Thread by @trbrtc

In 2012, I hitchhiked from the Netherlands to South Africa with @NedaBoin and @sierrrd — covering 25,000 kilometers entirely based on the kindness of random strangers. The 155 rides 👇

Our first ride was in a (in the Netherlands well-known) bakfiets. It brought us from the city center (where we said goodbye to our loved ones) to the best hitchhiking spot in town toward Germany.

Ride 1: Vismarkt to Europaweg, Groningen, Netherlands (2.5km) 🇳🇱

The first car to stop for our destination “Cape Town (no joke)” cart board sign was this Mercedes. She saw our sign, stopped, and was like, “I can take these three kids“ as she was on her way home to Winschoten.

Ride 2: Groningen to Scheemda, Netherlands (26km) 🇳🇱

As summer is ending (we left in September), this couple just came back from spending their days on a boat on the Frisian lakes. They were on their way back home to barbecue with their two adult children.

Ride 3: Scheemda to Bad Nieuweschans, Netherlands/Germany (25km) 🇳🇱🇩🇪

The fourth ride we get is by Serwet, a taxi driver (see that blue licence plate!) who is happy to take us as he's anyway driving to Germany.

Ride 4: Bad Nieuweschans to Bremen, Netherlands/Germany (132km) 🇳🇱🇩🇪

Coming back from test-driving a motorcycle he didn't want, he was returning home to Hannover with an empty trailer (you can see it in the photo). So why no taking us?

Ride 5: Bremen to Allertal, Germany (83km) 🇩🇪

As you can see, many cars on the Germany _Autobahn_ are gorgeous. This guy, working for an international think tank in Berlin, was happy to take us along the way too.

Ride 6: Allertal to Braunschweig, Germany (109km) 🇩🇪

German autobahns are famous for having no universal motorway speed limit. Our seventh ride surely made us aware of that and drove us far into our first night of hitchhiking towards Cape Town.

Ride 7: Braunschweig to Homberg, Germany (278km) 🇩🇪

But the night is not over yet. These two young guys give us a last big push before we (try to) sleep —for our first night!— next to a McDonalds in southern Germany. (Perhaps some “where did we sleep” photos at the end?)

Ride 8: Homberg to Erlangen West, Germany (271km) 🇩🇪

The next morning, after sleeping next to McDonalds, it's hard to get out of a resting area (raststätte) not immediately next to the highway. Fortunately, we got a quick ride to a better spot from this kind guy.

Ride 9: Erlangen West to Erlangen raststätte, Germany (2km)

I surely had heard a lot about the French Foreign Legion.. but had I ever met a soldier? No way. Until we got a 8-hrs (!) ride from Jozef, who had been deployed to Chad, Morocco and Guinea.

Ride 10: Erlangen to Budapest, Germany/Hungary (790km) 🇩🇪🇭🇺

(We arrived in Budapest in the night, so we walked to a park and met a cyber-security specialist who, after hearing our travel story, invited us to stay over. That's what we did.. but we slept late and the next day
tarted hitchhiking waaay too late to get out of the city.)

Stuck at a gas station in the outskirts of Budapest, this film director (photo is him next morning) noticed and was like, “you need a place to stay?” So we stayed an extra night in the Hungarian capital.

Ride 11: gas station to a house behind the gas station (0.4km), Hungary 🇭🇺

I honestly don't remember exactly what happened, but after being stuck for two days in Budapest, we decided to take a train out of the city. (I promise it'll happen only more twice.)

Ride 12: Budapest to Szeged, Hungary (175km) 🇭🇺

It was night when we arrived in Szeged — Szoke and his dad Barnabás make sure we know how to found our way around town.

Ride 13: Szeged, Hungary (~1km) 🇭🇺

When you're hitchhiking at night, a lot depends on the trust of the car that's gonna stop for you. This guy, riding around town with his girlfriend, didn't seem to mind and took all three of us to the border.

Ride 14: Szeged to Nagylak, Hungary/Romania (55km) 🇭🇺🇷🇴

“You hitchhike for adrenaline, I gamble for adrenaline,“ Tiberi jokes, who takes us on a 14-hr (!) ride from the Hungarian border to southern Romania — buying us coffee and entertaining us all the way.

