When you tell people you are on your way to photograph African wildlife, they picture you going on safari to see the “Big Five” (the lion, leopard, elephant, rhinoceros, and Cape buffalo) or perhaps the gorillas and chimpanzees of Uganda. Ibex, geladas and wolves do not come to mind.
Ethiopia is a travel destination for those who want to see unique, endemic species found nowhere else on Earth framed against stunning landscapes. Read on to join me on my off-the-beaten-path safari to find rare, often endangered, African creatures. Photos are mine unless otherwise labeled.
Clicking on the images in this post will enlarge most for a better viewing experience.
A Little About Ethiopia
Ethiopia (technically, the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia) is a landlocked country located in the northeastern part of Africa known as the Horn of Africa. It is in the Northern Hemisphere just north of the equator. Please click the image to the right.
At 472,000 square miles, the country is roughly the size of Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico combined (or Spain and France together for non-Americans) and is Africa’s 10th largest country. Ethiopia ranks second in African population after Nigeria. Its 110+ million people are a melting pot of ancient cultures with Middle Eastern and African roots evident in the religious, ethnic and language composition of its peoples. Ethiopia is Africa’s oldest independent country. Apart from a five-year occupation by Mussolini’s Italy, it has never been colonized. Liberia is the only other African nation to have escaped colonization.
Topography is important to the existence of some of Ethiopia’s unique flora and fauna.
Ethiopia’s geographical features result in a range of climates. The massive Abyssinian highlands are a complex of mountains and plateaus divided by the Great Rift Valley. They extend from the north down the center of the country. This complex is surrounded by lowlands – the grasslands of Sudan to the west and the deserts of the Afar to the east.
Most of Ethiopia (except the very south) has two main seasons, a dry season that prevails from October until May with short rains in March and a wet season that runs from June until the end of September. I visited in December during the dry season.
Although Ethiopia lies between 3 and 15 degrees north of the equator, the central highlands region, where most of the population lives, generally has a pleasant temperate climate. This is a result of the moderating influence of high altitude. Above 2,000 meters (about 6,500 feet), the temperature rarely exceeds 25 degrees (mid 70s). Where we were in high mountains, it was quite chilly.
A Bit of History
Ethiopia is an ancient land which, in early writings, was often referred to as Abyssinia. Ancient records indicate that the Queen of Sheba ruled the Ethiopian region around 1,000 BC. There is an Old Testament account of a visit of the Queen of Sheba to Jerusalem to meet King Solomon. According to Ethiopian tradition, the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon conceived a child who became King Menelik, founder of the Ethiopian Empire, and the first in a dynasty of Ethiopian rulers.Â
Sometime between the 8th and 6th millennia BCE, pastoralism and then agriculture came to the Ethiopian region. Animal-powered plowing of the land and the growing of cereal grains such as wheat and barley were introduced around 2000 BC. These practices, which are largely unchanged and not mechanized, still occur widely today and are important to the story of my safari.
Around 700 BC, Ethiopia became dominant in the trading of ivory, tortoiseshell, rhinoceros horn, gold, silver, and slaves to South Arabian merchants until trade routes were diverted eastward giving easier access to coastal ports.
Christianity arrived in Ethiopia in the 1st century AD and became the state religion in the 4th century. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church is one of the oldest and earliest Christian bodies in the world. Islam is the second largest religion in Ethiopia behind Christianity. It arrived when persecuted followers of Mohammad were given asylum in Ethiopia in the 7th Century. Currently, about 31% of Ethiopians are Muslim and about 68% are Christian of which 44% are Ethiopian Orthodox. I observed that religion is incredibly important to Ethiopians.
Many empires have come and gone during Ethiopia’s history. I am including a video below which gives a short synopsis of the history of this ancient land. I found it very interesting, but skip it if you are not into history.
Love your coffee? Here is a bit of history that might interest you.
Legend has it that coffee was first discovered in Ethiopia over 1,000 years ago by Kaldi, a goat herder, who noticed that his goats became more energetic and playful after eating the bright red berries of a particular tree.
This observation lured Kaldi to try the berries himself, and he experienced a similar boost in energy. As the story goes, he brought the berries to a local monastery, where monks initially threw them in a fire. They found the aroma enticing and after raking the roasted beans from the fire, crushed them, and brewed them in hot water, creating a drink that helped them stay awake for prayers.
