Bale Mountains National Park, Ethiopia

After Darrell's meeting in Addis Ababa, we were eager to see more of Ethiopia. Touring all of this grand country, almost twice as large as Texas, would take many more days than we had available. We chose Bale Mountains National Park in southern Ethiopia because it was highly recommended for seeing wildlife and we found a great local guide company that worked with us on short notice. Bale Mountains Tours is owned and run by Ahmed Alo, a friendly and energetic guide and terrific tour organizer.

Our guide Hussein, plus a driver and mechanic, met us at our hotel in Hawassa on March 31st. Our first stop was to a pharmacy as I was suffering from your basic case of Traveler's Diarrhea. I won't go into gory details but none of the 7 pharmacies I visited over the next four days carried anything like Loperamide or Imodium to counteract the symptoms. My small supply had run out so I ended up taking an antibiotic that cleaned everything out of my system, including my happy bugs... Note that I now carry a good supply of Imodium with me at all times!

Darrell was also not feeling well but we still managed to meet Ahmed, the tour operator, at the Park Headquarters in Dinsho. We paid with a literal "wad" of cash because the largest bill we had in Ethiopian currency was 100 birr, which is worth about $3 USD. But after that, everything was paid for which made it much easier for us.

A monument to Biniyam Admasu, a conservationist who died in a fire while protecting the Park is at the Park's entrance.

Hussein took us on a walk into the Juniper woodlands above the Park headquarters. We had seen Olive Baboon's on the way into the park, and also Colobus monkeys at our hotel, but we now saw the endemic Mountain Nyala and Menelik Bushback, as well as the Bohor Reedbuck - all beautiful antelope species. There were also warthogs rooting around in the soil. The photo is from the grasslands we visited later, as the trees cast in the woodland cast so many shadows that the antelope were well camouflaged.

Mountain Nyala not bothered by a warthog on the Gaysay Grasslands

We then went to our hotel in Gobe and Darrell managed to sleep for 14 hours! We both felt better the next day for our trip up to the Sanatea Plateau, an Afroalpine meadow from 3800-4392m. Note that the Park’s wide expanse of Afroalpine habitat is the largest on the continent, and its moist tropical forest is also significant. These two ecosystems support more endemic mammals than any other similar sized area on this planet, including the largest populations of both the Ethiopian Wolf, and the Mountain Nyala.

The Ethiopian Wolf is the rarest canid in the world, and Africa’s most threatened carnivore. It has a population between 400 to 520 individuals. We were so fortunate to see wolves up close in their natural habitat. We also saw the Starck's hare, endemic to Ethiopia and important prey for the wolves.

Beautiful Ethiopian Wolves, the rarest canids in the world

Our driver successfully managed a sketchy, even for 4WD, road up to the second highest peak in the park where we could look down into the Harenna Cloud forest below.

Hussein and Darrell on top of the world

Mindy, Darrell and Hussein at the summit

From the peak, we drove (bumped?) down through the Erica forest, where the trees join their limbs to support each other.

The Erica forest with a local man dragging bamboo to build a fence

We moved on to Rira, a small traditional village, in the Harenna Forest where we had the wild honey from the local bees - gathered from hives in the trees. Plus Ethiopian coffee of course!

Rira, a traditional village in Bale Mountains National Park

Our next day's trip took us to the last major ecosystem in the Park - The Gaysay Grasslands. Our trusty guide Hussein had to build up his energy for this endeavor.

Hussein and the banana sandwich. Give the man some peanut butter!

Our incredible luck continued on the grasslands with both Hussein and Darrell seeing the elusive Serval Cat. I was too slow. But we all saw the main antelope species and also saw the gray duiker - a smaller antelope. We also saw amazing birds including the Red-billed oxpecker, Moorland chat, Abyssinian longclaw, Ethiopian/Black-headed Siskin, and the the turkey-sized Abyssinian ground hornbill strutting as a royal pair on the grassland! It was incredible and I clearly need a much fancier longer-lensed camera to share photos of birds!

The next day, to celebrate our amazing trip, Hussein and Ahmed took us out for a wonderful lunch and then an Ethiopian coffee before we boarded a plane for the quick trip back to Addis Ababa.

Ahmed, the owner of Bale Mountains Tours sharing coffee with us

Ethiopia is a wonderful place to visit, and getting into the natural areas of this incredible country was truly a highlight for us. We appreciate the generosity of the Ethiopians that made our visit so incredibly memorable. Thank you for all you are doing to preserve, protect and share the majesty of Bale Mountains National Park.