Ride 15: Nădlac to Buzău, Romania 🇷🇴

So, here's the second (out of three) public transport vehicles. It was hard to hitchhike from Buzău into Bucharest. So we took a train. But boarded the wrong train and woke up at the Moldavian border.

Ride 16: Buzău, Romania to Iași and back, Romania (584km — both ways) 🇷🇴

Once we're back in Budapest, we continue our journey south. Dan (left), Sonya (middle) and their friend took us along as they were visiting their parents in Giurgiu. They took a detour to drop us off at the border checkpoint.

Ride 17: Bucharest to Giurgiu, Romania (63km) 🇷🇴

The bridge crossing the natural border was quite long, so we hitchhiked a ride to the other side. This couple does business in Romania, but lives on the Bulgarian side.

Ride 18: Giurgiu to Ruse, Romania/Bulgaria (14km) 🇷🇴🇧🇬

Explaining exactly where you wanna go is, obviously, an issue sometimes. But what else you gonna do than embrace it? We got a ride in the right direction —south— but got stuck in a tiny village in the hills.

Ride 19: Ruse to Vetovo, Bulgaria (8km) 🇧🇬

Working as a tractor mechanic, our next driver (left) knew the area. But we didn't exactly know how to explain where we were going in.. and ended up in the next town. Great ride, though. (All rides are great.)

Ride 20: Vetovo to Razgrad, Bulgaria (39km) 🇧🇬

As night was falling, we were happy that we got a ride —through bumpy roads— who was more than happy to share the homemade rakija made by his father.

Ride 21: Razgrad to Burgas, Bulgaria (176km) 🇧🇬

To make up for those accidental +250 kilometers in Romania, we took a bus —our shelter for the night— to Istanbul where we stayed with Emre, a friend from an earlier trip. Unfortunately, I forgot to photograph the bus.

Ride 23: Burgas to Istanbul, Bulgaria/Turkey (332km) 🇧🇬🇹🇷

Sometimes it's hard to get up. Thus we found ourselves way too late on the Otoyal eastward. But it took only one ride with Murat, a friendly policeman, to make it all the way to the Turkish capital Ankara.

Ride 23: Istanbul to Ankara, Turkey (444km) 🇹🇷

Murat dropped us off at AŞTİ, Ankara's main bus terminal, where the last bus to Hatay was about to leave. The land route to Africa through Syria wasn't really an option, so we aimed for the coast to find a ferry.

Ride 24: Ankara to Antakya, Turkey (678km) 🇹🇷

There is (or was, at the time) a bi-weekly ferry across the Mediterranean and we were lucky to find ourselves sailing on one among Turkish truckers, several Syrian rebels and a group of Bosnians on their way to Mecca.

Ride 26: İskenderun to Port Said, Turkey/Egypt (718km) 🇹🇷🇪🇬

Our first ride on Egyptian soil was given by the Bosnian pilgrims, before we had to part ways at customs.

Ride 27: one side of the harbor to the other side, Port Said, Egypt 🇪🇬 (1km)

With fresh stamps on our visa, Serags —a student at the American University in Cairo— was more than happy to give us a nightly ride from the actual port to Port Said's city center.

Ride 28: port to city center, Port Said, Egypt 🇪🇬 (1.5km)

Ride 29: city center to bus station, Port Said, Egypt 🇪🇬 (1km)

The police, perhaps a bit suspicious, gave us the first longer ride towards Cairo, and dropped us off near a checkpoint alongside the Suez Canal road.

Ride 30: bus station to Suez Canal checkpoint, Egypt 🇪🇬 (31km)

Rides from pickup trucks are always fun: who doesn't like to sit in the back, sun on your face, hair in the wind This was the first of many of such rides on our way down south.

Ride 31: down the Suez Canal highway, Egypt 🇪🇬 (10km)

Mostafa, Khaled and their friends drove us all around Minya, a large city in Upper Egypt along the Nile's western shore.

Ride 34: in and around Minya, Egypt 🇪🇬 (5km)

Another police officer giving us a ride (probably not a coincidence).