Although it is likely that the story of the discovery of coffee by Kaldi’s goats is only a myth, genetic studies have shown that the coffee tree did evolve only in Ethiopia. The powers of this drink spread, and by the 15th century, coffee was being grown and exported from Ethiopia.
Coffee plays an important role in Ethiopian culture. The Ethiopian coffee ceremony, which can take several hours, is a cultural ritual of hospitality. It involves the roasting and grinding of the beans followed by brewing the coffee in a clay pot. It is served in three rounds accompanied by snacks like popcorn or roasted barley.
The Trip
This trip had been on my bucket list for quite sometime but previously had not been an option due to sporadic violent conflict and civil unrest throughout parts of Ethiopia. Although the capital city, Addis Ababa had been considered safe for tourism, the remote areas to which I would travel were not deemed so. The main area of concern was the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia where a civil war had taken place in 2020-21. Simien Mountains National Park, where geladas are found, is in northern Ethiopia and was inaccessible to tourists due to armed conflict until early 2025. I finally got to visit Ethiopia in December 2025.
It is fairly easy to get to Ethiopia. After flying from San Francisco to Chicago, I flew directly to Addis Ababa, a 13.5 hour flight, on Ethiopian Airlines. There is a major time change as Ethiopian time is 11 hours ahead of Oregon’s.
The tour operator for my adventure was ORYX Photo Tours. The tour leader was professional photographer Dale Morris who was awesome. This was not my first trip with Dale as I had been to Madagascar, Borneo, Brazil and the Arctic Circle with him previously, and I can’t recommend him highly enough. Our little group consisted of four photography junkies plus Dale, Cathan Moore (also from Oryx), an in-country specialist and local guides for each of the national parks.
The tour itinerary was an ambitious one. Cathan produced a trip report video documenting our adventures which I have included at the end of this post. Click here if you want to skip directly to that video synopsis. You will be able to return here if you wish.
First, we flew south to the town of Robe from Addis and spent 3.5 days exploring Bale (BAH-lay) Mountains National Park. After returning to Addis, we flew north to Gondar and headed into Simien Mountains National Park for 3 days. Before returning to Addis for our flights home, we visited Gondar’s important historical sites.
An aside: If you think airport security is a pain in the U.S., you should try flying anywhere into, out of, or within Ethiopia! You will have your documents checked and go through not one, but multiple extensive screenings of your person and possessions before you get to and leave the gate for boarding a flight. You are even screened before you can get through the door to the airport terminal.
Bale Mountains National Park (BMNP)
Prior to 1960, the Bale Mountains region was largely wild and unpopulated. In the early 1960s, a British naturalist, Dr. Leslie Brown, explored the area to assess the status of the Mountain Nyala, a large antelope species endemic to a small area in the Bale Mountains.
His studies led to the formation of Bale Mountains National Park in 1969 to preserve the nyala’s habitat.
The park is, at its maximum dimensions, approximately 50 miles north-to-south and 35 miles-east-to-west covering about 850 square miles. The high altitude landscape of the park ranges from about 6,600 to almost 14,400 feet of elevation.
When it was formed, there were very few permanent people living inside the park boundaries although livestock was brought into the mountains seasonally to graze. Dr. Brown predicted that expansion of agriculture in the lowlands surrounding the mountains would push rural people to move higher into the mountains negatively impacting the habitat needed by the nyala. His prediction has come true as the number of permanent homes inside the park keeps growing exponentially. It is estimated that as many as 40,000 people live within the park’s boundaries, increasing pressure on the natural resources of the area and diminishing the natural habitats of wildlife. The cattle density within the park’s boundaries is estimated at 650 per square mile. In addition to increasing population, there has been a shift from traditional livestock husbandry to a more mixed type of farming resulting in significant amounts of land being plowed for cereal crops such as wheat and barley removing even more of the natural habitat.
In 2023 after 15 years of deliberation, Bale Mountains National Park received UNESCO World Heritage Site status because of its biodiversity and extraordinary beauty. This designation as a World Heritage Site will necessitate relocation of thousands of people living illegally in the national park. At this time relocation has not begun.
About 26% of Ethiopia’s endemic species including one primate, one bovid, one hare, eight species of rodent, and the entire global population of the giant mole rat can be found within Bale Mountains National Park. In addition, six of the 18 birds endemic to Ethiopia can be found here. There are over 1,300 species of flowering plants (163 are endemic to Ethiopia and 23 to Bale alone.)
