Ethiopian Bird-Watching and Wildlife Holiday 14 Days & 13 Nights

Daily itinerary

Day 1 – 2. Arrival in Addis; city tour.

Be welcomed at the airport and transfer to your hotel. After a couple of hours rest you will start your tour of the city. Addis Ababa is the third largest city in Africa with an estimated population of five million also the third highest capital in the world. Addis is a colorful and vibrant city also regarded by many as ‘The African diplomatic capital’.

The city tour of Addis includes among others the national and the ethnographic museums, Merkato (the largest open air market in Africa), Trinity Cathedral and St George Cathedrals known for their historical importance in the city and their museums, Entoto park and Sheger park, and the palace both great spots to enjoy nature, culture, and wildlife.

Day 3 – 4. Arbaminch. Lake Chamo, and Netchsar Park.

An hour flight to Arbaminch, a city founded by the side of Lake Abaya and Chamo, and surrounded by 40 springs where it claims its name from.  

At Netchsar Park, even novice photographers are sure to get a beautiful shot of Burchell’s zebra among the white grasses that give the park its name. trade your car for boat and its equally easy to capture the enormous nile crocodiles and mighty hippos. There are also some 350 species of birds here including the white-tailed lark, Abyssinian hornbill, and white-fronted black chat.

One of the reasons that the 514 square kilometer (198 square mile) park is ideal for photo safaris is its great diversity of habitats, which include the grass plains, dry acacia savannah, evergreenground water forest, and the wetland areas of Lake Chamo and Lake Abaya.

40 springs. Arbaminch’s name and its drinking water originate from these natural cold springs. While not spectacular, they mark the end point of a scenic 3 kilometer (1.9 mile) walk from park head quarters through dense forest teeming with birds and primates. After working up a sweat on the hike, you may want to take a refreshing dip in the springs’ outflow.

Crocodile Ranch Peer into the tanks housing the adorable Nile crocodile hatchings, then marvel at the sheer size of the adults, which can grow to 5 meters (16 feet) in length. Thousands are raised here, some are realeased into surrounding lakesv to help ensure stability of their populations. Others are sold to support ranch’s activities.

Crocodile Market. You may feel like you are in the middle of a wildlife documentary when you reach the confluence of Lake chamo and the Kulfo River. At the misleadingly named “crocodile market”, scores of massive nile crocodiles sun themselves on a long sandy spit. Meanwhile, brazen egrets pick parasites from the crocodiles’ wide-open mouths in the foreground large hippopotamus wade in the shallow waters.

Day 5.  Yabello/Borena.

Visit the Yabello wildlife sanctuary to see great varieties of birds created to protect the endemic red hartebeest (the large Ethiopian antelope). Grassy savannah with acacia and juniper forests provide refuge for the few hartebeests. Other typical savannah species can also be seen such as zebras, greater and lesser kudus, grant’s gazelles and some predators. The very rare and endemic Prince Ruspoli’s turaco (Tuauraco ruspolii) which is in danger of extinction can be seen in juniper forests.

Other endemic animals that can be observed are the white tailed swallow with a striking white breast and tail and the small Stresemann’s bush crow which looks more like a starling but has a curved, red beak similar to a crow’s beak. Bird wathers come for easy viewing of two endemics; the Abyssinian bushcrow and white-tailed swallow. Spanning some 2500 square kilometers (965 square miles), Yabello, is also home to some 2,000 Burchell’s zebra.

Day 6. Drive to Awasa.

Drive to Awassa one of Ethiopia’s beautiful and growing cities situated at the side of Lake Awassa. The lake is rich in bird life like Pygmy Goose, Brown Snake Eagle, Grey Kestrel, Spotted Creeper, African Marabou Storks, and the endemic Yellow-fronted Parrot.

The lake side town of Hawassa is one of Ethiopia’s most attractive cities. Hawassa fish market, unflappable marabou storks gather around wooden fishing boats hauling in their fresh catch. Grivet monkeys take in the scane from the surrounding trees. With hippos and rare birds as its star attractions, this scenic body of water can be explored by boat or via a walk along its shore.

Day 7 – 8. Drive to Lake Shala, Abijatta, then to Langano.

A popular recreational spot and bird-watching destination. Take an invigorating early morning soak in the famed thermal waters. The pools are made of concrete, but the setting has a real natural beauty. A cold stream flows alongside the pools, and the flowering trees are filled with chirping birds. You will likely spot baboons, whose efforts to jump into the water are repeatedly thwarted by the pool attendants.

Abijata shalla national park, Aquatic birds are the main draw here, and the most sought after are the flamingos, with populations that can reach 50,000 during the rainy season. Also in residence are a wide variety of cranes, plovers, gulls and ducks. Overall there are more than 400 bird species in the park, though populations have decreased as the size of the lakes has diminished.

Lake shalla hot springs the water’s purported healing properties draw locals who bathe in the small, steamy streams that lead from the springs to the lake. Some also cook cobs of corn in the hot water. Lake shalla Ethiopia’s deepest lake (upto 266 meters or 872 feet) has eight volcanic islands, breeding grounds for aquatic birds. The best known is pelican island.

Lake Abjatta shallow and highly alkaline, this lake hosts large numbers of lesser and greater flamingos best viewed along the lakeshore, accessed from the northern Hora Kelo park entrance. While flamingos are here year-round, their populations swell from June to September.

