Seven Days of Lakes, Highlands, Forests & Rare Wildlife

Arrive at Addis Ababa Bole International Airport, where a Bush Escapes representative welcomes you, assists with luggage, and transfers you to the hotel.
Depending on arrival time, visit the National Archaeological Museum, home to Lucy and other important archaeological treasures. The museum is closed on Mondays.
Continue to Holy Trinity Cathedral, renowned for its stained glass, sacred atmosphere, and imperial history.
After lunch, explore Merkato, one of Africa’s largest open-air markets, then visit Golla Art Gallery for contemporary Ethiopian art and handcrafted textiles, jewellery, leather accessories, and baskets. Merkato is closed on Sundays.
Return to the hotel for a comfortable first night in Addis Ababa.
MEALS & OVERNIGHT
Lunch and dinner. Overnight at AYA Addis Hotel, a 4-star property in the Bole/Atlas area, approximately 3 kilometres from the airport.

After breakfast, depart Addis Ababa for Lake Langano via Ziway, approximately 200 kilometres and four hours by road.

Stop at Castel Winery garden for an optional wine tasting, then continue to Lake Ziway, a picturesque Rift Valley lake alive with pelicans, storks, herons, fish eagles, and other waterbirds.

Arrive at Lake Langano, known for its unusual reddish-brown waters and its reputation as a comfortable place for swimming, lakeside relaxation, nature walks, and birdwatching.

Enjoy an unhurried afternoon by the lake or in the surrounding forest, where small wildlife and endemic bird species reward a slower pace.

Explore Abijatta-Shalla National Park, the Rift Valley’s Lakes Park, located between Lakes Abijatta and Shalla.

Visit park headquarters and look for ostriches, gazelles, and other wildlife. At Lake Shalla, admire deep blue water, western hill reflections, hot springs, and rising vapour.

Interpret the park’s changing ecology and seasonal birdlife. Flamingo concentrations vary, while pelicans, fish eagles, kingfishers, marabou storks, cormorants, darters, ibis, stilts, avocets, Egyptian geese, plovers, and other species may be present seasonally.

Continue to Lake Chitu, a small crater lake known for flamingos feeding on blue-green algae, before returning to Langano.

Depart Lake Langano after breakfast for Bale Mountains National Park, approximately 340 kilometres and six to seven hours by road.

Travel through fertile farmlands, traditional Oromo villages, and rolling highlands as the landscape rises into cooler alpine country.

Stop at Dinsho park headquarters and look for endemic wildlife, including the elegant Mountain Nyala.

Continue to Robe and settle into the evening after the scenic highland drive.

Drive to the spectacular Sanetti Plateau, one of Africa’s highest alpine landscapes and a renowned place to search for the critically endangered Ethiopian wolf.
Explore the plateau on foot among lichen-covered rocks, open grasslands, giant mole-rat colonies, and highland raptors including Golden Eagle, Verreaux’s Eagle, Bearded Vulture, Lanner Falcon, and Augur Buzzard.
Make a short detour to Tulu Dimtu, Ethiopia’s second-highest peak at approximately 4,377 metres. The summit can be reached by vehicle or by a walk of less than an hour, subject to conditions.
Descend through the Harenna Escarpment, where the land falls more than 2,000 metres over roughly 8 kilometres, and enter Harenna Forest, one of Ethiopia’s great remaining montane forests.
MEALS & OVERNIGHT
Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Overnight at NuRobe Hotel.

After breakfast, descend from the Bale highlands towards Yirgalem through fertile farms, rural towns, green valleys, and southern Ethiopia’s coffee-growing country.

Arrive in Yirgalem, a warm forested landscape known for coffee plantations, rich birdlife, and a peaceful rhythm.

Settle into Aregash Lodge, built around traditional Sidamo Houses and supplied by an excellent kitchen using organic fruit and vegetables grown nearby.

Enjoy a guided walk where more than 100 bird species have been recorded and where guests may encounter hyena, jackal, colobus, and vervet monkeys.

After breakfast, drive back to Addis Ababa via Hawassa, approximately 320 kilometres and six to seven hours by road.

Pause at Lake Hawassa, a beautiful freshwater lake among hills and luxuriant vegetation, with abundant waterbirds and possible Black-and-white Colobus Monkeys.

Visit Amora Gedel daily fishing market and observe pelicans, storks, and other birds accustomed to human company.

Continue to Addis Ababa for last-minute shopping, then enjoy a traditional cultural dinner at YOD Abyssinia with Ethiopian cuisine, music, dance, and Tej honey wine.

Transfer to Bole International Airport for the return international flight to Nairobi.