Ride 35: in Minya, Egypt 🇪🇬 (2km)

Ride 36: Minya to Asyut, Egypt 🇪🇬 (147km)

Ride 38: Kena to Luxor, Egypt 🇪🇬 (67km)

Ride 39: outskirts to downtown Luxor, Egypt 🇪🇬 (1km)

There's basically only one way to enter Sudan from Egypt: by sea, crossing the vast Lake Nasser reservoir. And we did that in this boat, the overloaded and overcrowded “Sinai.”

Ride 41: Aswan to Wadi Halfa, Egypt/Sudan 🇪🇬🇸🇩 (375km)

Claus from Heidelberg, Germany, said he drove down to Cape Town on a motorcycle no less than four times. This time, however, he does it in his Land Cruiser. He was so kind to give us a ride from the landing pier to town.

Ride 42: port to center Wadi Halfa, Sudan 🇸🇩 (7km)

Ben and Jen met each other four years earlier and decided to go “The Long Way Down” and took me along for a day and a night, camping along the shores of the Nile.

Ride 43: Wadi Halfa to Wawa, Sudan 🇸🇩 (220km)

“You're lucky, today is a busy day on the road because of Eid festivities,” the owner of a small service station in Sudan's desolate northern desert told me. Three cars passed by in an hour. Two were packed, the third took me along.

Ride 44: Wawa to Sa'dinfanti, Sudan 🇸🇩 (24km)

After half an hour of exchanging names, numbers and cigarettes, we arrived at their workplace: a large gold mine in Sudan's desolate north, where they should us around before dropping us back on the tarmac.

Ride 45: Sa'dinfanti to Delgo, Sudan 🇸🇩 (38km)

Ride 46: Delgo to Kerma, Sudan 🇸🇩 (65km)

The next ride came quickly. But the tire fell off quickly, too. As night fell, a passerby with a spare tire helped us out. Two sheep were picked up on the way and the men invited me to stay over to celebrate Eid with their family.

Ride 47: Kerma to Kankalab, Sudan 🇸🇩 (177km)

(Okay, I'll try not to break the thread too often with non-ride photos, but the stay with the family was absolutely amazing — and so was each and every time we were hosted, or camped alongside the road.)

There are still little vehicles on the road, but there's work traffic like this big yellow truck with plenty of space in the cargo area to stand.

Ride 48: Kankalab to Al-Ghabah, Sudan 🇸🇩 (19km)

Brothers Andrew and Tingil are on their way to see loved ones in Khartoum during the holidays. They are home builders that moved north from Kordofan a year earlier. Mahmoud, in the middle, is their driver for the day.

Ride 49: Al-Ghabah to Omdurman, Sudan 🇸🇩 (381km)

In Omdurman, the country's most populated city on the western banks of the Nile and opposite of the capital Khartoum, this incredibly kind family hosted us for some wonderful couple of days.

Ride 50: Omdurman and Khartoum, Sudan 🇸🇩 (15km)

While we were staying in the Sudanese capital, the Dutch Embassy invited us over for some snacks. and Jurjen and Marcel, an intern and a diplomat that had freshly arrived to Khartoum, picked us up and dropped us off again.

Ride 51: around Omdurman and Khartoum, Sudan 🇸🇩 (5km)

A young couple stopped for us on the outskirts of Khartoum. When getting a ride in the back of a pick-up truck, it's usually quite hard to talk with the driver. So after they dropped us off, we found out they had just gotten a baby!

Ride 52: Khartoum to somewhere south, Sudan 🇸🇩

I forgot to write down the exact pick up and drop off locations of the these three rides south of Khartoum (feel free to geolocate), but this ride was by the son of the Sudanese ambassador to the United Kingdom.

Ride 53: somewhere between Khartoum and Wad Madani, Sudan 🇸🇩

Another ride of a friendly man of which I forgot to log the exact location (but feel free to geolocate). That first day out of Khartoum, notes in our diaries show, we set up camp about 30km outside of Khartoum.

Ride 54: somewhere between Khartoum and Wad Madani, Sudan 🇸🇩

This kind family dropped us off near Wad Madani, the capital of Sudan's Al Jazirah state.

Ride 55: somewhere south of Khartoum to Wad Madani, Sudan 🇸🇩

A pleasant ride covering quite some distance in the heat of the sun, namely from one state capital to another.