Drive to Langano on your way visiting some of the Great Rift valley lakes such as Lake Shala and Abyata and Wondo Genet where you can enjoy a hot spring and swimming pool. Lake Shala, a mysterious place full of dramatic beauty, lies in a deep 118sq.km basin serves as a mating ground while Abyata is favored as a feeding sanctuary.

It is the deepest of all the rift valley lakes with a maximum depth of 266m. There are two islands of lumina in the North West corner of the lake. These are inaccessible and so create favorable conditions for pelicans to breed.

Continue to Langano where the chained mountains of Arsi give a beautiful background to the irregular basin of Lake Langano. The lake has a perimeter of 82 km and a depth of up to 30m and the water is light brown because of its mineral content. The multi colored sands make the sloping beach a perfect spot on which to bask in the blazing sun. It is also ideal place for water sports.

Day 9. Bale Mountains, visit Dinsho area.

If you are wondering where to visit in Ethiopia especially if you are keen on trekking or nature lover, Bale Mountains will be a place to mull over. Ethiopia’s Bale Mountains are great trekking site and the largest area of Afro Alpine habitat in the whole of the African continent.

At Dinsho headquarters, you will have couple of kilometers nature trail that gives you a brief introduction to the plants and animals of the area. There is a good opportunity of seeing Mountain Nyala, is a large antelope in the spiral-horned antelope family.

Males are a dark brown color with a pair of gently spiraled horns with white tips. They bear handsome white markings on the face, neck and legs, together with usually at least one stripe and some white spots on each side.  

The park gives the visitor opportunities for unsurpassed mountain walking, horse trekking, scenic driving. It also gives the chance to view many of Ethiopia’s endemic mammals in particular the Mountain Nyala and Simien Fox and birds such as Abyssinian Wood Pecker, Thick – Billed Raven, Wattled Ibis, Blue Winged Goose, etc

Day 9. Sannete Plateau then drive to Zeway. 

Admire the park’s beauty on the road from Goba to the eastern part. There you will find the Sannete plateau at an altitude of 4000meters and some of the loveliest mountain scenery in Africa. Here it will relatively be easy to spot several of the endangered Ethiopian wolves with their red coats resplendent in the sunlight.

Ethiopian wolf or sometimes called red fox is the rarest member of the canine family in the world. The animal is the size and color of European red fox, but with long legs, longer muzzle and a striking black and white tail. The male and female are similar in appearance. The fox feeds on rodents and as a result are mainly found at the higher altitudes where rodents abound.  The Sannete plateau is especially a good area to see them but they do occur in higher parts of the mountains as well as down at Gaysay on rare occasions.

One of Bale Mountains spectacular spot is Tulu Deemtu, the second highest mountain in Ethiopia at 4,377mt and the highest in Bale Mountains. Starting from the main road at its base it takes one and a half to two hours to climb the slopes and reach the summit.

Day 10. Full day at Zeway Boat trip on Zeway Lake.

Zeway town is situated at the shore of Lake Zeway. It is a beautiful town also popular for its fauna. Take a boat trip to one of the islands that is rich in water birds. Of all the Ethiopian lakes, zeway offers perhaps the best combination of nature and culture. On the nature side, it is an essential stop on the bird-watching circuit and also is host to numerious hippos.

On the culture side, three of the five volcanic islands and portions of the mainland are home to the linguistically and culturally unique zay people. A visit to zeway’s “big island” is a trip back in time. Fishermen still ply the waters in papyrus boats, farmers still tend small terraced plots, and weavers still make shawls on wooden looms.

Bochessa Birding Area, a lakeside wetland, the area attracts a number of migratory species, notably the lesser jacana, saddle-billed stork, black heron, and African pygmy  goose. If you visit in October or November, you might spot the rare and exceptionally tall (1.8meters or 6feet) wattled crane.

Day 11. Drive to Awash National Park.

Awash National Park is the oldest wildlife reserve in Ethiopia situated at 210km east of Addis.  You will leave Addis at about 9am and take the express way to Debrezeit Bishoftu, an attractive town just 50km from Addis surrounded by 5 crater lakes and beautified by bougainvillea and palm trees.

You will visit couple of them enjoying the fresh fruit juices of papaya, orange strawberry etc and watching various species of birds like cormorants, grebes, and shoveler at the lakes. Continue your way to Awash for the afternoon arrival.

This part of upper Great Rift Valley hosts magnificent landscapes and supports immense life forms including indigenous and migrant birds, mammals and other wildlife of varying species.  You will watch the wildlife and birds and along the river, reptiles such as crocodiles, monitor lizards, turtles, snakes can be seen. As you be trekking, you will admire the beautiful scenery too.  

Day 12. Full day in Awash NP.

A morning drive through shrub zones and the river banks to see the greater Kudus, dikdiks, warthogs, anubis and hamadryads baboons, and various birds such as the golden-backed woodpecker, the thick-billed raven and wattled ibis. The park boasts some 300 species of birds a list of these is available in the park museum. The Abyssinian horn bill, secretary birds, carmine bee eaters, ostriches and some of the birds which are endemic to Ethiopia can be spotted.

Day 13. Drive back to Addis via Debrezeit, overnight departure flight.

Visit Debrezeit, an attractive town just 50km from Addis surrounded by 5 crater lakes and beautified by bougainvillea and palm trees. You will enjoy the fresh fruit juices of papaya, orange strawberry etc and watching various species of birds like cormorants, grebes, and shoveler etc. At Addis a cultural dinner awaits you accompanied by traditional music and dances.

Day 14. Departure flight back home

 Then transfer to the airport for your departure flight.