On this trip, I had the good fortune to be able to observe and photograph a number of wildlife species inside the park although the Ethiopian wolf was the main target.
The Ethiopian Wolf
The Ethiopian wolf is medium-sized canid with a reddish coat, distinctive white markings on the face and body, black markings on the tail, long legs and an elongated muzzle. The contrasting colors of the white markings against the red coat increase with age and social rank.
Ethiopian wolves are endemic to the Ethiopian highlands, at about 10,500 feet and above. Currently, Ethiopian wolves are found in small numbers in seven isolated mountain ranges of the Ethiopian highlands. It is estimated that fewer than 440 of these beautiful animals exist with the majority, perhaps around 300, found in the Bale Mountains. BMNP is the place where you have the best chance of seeing these wolves.
For a long time there was debate as to whether Ethiopian wolves were really wolves or instead related to jackals. Mitochondrial DNA analysis has shown that the Ethiopian wolf (Canis simensis) is a distinct species and is more closely related to grey wolves (Canis lupus) and the coyote than any other African canid.
Ethiopian wolves live in small, highly social family units or packs of typically 3 to 15 adults. These packs have strict hierarchies organized around a dominant breeding pair, the alpha male and female. The pack is closely-knit, spending time greeting, playing, and working together to defend its territory. Territorial defense is crucial for protecting food resources and survival.
Wolves prefer flat or gently sloping open areas with low vegetation where rodents are most abundant, and they need to defend a territorial area with enough rodents to feed the entire pack.
While in normal circumstances only the alpha female breeds, it is the job of all the pack members to help raise the pups. Social pack behavior tends to occupy the early morning and late afternoon hours with the remainder of the day spent hunting.
Unlike their relatives the grey wolves, Ethiopian wolves do not pack-hunt large prey.
Hunting of rodents is a solitary activity done either alone or in pairs. Any available rodent will do, but their favorite food is the giant mole rat (Wikipedia photo).
Although they hunt alone, successful hunters will often either bring food back or regurgitate it to feed the pack’s pups.
With a total population of about 440, the Ethiopian wolf is the world’s most endangered canine species, and only about 60% of the dominant females successfully breed annually. They are classified as Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN).
The largest threat to survival of the Ethiopian wolf is humans. Subsistence farming in Ethiopia’s highlands is engulfing large areas of their range, pushing them to higher and higher elevation. The overgrazing of livestock is aggravating this habitat loss. As the human population in the park has increased so has the domestic dog population. In fact, a study showed that hybridization between female wolves and male dogs has occurred, however, this is not the primary problem caused by the increasing number of domesticated dogs. These dogs bring diseases such as rabies and distemper for which the wolves have no resistance. In 2008, there was a rabies epidemic. In 2010, about 40% of the park’s wolves died from canine distemper which struck again in 2019 killing off as much as 70% of the population.
The Ethiopian wolf has full official protection under Ethiopia’s Wildlife Conservation Regulations of 1974. The killing of a wolf carries a sentence of up to two years imprisonment. Conservation efforts today include trying to vaccinate the wolf population within the park using food drops. One of our days in the park, we were restricted from going to a location where vaccination drops had been done. Other efforts include vaccination of domestic dogsand sterilization of domestic dogs – all of which has proved challenging. There are no Ethiopian wolves in captivity.
The Mountain Nyala
The mountain nyala is a large ungulate (an even toed, hoofed ruminant) belonging to the family Bovidae. This large antelope is endemic to the high-altitude Ethiopian highlands east of the Rift Valley. The largest population is found in the Bale Mountains, and it is the star of the national park’s logo.
Males are typically 47–53 inches tall at the shoulder and weigh 400 to 660 pounds. Females, such as this one, are 35–39 inches tall weighing 330 to 440 pounds. Both males and females have a white patch on throat and chest and large ears filled with white hair. Only the males have horns which they sometimes use for wrestling with other males. The horns can be up to 6 feet long with one or two spirals.
These nyala can form small herds of 4 or 5 individuals. They are primarily browsers preferring to feed on low-height herbs, bushes, shrubs and general foliage. They will sometimes eat lichens and ferns.Â
Mountain nyala tend to be shy of humans often feeding early or late in the day and staying in forested areas during the main part of the day. They spend the night at the edges of the forest and will often navigate at night to avoid human activity.
It is estimated that 1,500-2,500 mountain nyala currently exist in the wild, and they are classified as endangered by the IUCN.
