Rift Valley

Awash Valley

This national park lies in the dry acacia savannah of the Rift Valley about 200 km east of Addis Ababa.

The main geographical feature of the park is the gorge carved by the Awash River, which has a large waterfall at its head. North of the Harer Road are the Filwoha Hot Springs and the Fentale Volcano; its dormant crater is notable for its steam vents. Entrance to the park is valid for 48 hours.

How to get there

It would be very difficult to hitch into Awash – the low tourist traffic makes it unlikely you’d find a lift.

If you are driving yourself head out of Addis on the Dire Dawa road for about three hours, passing through Adama halfway. The road from Adama to Awash passes through a striking landscape of black lava flows and small volcanic hills. The entrance gate lies on the main road about halfway between the towns of Metahara and Awash Saba.

Without your own vehicle the most straightforward way to visit Awash is through an Addis-based tour operator. Although you are technically allowed to walk within the Awash National Park, travellers arriving without a vehicle may be forbidden from entering the park on foot.

If time isn’t a factor you can soak up much of the park’s atmosphere by spending a night in Awash Saba or Metahara, both of which are easily reached from Adama (buses take around three hours).

Another option is the train from Addis Ababa to Djibouti, which arrives in Awash Saba before midnight.

Nearly 80 mammal species have been recorded in Awash. Beisa oryx and Soemmering’s gazelle are both likely to be seen from the main road, but you need to enter the park to see most other species. Predators are seen only infrequently, but a good variety is present including lion, leopard, cheetah and hyena.

Close to 450 bird species have been recorded in Awash. Raptors are well represented and many species breed in the gorge. Water birds are abundant on Lake Beseka and at Filwoha, and the gorgeous carmine bee-eater is very common in Awash.

Where to stay

Kereyou Lodge consists of 20 quite rundown self-contained caravans in a position overlooking the Awash Gorge. Cheaper rooms can be found in Awash town and Metahara.

There are also two unfacilitated campsites, one near the park headquarters, a short walk from the waterfall, and the other at the hot springs.

Awash town. A scruffy and nondescript little town, which appears to have mushroomed around Awash railway station, lies about 30km past Metahara and a short distance outside the park boundary. About 500m behind the station the dusty plain is cut into by the precipitous Awash Gorge, the drama of which is accentuated by a row of low volcanic hills above the opposite cliff.

There’s some good raptor scanning here. A footpath leads to the base of the gorge and the Awash River, and there’s some interesting looking riverine woodland 1km back towards the park boundary. Be careful, however, not to step into the park boundary, which lies about 3km from Awash.

The Buffet D’Aouache Hotel has clean rooms twin rooms with access to a clean common shower or the altogether grander ‘Head of State’ suites, and a good restaurant.

Of the dollar-a-night places along the main road, the St George Hotel looks the best.

Where to go from there

From Awash you could head in an easterly direction and get a bus straight to Dire Dawa or the walled Muslim city of Harar.

Alternatively you could head west and go to Nazret, although there is not much to see here in terms of tourist attractions.

Nechisar

This large national park is among the most beautiful game reserves in Africa, encompassing parts of Lakes Chamo and Abaya, as well as the mountainous ‘Bridge of God’ that lies between the two lakes. The name Nechisar means white grass, and it derives from the Nechisar Plain which lies within the park boundary to the east of the lakes. A wide variety of animals are present; some 70 mammal and 350 bird species have been recorded.

How to get there

Ethiopian Airlines flies to Arba Minch. From the airport you will have to hitch or walk into town. Arba Minch lies at the foothills of the Rift Valley wall, on a cliff overlooking the mountainous sliver that separates Lakes Chamo and Abaya. With mountains rising to almost 4,000m in the west it is difficult to think of a more perfectly sited town anywhere in East Africa. The park headquarters lie about 2km from Arba Minch.

By road it is easy enough to cover the 250 km between Shashemene to Arba Minch in a day.

Although you can walk to the headquarters, you need a 4×4 vehicle to enter the park itself. The warden is normally able to organise private hire that is inclusive of fuel. You will have to pay entry to the park which is valid for 48 hours, and an additional fee for a private vehicle.

Where to stay and eat

Most people visit Nechisar as a day trip from Arba Minch. Decent accommodation can be found at the Bekele Mola Hotel, which lies about 2 km out of Arba Minch, above a cliff with stunning views across the lakes to the eastern Rift Valley wall. Bungalows with hot water are available or camping with shower access is a cheaper option. Decent meals are reasonably priced.

However, there are two unfacilitated campsites about 5km from the Nechisar headquarters on the forested banks on the Kulfo River; and if you have your own vehicle, food and water, you can camp anywhere inside the park itself for a small fee.

What to see and do

Nechisar National Park protects a wide variety of savannah habitats. This means a wide variety of animals are present, including Swayne’s hartebeest and Burchell’s zebra, which is regularly seen in herds of 100 or more.

Guereza and vervet monkeys are common in the lush groundwater forest near the park entrance. The forest is a very rewarding area for birds, but it is frustrating trying to see many of them in the dense cover.

