bale mountain area trekking
We did a 5 day trek from Dodola, in southern Ethiopia. We didn't go into Bale National Park. Instead we trekked with a German charity (Integrated Forest Management Project Adaba-Dodola, or IFMP) set up to ensure the people living in the Bale Mountains can make money by preserving the Afro-Alpine forest, rather than make money by chopping it down.
We had a great time; the scenery is amazing, the birds are amazing, and the guides know most of the plants, animals, and birds you are likely to see.
If you're interested in...
- seeing how the people live (farming, bee-keeping with cows and horses thrown in),
- a friendly experience in a pristine area (we saw no trash at all on our trek),
- the chance to see many birds, and some endemic mammals (we saw an Ethiopian wolf, Menelik's Bushbuck and Colubus Guereza Monkeys),
...we recommend you contact Bale Trek.
These pictures will give you an idea of the scenery we enjoyed (all approximately 10,000'/3,500m above sea level).
We've made comments/captions only where necessary.
Marc & Shebru, our guide, take a break by some red-hot poker plants, which are all over; and also all over my parents' New Mexico garden!
At 11,890'/3,625m Tulu Gedemsa is hard to miss from the first hut.
This farmer spent a while explaining to us (through Shebru) how he prepares a beehive from a hollowed-out log.
The young man in the tree makes extra income installing bee-hives, which are left in the tree for up to a year. He will be contacted again when it's time to be taken down.
Sit on the porch, drink some tea and spot the birds...black-winged lovebirds (endemic to Ethiopia) are easy to see--they nest in the tree about 20' from the hut!
Typical farmhouse.
Karen on one of the more modern bridges we encountered.
This friendly, but very shy, cowherd let us take his picture, but wouldn't come closer than 10'...Marc is so scary looking!
Echinops longisetus (globe thistle) is an endemic plant that we saw everywhere in Bale.
Ok, that's all the photos for this webpage...
By the way, the background image on this page is simply a close-up of a tukul (traditional, circular hut), a typical kind of construction found throughout Ethiopia.
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