Again, the biggest threats to survival of the mountain nyala are human in the form of illegal hunting (they are hunted for their horns and meat), habitat destruction by farming, encroachment by livestock and predation of calves by domestic dogs.
The Bale Monkey
Another endemic species experiencing declining population we found is the Bale Monkey or Vervet. These folivores reside primarily in the bamboo forest of the Bale Mountains due their dietary specialization on bamboo.
Although their diet consists of 80-90% African alpine bamboo, bamboo is not only important from a dietary standpoint. Dense bamboo forests provide shelter and safety. Despite bamboo being necessary for the long-term survival of Bale monkeys, these forests have been severely threatened because of their use in the production of furniture, fences and flooring. The harvesting of bamboo has caused fragmentation of the forests in which these monkeys live. When there are not enough young bamboo leaves and shoots for eating, the monkeys have to supplement their diets with other sources of nutrition such as grasses, herbs and raiding crops. Sometimes these monkeys are hunted by local people to ensure they will not raid crops.
Other Interesting Animals
We saw a variety of birds and other animals during our exploration of the national park. Two other interesting, non-endemic species we saw were the Black and White Colobus Monkey and the Serval.
The colobus is an arborial monkey whose name “colobus” comes from the Greek for “mutilated,” because unlike other monkeys, they do not have thumbs. While not endangered, these monkeys are being threatened by habitat loss.
As human populations grow and expand, the forests these monkeys need are being razed to make room for cultivation, settlements and roads.
The serval is a medium-sized cat with extremely long legs, large ears and a black spotted tawny coat. They are one of the fastest cats on the planet being able to run up to 40 mph and jump up to 10 feet into the air.
Servals lead solitary lives except for a brief time when breeding. Although they are not endangered, one threat to these animals is capture for sale in the pet market.
Simien Mountains National Park (SMNP)
The Simien Mountains National Park is a World Heritage Site in the Ethiopia highland massif about 500 miles north of Addis Ababa. Geologically, a massif is a section of the Earth’s crust that has been lifted as a single unit by faults.
Simien Mountains National Park protects one of the most dramatic mountain landscapes in Africa. Here massive erosion over millions of years has created jagged mountain peaks, deep valleys and sharp precipices dropping as much as 5,000 feet. The park has a dramatic altitudinal range, from about 5,000-6,200 feet in the lower valleys to 14,500-14,900 foot tall peaks. Ethiopia’s highest peak, 14,928′ tall Ras Dashen, resides within the park. While Simien Mountains National Park provides critical habitat for rare wildlife, it also preserves an important watershed for the region. Several year-round rivers originate inside the park’s boundaries which are essential sources of water for communities downstream in Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt.
There are a number of unique species that call the park home. The rocky, high mountain cliff areas of the park are the primary habitat of the endangered Walia ibex, a wild mountain goat which is endemic only to the Simien Mountains.
The Afro-alpine grasslands are home to a small number of endangered Ethiopian wolves as well as the world’s last species of grass eating primate, the endemic Gelada monkey. More than 200 species of birds and 250 species of plants are found inside the park. Since over 97% of the natural highland vegetation in this region of Ethiopia outside the park has been lost to agriculture, settlements and unsustainable use, the park is a last preserve of this environment.
In 1944 the Department of Forestry, Game and Fishery within the Ministry of Agriculture was established to regulate game hunting in the Simien Mountains (the area was a royal hunting ground). As hunting increased and population growth in the area put increasing pressure on land and resource use, it became apparent that wildlife conservation needed to be formally established to protect the area’s resources. The national park was established in 1966 on the recommendation of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). In 1978, SMNP became one of the first two sites to be named a UNESCO Natural World Heritage Site.
Originally, the park protected an area of about 53 square miles, but the boundaries were extended in 2014 to preserve larger areas of suitable habitat for the Walia ibex and Ethiopian wolf. The park now covers about 160 square miles.
After becoming a World Heritage Site, assistance was provided for park development. Unfortunately, the region became embroiled in a civil war from 1976 to 1991 leaving the park’s infrastructure severely damaged. After peace was restored, park management efforts were reinstated, but funding was extremely limited so little new infrastructure was put into place. Unfortunately, the Simien Mountain region was again heavily impacted by recent, ongoing armed conflict following the 2020-2022 Tigray war closing the area to development and visitation.
Although we were finally able visit the park in 2025, there was still a significant military presence in the region, and we were accompanied by armed guards during our time inside the park.
