Yep, understand all that. And agree.
It was just an account of our experiences on the roads, and to pass on the excellent advice we received which led to us having a great and safe time.
Hopefully it'll help others have an equally good journey.
Because it was certainly a sad thing, as we travelled on southwards, to meet other travellers who had bad experiences with the people of this country after we had had such a pleasant visit.

I hope this last example will illustrate it a bit more. We met a rider further south who had troubles in Ethiopia, and from the brief conversation we couldn't understand why. But he kept a blog, which I read.
Unfortunately it's highly critical of the people of the country, and highlights an incident where he was travelling at 100kph, close enough to pedestrians for one of them to attempt to slow him down by thrusting (unsuccessfully) a stick into his front wheel. IMHO, visitors need to understand, in this country (and others, Rwanda springs to mind), it's absolutely outrageous to travel at such a speed in the vicinity of pedestrians, and you'll have trouble if you try.
But a wonderful time as long as you don't give the locals any reason to feel you're a danger to them.

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TTR250 - London to Cape Town

McCrankpin - top post & top advice. We have found this to be the best policy everywhere.

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I spent around a month in Ethiopia with the benefit of a pillion who can wave early!... and pretty much continuously. We saw quite a few rocks in hand which were immediately dropped in order to wave. I don't feel it has the same meaning as we in Europe think. It is a cultural difference that we are not familiair with or really understand, but there seems to be no malice in it. All part of travel.

We are currently traveling through Ethiopia on a TVS Apache Motorcycle and have been dismayed by the number of rock throwers we have encountered. It seems the rock throwing has now expanded to include any object at hand. We have had water bottles, clothing and toys thrown at us. Some children, lacking a throwable item, will spit out the food from their mouth into their hand and throw that at us! While the gesture may have initially indicated "slow down" it seems to have become a wide spread habit lacking any discernible meaning. Two Spanish cyclists we met encountered a great deal of rock throwing. They ran into the biggest problem when riding uphill because they couldn't ride fast enough to get away from the kids. On more than one occasion the kids would hop a truck and ride ahead of them so that they could throw rocks at them again. Unfortunately, this habit, if continued will start deterring foreign travelers.

We can't figure out why everyone keeps yelling Ewe! Ewe! Ewe! as we ride through towns. We haven't seen many sheep...

I have to admit, as one of those "highly educated westerners" (in relation to those who advocate education as the answer to the issue of rock throwing), that I have been highly tempted to shove a stick into the front wheel of those who ride too fast in certain circumstances.
A pick axe handle should do the trick.
The last time I had these dark thoughts was on the route of the Stella Alpina actually, where I was riding at the time and sharing the track with complete knobs (come to think of it, there is an unlimited supply of rocks up there also!).
I don't have any right to make the decision about what is too fast, but I think the local people do have that right, in Ethiopia, or elsewhere. Anyone for a 20 MPH speed limit for their local city highway in the UK?

I have also had these negative thoughts regarding those who ride in places where it just isn't "right"; those who think it is a great weeze to attain an altitude record where, in fact, bikes have no logical reason to be there in the first place; those who ride off-road in the UK where it is not permitted.
All of this stuff just equates to a form of vandalism for me.

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Dave

The rock throwing in Ethiopia is not due to travellers that speed.

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We're the kind of people who try pretty hard to make sure we never knowingly offend. We read up and sought advice about stone throwing before arriving in Ethiopia and formed a strategy.

Go slow (we always go pretty slow so this translates as go VERY slow)
Windows down
Eye contact
Smiling/waving

It worked like a charm for our first few weeks on the road and passed our newly acquired wisdom on to other travelers. Some weren't impressed - particularly the chap who had a rock the size of an orange come through his rear window whilst almost stationary (it narrowly missed someone in back seat and smashed a laptop).

Week 6 - as we waved and smiled and braked to a crawl a stone took out a side window costing us plenty of cash/trouble/good feeling.

Conclusion.

This is a cultural thing - kids throw rocks at passing cars. They are excellent shots as they throw the same rocks at their herds of goats and sheep day in, day out and as such will always have a rock in their hand. No particlular message or sentiment involved. Just something they do.

Don't take it personally and don't expect to manage it. You'll either get lucky or you won't.

It's still a fantastic country to travel in and I would go back in a car without hesitation.

They only throw little stones...... And they only seem to aim at the big expensive looking bikes.

And it's worth it when you stop.. Laugh, and pretend to shoot at them with a pretend gun !



GIMMI BIIIR

GIMMII PEN.



Ethiopia is a FANTASTIC country.

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Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

I fully agree with McCrankpin's post.

We were there for about 6 weeks last year and I remember that one or two times to small kid throwed a stone to our car. These were tiny stones and probably we forgot to wave (although our hands were in the automatic waving mode for weeks). I absolutely loved almost all the children in Ethiopia; they were cute and natural models for our photos.

A topic about warnings for stone (even: rock!) throwing in Ethiopia does not do justice to that lovely country, the great travel experience and the sweet kids; in my view it's a little exaggerated, like so many things.