Day 1 – Addis Ababa

Addis Ababa

Arrive in Addis Ababa off your international flight and transfer to the Hyatt Regency Hotel. Transfer time from the airport to the hotel: 20 minutes.

Vehicle type in Addis: minivan

Addis Ababa is the gateway, and today is about settling in and orienting yourself before the wilderness begins. Breakfast at the hotel before a city tour at 09:00hrs takes in Trinity Cathedral, St George Cathedral and museum, and the National Museum, home to Lucy, one of the oldest and most complete hominid fossils ever discovered, a reminder that the story of life on this continent runs deeper here than almost anywhere else on earth.

For the wildlife enthusiast, the National Museum offers fascinating context on Ethiopia’s extraordinary natural and evolutionary heritage, a fitting prologue to what lies ahead.

Evening at one of the many fine restaurants in Addis. 

Day 2 – Gondar & Simien Mountains

Simien Mountains

Commercial flight: Addis – Gondar Depart: 08:10

The morning in Gondar, visiting the Royal Enclosure, Fasilides Castle, and Debre Berhan Silassie Church, is a rich historical interlude, but by afternoon, the attention turns firmly to the wild.

The 2-hour drive from Gondar up into the Simien Mountains is itself a wildlife experience, the road climbing steadily through highland farmland and open moorland as the escarpment begins to reveal itself. Troops of Gelada monkeys are often encountered roadside before you even reach the lodge.

Limalimo Lodge sits directly on the clifftop edge of the escarpment, and the short evening walk to the cliff face in front of the lodge is your first proper introduction to the Simiens. The views are staggering, and the wildlife activity on the cliff edges as the light fades is a genuine preview of what tomorrow holds.

Day 3 – Simien Mountains

Simien Mountains

This is one of the great wildlife days in Africa, and it is one that relatively few people have had, which makes it all the more special.

Leaving the lodge early, the 40-minute drive into the park brings you to the Gelada monkey troops that roam the clifftop grasslands in their hundreds. Geladas are the last surviving species of a once widespread group of grazing primates, ancient, social, and completely at ease with human presence.

Spending time with them is not a fleeting game drive encounter but an extended immersion — watching the complex social dynamics of the troop, the powerful males with their distinctive red chest patches, the mothers with infants clinging beneath them, the youngsters testing boundaries at the cliff edge. It is the kind of wildlife experience that reframes what a safari can be.

The drive up to Chenek in the higher reaches of the park opens up the search for Walia Ibex — a magnificent endemic wild goat found only in the Simiens, picking its way along cliff ledges with a casual confidence that is extraordinary to witness. Picnic lunch on the clifftops before returning through the park for another encounter with the Geladas in the afternoon light.

Evening around the fire at the lodge.

Day 4 – Lalibela

Lalibela

Commercial flight: Gondar – Lalibela Depart: 10:30 Flight time: approximately 50 minutes.

Lalibela is a cultural day,  and a profound one. The 11th century rock-hewn churches carved into the living rock under King Lalibela are among the most remarkable human achievements on the African continent, and the afternoon visit to the first of three church clusters is an experience of depth and atmosphere that even the most committed wildlife traveller tends to find unexpectedly moving.

This is also Ethiopia in its full complexity, a country where human history and natural history are inseparable, where the landscape shaped the culture and the culture shaped the landscape. Understanding that relationship deepens everything that comes after.

Evening at Mazena Lodge or one of the restaurants in town. Minivan used in Lalibela for all site visits.

Day 5 – Lalibela

Day 5 – Lalibela

An early breakfast before driving out to the cave church of Yemrehana Cristos, older than the Lalibela churches and set in a natural cave high above the surrounding landscape.

The drive and walk offer good birding in the highland scrub, and the cave itself, with its ancient Aksumite architecture and atmosphere of deep time, is remarkable. Return to Lalibela for lunch at Ben Abebe Restaurant before visiting the final church cluster in the afternoon.

The day ends with a drive and a walk up to Ashetan Monastery, high above the valley. The birdlife on the walk up is excellent, the highland forests around Lalibela hold several of Ethiopia’s endemic species, and the views from the monastery at sunset are a reminder of just how vast and wild this country remains even in its most historically significant places.

Evening meal at Mazena Lodge or one of the restaurants in town. Minivan used in all site visits.

Day 6 – Gheralta

Gheralta

Commercial flight: Lalibela – Axum Depart: 11:00 Flight time: approximately 45 minutes.

A brief stop in Axum to take in the extraordinary ancient stelae before lunch, then the 3-hour drive south to Korkor Lodge and the Gheralta Mountains, and it is a drive worth savouring.

The northern Tigray landscape is raw and wild, the road threading through valleys and past rocky outcrops that hold raptors, francolins, and a scattering of dry country mammals for those watching carefully from the window.

The Gheralta Mountains themselves rise from the plain in a series of dramatic sandstone massifs that hold their own distinct micro-ecosystems, rock hyrax, klipspringer, and a wide variety of cliff-nesting birds among them. The afternoon visit to one of the rock-hewn churches in the area comes with a walk that doubles as a wildlife trail.

