Transportation was the most frustrating part in the Ethiopia experience. These series of posts aims to help with this aspect.

There is no direct public connection from Aksum to Debark, but you must change buses at Shire first. The problem is that (mini-)buses leave from Shire in the morning, before you get to Shire by a minibus. So you have three options.

1. Leave Aksum in the evening, spend a night at Shire and catch a morning bus to Gonder. The last mini-buses to Shire leave Aksum around 6PM.

2. There might be private mini-buses from Aksum to Gonder. Ask around and you might catch one. Hotel staff is a good point to start. We managed to get one and paid 900birr for two persons (more than half of the price seemed to be the commission to the middleman who arranged us this deal).

3. Take a private car to Shire leaving Aksum at 4AM, so you catch a morning bus to Gonder. Apparently a good price for this ride is 600birr.

The road from Shire to Debark is mostly good asphalt, which abruptly ended two hours before Debark. Hopefully the public transport will improve once a proper road will be built.

Safe travels!

Got questions, comments or corrections? Leave a comment below.