Ride 56: Wad Madani to the outskirts of Al Qadarif, Sudan 🇸🇩 (238km)

“You need to tell my husband that I am beautiful!” Just one of the quotes of a woman that gave us a ride with her husband, who said he worked for IFAD. Lots of jokes during a short ride.

Ride 57: outskirts to downtown Al Qadarif, Sudan 🇸🇩 (~2km)

Not too much traffic on the road east towards the border with Ethiopia, but this truck with two dozens of workers and a single goat was very enjoyable. Good vibes aboard (as, quite honestly, every ride).

Ride 58: Al Qadarif to Doka, Sudan 🇸🇩

A friendly bus driver invites us aboard for the last stretch toward the Sudanese-Ethiopian border.

Ride 59: Doka to Gallabat, Sudan 🇸🇩 (85km)

After crossing the border by foot as night was falling, we decided to camp at a farm just south of the Ethiopian border town of Metema. (The guards welcomed us.) Next morning, our first ride brings us to Maganan.

Ride 60: Metema to Maganan, Ethiopia 🇪🇹 (36km)

These two boys gave us our first and only ride by... horse-drawn carriage!

Ride 63: from south to north Aykel, Ethiopia 🇪🇹 (500m)

From horse-drawn carriage to possibly one of the most common way of traveling by road in Ethiopia: minivan.

Ride 64: Aykel to Gondar, Ethiopia 🇪🇹 (61km)

We're excited to see Gondar, the beautiful historic capital of the Ethiopian Empire, so we decide to stay there for a couple of days.

Ride 65: outskirts to central Gondar, Ethiopia 🇪🇹 (~2km)

Wherever you are, hitchhiking inside a city center is usually not gonna work — the outskirts with main roads leading out of a city is where you wanna be. So a minivan it is again, where we get joyfully introduced to Teddy Afro's hits.

Ride 66: Gondar to Azezo, Ethiopia 🇪🇹 (7km)

“Addis Ababa? That's a long way from here.” Very true. So we decide to hitchhike to Bahir Dar first, where we have a friend that would like to show us around in the city with lots of university students.

Ride 67: Azezo to Caena Tesama, Ethiopia 🇪🇹 (21km)

Ride 68: Caena Tesama to Wereta, Ethiopia 🇪🇹 (85km)

(It's very tempting to add some photos *during* the rides, so.. here are some of our 68th ride, spiralling up and down Ethiopia's roads through breathtaking landscapes and kindness along the way.)

Unfortunately I don't have a photo of our 69th ride — a detour to Debre Tabor. But here's a photo of an outdoor class in a rural village our ride took us.

Ride 69: Wereta to Debre Tabor, Ethiopa 🇪🇹 (46km)

The man driving us to Bahir Dar works with Wave Children's Aid and Training, an aid organization that supported the community school we had visited in the Debre Tabor mountainous countryside.

Ride 70: Debre Tabor to Bahir Dar, Ethiopia 🇪🇹 (109km)

Meet Mequeanent. His friends Demeke and Asrat hosted us in the Ethiopian capital, and Meq drove us everywhere: from his mom's house to the best roadside "tere siga" (raw meat) stand. We had a lot of fun together.

Ride 76: all around Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 🇪🇹 (~15km)

Deregi and Bealu (pictured) gave us a ride from Addis Ababa's outskirts to Nazret, a road junction town where Deregi is trying to set up a shoe business.

Ride 77: Ducam to Nazret, Ethiopia (64km)

31-year-old Affini runs his own non-governmental organization focused on improving education in the city Hawassa in the Great Rift Valley. He invited us to sleep in his office.

Ride 81: in and around Hawassa, Ethiopia 🇪🇹 (~7km)

“I'm free this morning so I wanted to discover the area,” said 69-year-old Arno, who hails from the German city of Heidelberg but works at Hawassa University.

Ride 82: Hawassa to Dilla, Ethiopia 🇪🇹 (87km)

It was raining when three siblings stopped and offered us a ride. But we thought we wouldn't fit with our backpacks, so we said goodbye. 5 minutes later they're back. “We'll make it fit.” Their family exports coffee to the US.

Ride 83: Dilla to Hagere Mariam, Ethiopia 🇪🇹 (111km)

Coffee originates from Ethiopia, so the three siblings made sure we'd taste several delicious cups filled with coffee made from their beans. Caffeinated, the next ride brings us to the southern end of town.

