riding in Ethiopia

While many may equate Ethiopia with the treacherous famines that struck the country during the 80's and 90's, and horrible Bob Geldof songs, today the reality is somewhat different. Ethiopia is a dynamic, fast growing country that has become a stable regional hub in an area all too often characterized by violence and conflict. Addis Ababa, the capital is a city on the move with building going on everywhere, including a new rapid transport system. The city lies at 2400m and is surrounded by mountains, often full of Eucalyptus trees. For an Aussie such as myself, that makes riding in Ethiopia somewhat similar to riding at home, especially with the beautiful scent of Eucalyptus all the time. What many don’t know is that Addis Ababa and the surrounding mountains are a mountain biker’s paradise. After hundreds of years of people trudging up and down the local hills they are simply full of trails.

I first came to Ethiopia last year for a work conference and was lucky enough to hook up with a friend of a friend, Ken Ford, an American ex-pat living in Ethiopia with his family. I spent four days riding, with some days spent with Ken showing me the local trails and others spent scouting new areas. The riding absolutely blew me away, and a year later, I had to come back for more. There a quite a few options near the Capital, Addis Ababa. Entoto Mountain is the most easily accessible place for riding near Addis, stretching up from the city to a height of 3200 metres. Looking down over the city and topped with Eucalyptus forests, Entoto offers long flowy descents over a variety of terrain – lush Eucalyptus forest, grassy plains, rocky arid outcrops and dusty lower sections before ending in the hustle and bustle of the city.

Riding to the trailhead on Entoto mountain above Addis

Backside of Entoto Mountain

Beautiful Eucalyptus forests on Entoto Mountain

Going down the mountain the trails get rockier and dustier


The pearl of Ethiopian mountain biking is Menagesha Forest. Situated about an hour outside of Addis is a fantastically beautiful forest reserve, full of luscious green native forest. It is also full of some of the best natural singletrack I have ridden. Early Saturday morning we met up with the local downhill crew consisting of Ken, another ex-pat American, Steve and the flying Finn, Kari. Since we first rode last year the guys have done an amazing job mapping and linking up the trails. And the best thing is they are easily accessible by shuttle.


I have ridden in many countries around the world, but the Menagesha trails truly stand out. If 15km downhill runs including 800m descents through fast flowy singletrack are your cup of tea then you’ll love this place. Add to that the beautiful nature and the wonderful fauna – deer, warthogs, baboons and oryx and you’ll be as happy as a kid in a candy store. During the course of the day we got six runs in, totalling 5000 vertical metres. It was a truly amazing day, although we did lose Kari for a while after he made a wrong turn and ended up riding around the Ethiopia countryside for three hours. Then Steve ripped his pants off and had to spend the day riding around like a 90's stereotypical euro rider just in his knicks, making a very comical sight for all. The bullshit and banter were flowing and coupled with such epic runs it made for the perfect day. The boys were well prepared, and even had a cooler full of beers for the trip home before hitting up the local burger joint.

Ken getting in his Khat fix on the way to ride Menagesha

The next day we hit up a new area the Ken had wanted to scout, another big hill situated in a forest reserve about an hour outside of Addis. After a hard slug up the hill in Ken’s 4 wheel drive, things looked promising – some nice singletrack flowing up to the ridge. We hiked a bike for the last hour up to the summit, which was worth the effort with amazing views of Addis and its surroundings. The singletrack down to the car was challenging but fun, but unfortunately that was all we managed to find in the area. We spent another couple of hours scouting, but unfortunately there was no more suitable riding. We decided to cut our losses and get back to the beer instead. You win some and you lose some, and although we didn’t find any amazing new trails we still got in a first descent which is always worth it.

No pleasure without a bit of effort


The hike-a-bike is well worth it for the awesome views

With people having walked up these mountains for thousands of years there are masses of trails to explore


Pick your own line and have some fun

Some of the great things about riding new places, super friendly people and great food

Riding Ethiopia is really a wonderful experience. The local culture is fantastic, whilst riding gives you the opportunity to explore some really out of the way places, and meet a lot of friendly locals along the way. On top of that the weather is great this time of year, escaping from the cold and darkness of Norway where I live to 25 degrees and sunshine every day never gets old. And the riding we did this trip is just a tiny fraction of what the country offers; we were only riding around the capital whilst Ethiopia is nearly twice the size of Texas. If you are looking for a bit of adventure it’s well worth checking out!

---

MENTIONS: @grugged

---