On this trip, I was able to photograph a number of wildlife species with the Walia ibex and Gelada being the stars of the show. Although some wolves do live in the park, we didn’t see them.
Walia Ibex
The Walia ibex is a large member of the goat family found only in the Simien Mountains. These mountain goats are brown with a white belly. Males have large, backwards curving horns that are often 3 or more feet in length. Males can weigh up to 275 pounds.
Females have much shorter horns and are typically quite a bit smaller, weighing only 50-60% of their male counterparts.
Ibex are social animals living in small herds of typically 5 to 20 animals. For part of the year, mature males will partially detach from the main herd, fully returning to the herd for breeding season during late fall to early winter. We were observing these animals in December.
Ibex graze on herbs, shrubs, grasses and other vegetation often traveling as much as a mile and a half each day in search of food in this rocky environment.
The Walia ibex may be on the brink of extinction having experienced a sharp decline in population over the last decade. Numbers have fallen from 865 individuals in 2015 to 650 in 2021 and to 306 with less than 250 mature individuals capable of reproduction in 2024.
There are a number of reasons for the decline of the species that are similar to those impacting other species such as the wolves. Habitat loss, agricultural expansion into the park area, disease transmission from domestic goats, and overgrazing by goats and sheep that eat similar types of vegetation have all had an impact. Two additional reasons have stemmed from the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2021-2022 Tigray war. In both cases, monitoring of activities inside the park became limited which allowed poaching of ibex for food and “medicinal purposes”. The ibex have been relegated to tiny fragmented populations with little crossover between groups. Thus, the species suffers from inbreeding, and the problems that result from low genetic variability.
The Gelada
Geladas are monkeys sometimes referred to as the gelada baboon or the bleeding-heart monkey due to a red hourglass-shaped patch of skin located on the chest. The environment in which they live is very different from that of their forest- or savanna-dwelling primate relatives. Geladas live only in high 5,000-14,000′ altitude grasslands in Ethiopia with the largest population found in the Simien Mountains.
Geladas are large, baboon-sized monkeys. They are typically 20-30 inches tall. Females weigh about 28 pounds while males weigh about 40 pounds. They have dense, brownish fur on the back and head, with lighter fur on the chest and belly. Their faces are dark with pale eyelids. Mature males have much longer hair than females.
The high-altitude homeland of the gelada has grassy plateaus atop steep, rocky cliffs.
Geladas are adept rock climbers. During the day they occupy the grassy plateaus for grazing and social activities, but at night, they drop over the precipice edges to sleep huddled together on cliff ledges and in crevices.Â
Next to humans, geladas are the world’s most terrestrial primates since they are ground dwellers rather than arboreal inhabitants.
Geladas are primarily grass-eaters, and they are the last surviving species of ancient grazing primates that were once very common. Geladas spend significant parts the day sitting on the ground, plucking and munching on grasses and vegetation.
Since geladas spend the majority of their day sitting on the ground, they have evolved fatty sitting pads on their rear ends.
Geladas are well adapted to grazing. They have highly opposable thumbs and index fingers that have been adapted for plucking grass.
Grass blades make up about 90% of their diets. They add flowers, digging up rhizomes and roots, and foraging for herbs to complete their diets.  This short video shows a gelada foraging.
In areas where agriculture encroaches onto the gelada habitat, cereal crops (they appear to particularly like barley) may be invaded sometimes causing conflict between geladas and humans.
At sunrise, the geladas scale up the cliffs to the plateaus and spend a few hours sunbathing or participating in socializing behaviors while young monkeys play. The remainder of the day is spent in feeding.
Grooming is a very important socialization activity. Geladas spend long periods of time each day grooming each other. They keep their fur clean, mat-less and free of parasites.
Geladas have a multi-level social structure.
The core family unit is a harem composed of a dominant (alpha) male, 2-12 females with dependent children and possibly one or more younger males. There is a strict hierarchy among the harem’s females, and only the dominant male participates in breeding.
Females often spend their entire lives in their natal families and have strong bonds with the other females of the unit. Groups of 2–15 bachelor males also exist. Members of these bachelor groups will sometimes challenge harem leaders or leave to form their own new family units.
While males are larger and more severe looking, females hold significant influence within the family unit and can influence the replacement of the dominant male. When a new male attempts to take over a unit by overthrowing the resident male, the females can choose to either support or oppose their leader. A dominant male attempts to maintain a positive relationship with the females in his harem by grooming them rather than forcing his dominance on them.