Ride 84: north to south Hagere Mariam, Ethiopia 🇪🇹 (6km)

The manager of a construction company and his driver gave us the next ride. We chewed some qat and talked about Ethiopia's modern history. Their destination was Yabelo, where he is involved in constructing a hospital.

Ride 85: Hagere Mariam to Yabelo, Ethiopia 🇪🇹 (101km)

Highway engineer Abrham Muli (21) and three of his colleagues give us a bumpy ride south. They're building the Mombasa-Nairobi-Addis Road together with a Chinese company and invite us to stay over at their compound.

Ride 86: Yabelo to construction camp, Ethiopia 🇪🇹 (~50km)

(Pictured here are Abrham and one of his Chinese colleagues.)

Three other engineers, also residing at the compound, take us down the road the next morning. They have to conduct inspections, but the rain makes that impossible. “We'll drive you further south to Mega, we cannot work today anyway.”

Ride 87: compound to Mega, Ethiopia 🇪🇹 (56km)

“Ask the lorry drivers for a ride,” suggested a man at a small roadside restaurant who asked whether we're going towards the Kenyan border. And so we did. Peter, on the left, gave us our 89th ride to the border crossing.

Ride 88: Mega to Moyale outskirts, Ethiopia 🇪🇹 (104km)

Rainfall has made the roads muddy in Moyale, but the road down south is even more muddy. Apart from some Land Cruisers, a hand full of trucks and one bus there isn't much traffic. But we manage to get on a six-hour ride to Marsabit.

Ride 90: Moyale to Marsabit, Kenya 🇰🇪 (247km)

The second part of the road is also unpaved, and thus muddy. These two great Mercedes lorries of Abuyusuf & Sons with even better drivers from Mombasa gave us a 16-hour ride, average speed around 30km/h.

Ride 91: Marsabit to Isiolo, Kenya 🇰🇪 (257km)

After the long and bumpy truck ride, Pawel from Poland welcomed us at 3 AM in Isiolo after hearing about our trip from a friend.

Ride 92: in and around Isiolo, Kenya 🇰🇪 (5km)

A short, one-kilometer ride outside of Isiolo — the town which is the gateway to a paved road down to Kenya's capital Nairobi.

Ride 93: in and around Isiolo, Kenya (1km) 🇰🇪

“Hop in, but quickly!” shouts Thicks as he passed by in the British Army convoy. Originally from Fiji, Thicks was set to go to Afghanistan for the ISAF withdrawal a year later (2013).

Ride 94: Isiolo outskirts to Nanyuki, Kenya (80km) 🇰🇪

“I'm a missionary and I'm from America!” Mike, the priest of the Nyeri Gospel Outreach Church, gave us the next ride — as well as vegetables and three brochures of the Jesus Frees Ministries.

Ride 95: Nanyuki to Nyeri, Kenya (61km) 🇰🇪

A very kind taxi driver that offered us to drive us east toward Karatina as he was going into that direction anyway.

Ride 96: Nyeri to Karatina, Kenya (25km) 🇰🇪

Night fell as we walked along the main road in the town of Karatina. “You won't find a ride at this time,” a passerby said. But we did, thanks to another very kind off duty taxi driver on his way home and ready for a chat.

Ride 97: Karatina to Ruiru, Kenya (103km) 🇰🇪

“You know what, I'll pick up my family too and we do some touring.”

Ride 98: Ruiru to Kiambu, Kenya (17km) 🇰🇪

Kenya's Central Province is known for its coffee production, and these three men —part of the Ndumberi Coffee Farmers Cooperative inaugurated in 1960 by Kenyatta— invited us to see the process of drying coffee beans.

Ride 99: Kiambu to Ndumberi, Kenya (4km) 🇰🇪

“We're not going to Nairobi, but we can bring you to the other side of town. That may be easier for hitchhiking!”

Ride 100: one side of Kiambu to the other, Kenya (2km) 🇰🇪

“Love. God is love. Don't worry,” one of the family members giving us a ride to the Kenyan capital assured us.

Ride 100: Kiambu to Nairobi city centre, Kenya 🇰🇪