Lake Chamo, with its volcanically formed islands, supports substantial numbers of hippo and crocodile. The part of the park between the lakes and Arba Minch is covered in dense riparian forest.

Even without a vehicle you can visit the hot springs which lie at the base of the cliff near the Bekele Mola Hotel. The area around the springs is covered in dense forest which gives you an excellent opportunity to explore this habitat on foot, and you can swim in a pool at the springs.

Also of interest is the Arba Minch Crocodile Farm which lies about 6 km out of town near Lake Abaya. About 8,000 animals are kept on the farm.

Where to go from there

If you have your own vehicle you can go from Nechisar to the small Senkele Game Sanctuary which is set aside to protect the country’s largest concentration of Swayne’s hartebeest. There is no campsite or accommodation in the reserve but you could visit Senkele as a day excursion from Shashemene, or en route to Arba Minch.

You may also want to visit the highland town of Sodo, which can be done by public transport from Shashemene or Arba Minch. Sodo lies at the base of a large mountain and offers excellent views down to Lake Abaya. The town is small enough that you need only walk a kilometre in any direction to find yourself on quiet, lushly vegetated country roads with fantastic views to the Rift Valley floor. Note that many locals refer to Sodo as Walaita.

The town of Chencha, set at an altitude of 2900m, is home to the Dorze people, whose tall beehive-shaped dwellings are among the most distinctive traditional structures anywhere in Africa. There is no normal transport to Chencha but several 4×4 vehicles make the journey each morning, except after heavy rain when the road becomes impassable.

Omo and Mago

Omo and Mago National Parks lie on opposite sides of the Omo River in the far south-west near the Kenyan and Sudanese borders. They are two of the least developed national parks in East Africa and, although game is quite plentiful, the animals are shy and far less visible than in the more heavily-touristed parks of Kenya and Tanzania.

Omo and Mago are not the parks to visit if you’re a first-time visitor to Africa hoping for a few quick snaps of lions and elephants. Any visit to the area should be treated as an expedition, and the parks will be most attractive to visitors who want to see a holistic picture of the African wilderness as it was before the colonial era and the more recent influx of mass tourism.

How to get there

The gateway to the Mago National Park, the town of Jinka, is about 200km by road from Arba Minch. The drive takes around eight hours. The simplest way to get to Jinka is by air. Ethiopian Airlines flies there from Addis Ababa. It is also possible to reach Jinka by public transport from Arba Minch (for details on how to get to Arba Minch see Nechisar).

However you get to Jinka your onward options will be limited unless you have private tporanst. It should be possible to hire a 4×4 vehicle at the NTO office in Jinka, or cheaper rates are offered by private individuals through the various hotels in Jinka.

The bridge connecting the Omo and Mago National Parks has been torn down and that means the only realistic way of getting into the Omo National Park is by travelling south from Jimma, in Western Ethiopia.

The best way to visit the area is on an organised safari. Most safari companies in Addis can organise Omo trips. The accepted period for a drive-down safari is around ten days. It would be possible to hire a vehicle with driver and equipment, and to organise your own safari but there are no real advantages in doing so.

Where to stay and eat

There is no accommodation in or near Mago National Park. You can camp at one of the sites that line the Mago River a few kilometres from the park headquarters, plus you must pay to have an armed scout stay with you overnight. The sites are basic (you will need to be self-sufficient), but beautiful.

There are several cheap hotels in Jinka. Bradt recommends The Goh Hotel and the Orit Hotel, although prices at both have rocketed for faranjis in the last few years – ensuite rooms do not present great value for money, though single rooms with access to a communal shower at the Goh Hotel are more economic.

In Jimma the Wolde Argaw Hotel, behind the bus station, has ensuite doubles with balconies and hot water, and rooms using common shower. The Hotel Enanu/Innanu is probably the best of the cheap hotels, with not-so-clean ensuite rooms with cold showers, and communal shower rooms.

What to see and do

The scenery and vegetation of the Omo region are similar in some respects to the acacia savannah of north-east Kenya, though considerably moister. In addition to animals such as elephant, lion, cheetah and buffalo, the area hosts several unusual large mammals, most notably the beautiful and highly photogenic reticulated giraffe and Grevy’s zebra. On top if the park entrance fee is a charge for private vehicles and the mandatory enlistment of an armed scout.

The people of the Omo valley have a different cultural background from other Ethiopians – in fact, until recently, the area was so remote that many of these people were unaware that such a thing as Ethiopia existed.

Omotic speakers are divided into more than ten different tribes or ethnic groups, all of which adhere to traditional animist religions, and many of which have remarkably singular cultural practices, virtually untouched by colonial influences or the Judaic customs of the highlands.

The largest and least isolated of the groups is the Konso. Most Omotic villages welcome visitors, though you will be expected to pay to take photographs.

From Konso it is reasonably easy to visit traditional villages. The best way to do this is through the town’s tourist offices, which will grant you a permit allowing you to visit as many villages as you like.