Day 7 – Gheralta

Gheralta

Another day in the Gheralta, visiting Maryam Korkor and Abuna Gebre Mikhail, two of the finest rock-hewn churches in the region.

The walks to reach them pass through excellent habitat for klipspringer, rock hyrax, and a fine selection of highland and cliff-nesting birds, and the views from the clifftops across the Tigray countryside are a reminder of how much wild space this part of Ethiopia still holds.

The churches themselves are remarkable, but so is the landscape that cradles them, and any wildlife enthusiast willing to move slowly and watch carefully will find the Gheralta rewarding well beyond its historical significance.

Day 8 – Bale Mountains

Bale Mountains

The Bale Mountains are the wildlife centrepiece of this entire journey, and arriving at the Webb Plateau tented camp at 3,450 metres is an arrival that signals immediately that something different is happening.

This is Afroalpine Africa — a landscape of giant lobelia, tussock grass, and open moorland that feels more like the Scottish Highlands than anything associated with the tropics, and which supports a concentration of endemic species found nowhere else on the planet. From the camp’s dining area alone, Mountain Nyala graze in full view, warthog trot past the tent lines, and the birdlife is relentless.

The Ethiopian Wolf, the world’s rarest canid and one of Africa’s most compelling predators, is the headline act, and the Bale Mountains are its last stronghold.

The tents are A-frame with en suite bathrooms. Hot water provided. Professional guide and 4×4 vehicles with local guide and interpreter.

Day 9 – Bale Mountains

Bale Mountains

A full day in the Webb Valley in pursuit of Ethiopian Wolves, and it is a pursuit that rewards both patience and movement. These are active, visible hunters, working the tussock grasslands methodically in search of the giant mole rats that make up the bulk of their diet.

The behaviour is fascinating, nothing like the pack dynamics of African wild dog or the ambush tactics of the big cats, but a precise, fox-like hunting style that is compelling to watch at close quarters.

Vehicles and walking are both used, and the flat terrain makes for easy movement between sightings. The endemic birdlife of the plateau, including the extraordinary Blue-winged Goose and Spot-breasted Lapwing, keeps the binoculars busy between wolf encounters.

Day 10 – Bale Mountains

Bale Mountains

The Gaysay Grasslands offer a more classic game drive experience, with Mountain Nyala in large herds, Bohor Reedbuck, warthog, olive baboon, common duiker, and the occasional serval or spotted hyena moving through open grassland in the early morning light.

The Mountain Nyala in particular, another Ethiopian endemic, a large and magnificent spiral-horned antelope found only in the southern highlands, is an animal that most African wildlife enthusiasts have never encountered. Seeing them in numbers here is a genuine privilege.

Day 11 – Omo Valley

Omo Valley

The descent from the Afroalpine highlands to the hot, lush lowlands of the Omo Valley is one of the great ecological transitions in Africa, and it happens in the course of a single flight.

Arriving at Omo Camp in the evening, set under fig and mahogany trees on the banks of the Omo River, the sounds and smells of the bush announce themselves immediately.

Hippo grunt from the river, nightjars call from the trees, and the warm air carries the scent of the river system that has sustained this extraordinary wildlife corridor for millennia. Keep your eyes open on the transfer to camp. The Omo does not wait until morning to begin.

Day 12 – Omo Valley

Omo Valley

The 3-hour boat cruise up the Omo River is the wildlife highlight of the valley, a slow, intimate journey through a wild river system that remains largely untouched.

Nile crocodiles haul out on every sandbank, sometimes in significant numbers. Vervet monkeys and olive baboons work the riverine forest.

The birdlife is exceptional,  with fish eagles, kingfishers, bee-eaters, herons, and a rotating cast of waterbirds that reflects the Omo’s role as a vital wildlife corridor between the highlands and the lowlands.

The day begins with an early morning visit to a Hamar village,  a fascinating insight into the human communities that have coexisted with this wildlife for generations, and ends at a fly camp on the riverbank in Mago National Park, where Mursi villagers arrive in the evening. Buffalo and elephant are known to move through Mago regularly, and the sounds of the African night at a riverside fly camp are a wildlife experience in themselves.

Day 13 – Omo Valley

Omo Valley

Kara Village
Returning to the Omo Camp, the afternoon will be spent with the Kara. The smallest of the tribal groups, but one that plays a significant role in the settlement of the lower Omo Valley.

Evening dance in the Kara village of Dus before returning to camp and watching the sun set over a beautiful Omo River scene. A fitting way to end a safari of Ethiopia.

Day 14 – Addis-Ababa

 Addis-Ababa

Charter or commercial flight back to Addis Ababa
On reaching Addis, you will transfer back to your hotel to prepare for your departure flight or a final shopping and gastronomic experience at one of the many fine restaurants in the city.

Transfer to the airport for all flights out.

Accommodation on This Tour

Accommodation overview: Where you will be staying on this tour.

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