Smiling
Ethiopia Travel & Tours
P.O.Box: 16618 A.A.
Ethiopia
Tel: (251-1) 150694, 150698, 523678,
158482
Fax: (251-1) 150700
E-mail: sett@telecom.net.et
Web site: www.smilingethiopia.com
This page is under construction. More
to come
Grand
Tour of Ethiopia's Historic Route
by
Jerry W. Bird
During
two remarkable journeys to Ethiopia for
the Africa Travel Association's Jubilee
year program, our agenda was arranged
through the offices
of
Ethiopia's
Tourism Commissioner.
It turned out to be one of the best
organized trips we have ever experienced
and it provided enough memories to last a
lifetime, plus souvenirs galore, purchased
at a wide variety of marketplaces and
souks. As an introduction to the charm and
mystery of Ethiopia, we joined ten other
journalists from the USA on a week long
trip which included Lalibela, Gondar,
Bahir Dar and Lake Tana and Harar. On the
second flight to Ethiopia we followed the
Rift Valley south from Addis Ababa.
Several pages on this site cover the
various segments of our Historic Route
journey. 80 Our full story will be
presented in an updated edition of Africa
Travel magazine. For some basic background
on Ethiopia, we present the following item
compliments of Selamta, Ethiopian Airlines
in-flight magazine. The photo
(below)
shows the contrast between modern and
ancient modes of transportation. It is
from Ethiopian Airlines' beautiful coffee
table book "Bringing Africa together," an
apt title considering our focus on Peace
Through Tourism.
Ethiopia
is truly a land of discovery; brilliant
and beautiful, secretive, mysterious and
extraordinary. Above all things, it is a
country of great antiquity, with a culture
and traditions dating back more than 3,000
years. The traveler in Ethiopia makes a
journey through time, transported by
beautiful monuments and the ruins of
edifices built long centuries ago.
Ethiopia is truly a land of
discovery-brilliant and beautiful,
secretive, mysterious and extraordinary.
Above all things, it is a country of great
antiquity, with a culture and traditions
dating back more that 3,000 years. The
traveler in Ethiopia makes a journey
through time, transported by beautiful
monuments and the ruins of edifices built
long centuries ago. More
Here is what the official sources have
provided as background for your
visit.
Ethiopia is also a land of natural
contrasts, from the tops of the rugged
Simien mountains to the depths of the
Danakil Depression, at 120 meters below
sea level one of the lowest dry land
points on earth. The cornucopia of natural
beauty that blesses Ethiopia offers an
astonishing variety of landscapes:
Afro-Alpine highlands soaring to around
4,300 meters, deserts sprinkled with salt
flats and yellow sulfur, lake lands with
rare and beautiful birds, moors and
mountains, the splendor of the Great Rift
Valley, white water rivers, Savannah
teeming with game, giant waterfalls, dens
and lush jungle -the list is endless.
Ethiopia's many national parks enable the
visitor to enjoy the country's scenery and
its wildlife, conserved in natural
habitats, and offer opportunities for
travel adventure unparalleled in
Africa.
Awash
National Park is the oldest and most
developed wildlife reserve in Ethiopia.
Featuring the 1,800 m Fantalle Volcano,
extensive mineral hot springs and
extraordinary volcanic formations, this
natural treasure is bordered to the south
by the Awash River and lies 225 km east of
the capital, Addis Ababa. The wildlife
consists mainly of East African plains
animals, but there are now no giraffe or
buffalo.
Oryx,
batea red fox, caracal, aardvark, colobus
and green monkeys. Anubis and Hamadryas
baboons, klipspringer, leopard, busbuck,
hippopotamus, Soemmering's gazelle,
cheetah, lion, kudu and 450 species of
bird all live within the park's 720 square
km. The Bale Mountains with their vast
moorlands- the lower reaches covered with
St. John's wort- and their extensive
heathland, virgin woodlands, pristine
mountain streams and alpine climate remain
an untouched and beautiful world. Rising
to a height of more than 4,000 meters, the
range borders Ethiopia's southern
highlands, whose highest peak, Mount Tullu
Deemtu, stands at 4,377 meters.
Bale
Mountains National Park
The establishment of the 2,1400 square km
Bale Mountains National Park was crucial
to the survivals of the mountain nyala,
Menelik's busbuck and the Simien red fox.
This fox is one of the most colorful
members of the dog family and more
abundant here than anywhere else in
Ethiopia. All three endemic animals thrive
in this environment, the nyala in
particular often being seen in large
numbers. The Bale Mountains offer some
fine high-altitude horse and foot
trekking, and the streams of the
park-which downstream-are well-stocked
with rainbow and brown trout. The Baro
River area, accessible by land or air
through the western Ethiopian town of
Gambela, remains a place of adventure and
challenge. Traveling across the endless
undulating plans of high Sudanese grass,
visitors can enjoy a sense of achievement
in just finding their way. This is
Ethiopia's true tropical zone and here are
found all the elements of the African
safari, enhanced by as distinctly
Ethiopian flavor. Nile perch weighing 100
kilos can be caught in the waters of the
Baro, snatched from the jaws of the huge
crocodiles that thrive along the
riverbank.
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