Where to go from there

One option would be to travel on into Kenya, where you can stop at Lake Turkana. If you are staying in Ethiopia you could visit Lake Chew Bahir which is situated south of Mago, about three hours’ drive from the village of Turmi. The lake is often a large dry salt pan, dotted with islands and hot springs. The scenery here is harsh and inhospitable, but also very beautiful, and there is a fair amount of wildlife to be seen around the Woito River. You could also fly out to Addis Ababa from Jinka.

Gambella

The small town of Gambella is an oddity among Ethiopian towns, and a most appealing one. Lying at an altitude of 450m in the swampy, mosquito-ridden lowlands, Gambella exudes an atmosphere of tropical languor, dictated as much by its lush vegetation and almost unbearable humidity as by its remoteness from just about everywhere. Historically, ethnically and scenically, Gambella is barely a part of Ethiopia at all.

Two main ethnic groups live in Gambella – the Anuwak, who are strikingly tall and very dark-skinned for Ethiopians, and the Neur, who are smaller but even more dark skinned. They could not be friendlier to faranjis (foreigners). Don’t be put off by advance notices – Gambella is a lovely place and the people are utterly charming.

History

In the late 19th century Sudan fell under British rule, and the Baro River (the tributary of the Nile which rolls past the town and onto Khartoum) was seen by both Britain and Ethiopia as an excellent highway for exporting coffee and other produce from the fertile western highlands to Sudan and Egypt. The Ethiopian emperor granted Britain use of part of Ethiopia as a free port in 1902 and Gambella was established in 1907. Gambella became a prosperous trade centre as ships from Khartoum sailed in regularly during the rainy season.

Gambella was captured by the Italians in 1936, returned to the British after a bloody battle in 1941, became part of Sudan in 1951, but was re-incorporated into Ethiopia five years later. The port ceased functioning under the Mengistu regime and it remains closed due to ongoing tensions between the Sudanese SPLA and the Ethiopian government, though there are plans to revitalise it.

How to get there

Ethiopian Airlines flies from Addis Ababa to Gambella.

By bus there are two routes you can take. If you are coming from Addis, you can travel to Jimma and then onto Gambella via Matu. If you are looping through the west, the most obvious route from Nekemte to Gambella is through Gimbi and Dembidolo, which will take two or three days. Since 2008 there have been incidents of violence and banditry along this route due to clashes between Oromo and Beni-Shangul people, so check the current situation before using this route. What’s more, this route is impassable during heavy rain. So alternatively you can get a bus from Jimma or Nekemte to Bedele (takes three to four hours) and there you should be able to find transport on to Matu the same day.

Where to stay and eat

The Baro Gambella Hotel is probably the nearest you’ll find to tourist-class accommodation in Gambella, but the time-worn en-suite doubles represent bad value. However, the food is decent, the staff good, and lots of monkeys and birds roam the grounds.

The Bia Hotel overlooking the river has a perfect location and attractive grounds, but the en-suite rooms are fairly run-down and cramped. The Ekid Hotel is also reasonable with en-suite rooms and common-shower rooms.

The Extreme Cafe opposite the Dessie hotel is extremely popular for breakfast – the speciality ful is very good. The Gemina Bar and Restaurant just down from the riverboat port serves good fish when available.

What to see and do

Gambella itself offers little in the way of organised sightseeing and its remoteness does not make it a prime target for mass tourism.

The area is, however, rich in wildlife and the layout of the town is such that just strolling around you can see plenty of birds and monkeys.

It is worth devoting some time to the bridge over the Baro (ask permission to take photographs) and, to its west, the shady avenue that follows the river’s course – one of Gambella’s few apparent British relics.

Other places of interest are the ruined Italian fort and surrounding swamp, and the isolated hill about 1km north of the town centre. In the market you can buy the woven baskets and bubble pipes that are characteristic of the area. However Gambella’s real attraction is its singular and absorbing sense of place and its wonderfully evocative atmosphere.

There is a tourist office north of the town centre, in the same building as the excellent library, which has a large selection on popular novels and classic literature in English.

Where to go from Gambella

Gambella is virtually the end of the road as far as public transport is concerned. You could take a plane out to Addis Ababa, or you can take a bus on to Jimma, the largest town in western Ethiopia. The town seems extraordinarily cosmopolitan and, although Jimma lacks any notable tourist attractions, you couldn’t hope for a friendlier, greener, or better equipped place to rest up between bus trips.

For those with private transport Gambella is the potential springboard for two remote expeditions. The first is to go south to Abobo and Gog through the heart of the remote Gambella National Park, a swampy reserve that is famed for its population of Nile lechwe. Even backpackers could do this trip as you may be able to get some kind of public transport as far as Gog.

A second option would be to follow the seasonal road that runs west from Gambella along the course of the Baro River, eventually reaching the Sudanese border at Jika. The road takes you through an area inhabited by Anuwak fishermen and Nuer pastoralists whose lifestyles are virtually untouched by Western influences. The area is also rich in birds, crocodiles and water and forest mammals such as hippo and various monkeys.

If you are thinking about exploring these areas you should be entirely self-sufficient. It would also be sensible to ask around Gambella about road conditions and the current security situation in this intermittently volatile Sudanese border region. The tourist office, the Ethiopia Hotel or the police station would be good places to start.