Individual family units join together to travel and graze forming herds sometimes as large as 1,200 individuals. These monkeys are able to peacefully coexist in such large groups because the grass on which they feed is widely available, and there is little need to resource guard.
Each day we went to the plateaus before sunrise to observe the geladas as they climbed over the cliff tops and watched them for several hours as they performed their morning social activities. We left them during the middle of the day, but returned a few hours before sunset to the meadows where they had spent their afternoons foraging to watch them feed staying with them until they disappeared over the cliff edges for the night. The video clip to the right shows geladas heading on their way home for the night.
Although geladas are classified as a species of least concern with an estimated 50,000-60,000 remaining in the wild, populations have declined from 440,000 in the 1970s and 200,000 in 2008. Hopefully, this disturbing trend will not continue.
Primary threats to their survival are habitat destruction from agricultural expansion, livestock grazing and shooting them as potential crop pests.
Although I got to see a number of rare, amazing animals on this trip, the geladas were the absolute show stoppers. While I wouldn’t say they were friendly, they allowed us to walk amongst them only acknowledging our presence. We were careful to always be respectful of them and if they showed any signs of discomfort, we moved away. While the adults did not appear to mind our presence, the babies were often quite shy.
Typically, when I am photographing wildlife, I am very far away from my subjects both for my own safety and to not disrupt what the animals are doing. I could have never imagined how thrilling it would be to be walking in the midst of hundreds of wild beings who didn’t care that I was there. I was just another primate member of the herd! Some of my gelada photographs were taken from a distance with my big telephoto lens, but others were taken with a wide angle lens only a few feet from my subject. I took thousands of gelada photographs. Here are just a few (click each one and it should enlarge):
Some Miscellaneous Trip Details
Although my trips searching for wildlife to photograph often take me to remote places, life is not always primitive in these places. Just days before the start of our trip, the Bale Mountain Lodge where we were supposed to stay, suspended operations due to a some sort of dispute with the local government. This caused us to stay at the Nurobe Hotel in the town of Robe which was about an hour’s drive in each direction to our wolf searching location. Thus, we were unable to return to the hotel in the middle of the day for lunch and a midday siesta. Never fear, there were no bagged lunches for us! Hotel staff drove to the park to provide us with a complete midday meal each day. Now this is what I call a picnic…the photos show our picnic table with the best view ever and the lunch buffet that came complete with white-jacketed serving staff.
In Simien Mountains National Park, we were fortunate to be able to stay within the park boundaries fairly close to where the geladas are often found.
Simien Lodge is the highest altitude hotel accommodation in all of Africa. The main building shown here has a restaurant and comfortable public meeting room, both with large warming fireplaces, something very welcome after hours spent in chilly outdoor temperatures.
Our accommodations consisted of stone-walled tukuls with thatched roofing. These little cabins were comfortable and had the modern conveniences of a hotel.
The photo to the right (courtesy of brilliant-ethiopia.com) does not do justice to the climb from the main lodge to our tukuls at the top of the hill!
Ethiopia is not the first place that comes to mind as an African destination for most people. For those interested in culture and history, it has much to offer. We did spend part of a day touring the historic Fasil Ghebbi, a UNESCO World Heritage Site which was the home of many Ethiopian emperors. Another Ethiopian travel option is a visit to the Oma Valley, home to over 16 indigenous tribes, for its cultural diversity. That would be a trip for some other time.
I traveled to Ethiopia for the unique wildlife found nowhere else on planet Earth. This is not a destination that I would recommend trying to visit on one’s own. If you wish to go to the national parks, you need to go with a reputable tour company incorporating knowledgeable local guides. If you are into photography, I can recommend Oryx Photo Tours highly for this trip. If you are not into photography, you would need to research other touring options.
I hope you have enjoyed learning a little about Ethiopia, a place a little off the beaten track. Below, I have embedded an excellent trip report video produced by Cathan Moore courtesy of Oryx Photo Tours. This video gives the essence of what I experienced during my time in Ethiopia.
Click the link if you want to go back to the Trip Itinerary Section.
Thank you so much, Arlene. I so enjoy the experiences you share. I will reread this often.
Thanks Susan. I am glad I have been able to provide something educational that you found interesting. Not everyone gets to experience some of the unusual things I have been lucky to do.