Ethiopian Experiences
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"Go there (Ethiopia) now and see the most interesting and diverse country in Africa - the country that time forgot."
Trevor Jenner : Ethiopia, Travellers' Handbook
Extra-ordinary Ethiopia
An adventure off the beaten track
January 2025
*** Limited Edition ***
Haunting landscapes, ancient cultures and unbelievable festivity
IMPORTANT
Although we are avoiding the town of Lalibela for this tour, still considered to be problematic in terms of security by our UK FCDO, we do need you to be aware that there are some areas of this tour where there still remain some lesser concerns relating to security and calm. We would not be suggesting this tour if we were not ourselves, as Ethiopian experts, convinced that any risks are of a low level, especially at this devotional season. But you must be likewise happy with the situation. You shouldn't find difficulty in arranging your travel insurance nevertheless. We are confident of this, based on the recent experience of our touring guests.
A truly unusual tour designed for experienced travellers
Visit ancient Harar and stay in a traditional Cultural Guesthouse. Feed the hyenas! Explore and experience the unearthly landscapes of the Danakil Desert. Tour the rarely-visited Gheralta region with hidden away, rock-hewn churches and ancient carvings and paintings. Immerse yourself in one of the great religious festivals of the world,
the Timkat celebrations in Ethiopia's most ancient capital - Axum.
An extraordinary tour for determined explorers
£2895
plus flights and visa
Everything else included - the best accommodation and food available amid amazing scenery, all tourist costs, guide fees\tips,
regular coffee stops, all land transport.
Here are the dates for our next group tour in 2025.
We'd love you to join us.
Departure from the UK on an evening flight
Wednesday, 8th January
Return on a daytime flight
Tuesday 21st January
The 2025 itinerary
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🇪🇹 Day 0:
Evening flight
Heathrow to Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa
🇪🇹 Day 1: This is a day of recovery in the capital city in preparation for what follows, with plentiful opportunities for restorative coffees and relaxation. There will also be time and energy for doing some city visits, perhaps the relatively new Medhane Alem church, or Trinity Cathedral where Haile Selassie and notable others are buried, perhaps one of the good museums or one of the impressive art galleries in the Bole area. Or perhaps we might prefer to take ourselves up into the Entoto hills to see Emperor Menelik's church and its well-curated church museum.
The ancient city of Harar
🇪🇹 Day 2: A mid-morning flight from Bole airport takes us out to the east of the country, to the attractive French-influenced city of Dire Dawa. We shall return here in a couple of days' time but for now we continue our journey eastwards in our private vehicle to our main destination, the Muslim city of Harar with its characterful architecture and narrow colour-washed streets and lanes. We first check into our memorable Cultural Guesthouse, adorned with colourful plates, rugs and baskets. After lunch we have some time to start our explorations of this fascinating city but, as the late-afternoon light begins to fade, we find ourselves out on the edge of town where groups of hyenas regularly arrive to be fed by hand, illuminated only by our car headlights. You can 'try your hand' at this if you really want to!
🇪🇹 Day 3: This is our main day of exploration. A simple breakfast of freshly-cooked pancakes and honey sets us up for our investigations - a couple of fascinating museums, a coffee-roasters where you can purchase a bag of high quality beans, an ancient undercover market full of exotic character, possibly a man feeding the yellow-billed kites by hand for your amusement, etc. We shall take as many pauses and refreshment breaks as necessary before eating a good dinner.
🇪🇹 Day 4: Our private vehicle joins us again today for our return journey via Dire Dawa. An open-air railway museum takes us back almost a hundred years with its original rolling-stock and station signs dating back to before Haile Selassie's time. The town has lots of tree-shaded cafés and another very characterful market area. A late-afternoon flight eventually delivers us back to Addis for the night.
" This was a fantastic tour, the most exciting and impressive yet - hugely enjoyable."
The Afar salt flats
and the Danakil Desert
🇪🇹 Day 5: We take a very early morning flight today from Addis to Semera and then immediately start off with multiple vehicles in a north-easterly direction towards an Afar tribal town called Ahmed Ela, where we shall be spending the night. We shall see the Afar people working the salt fields in this area with their often sizeable herds of camels and, before night falls, we shall expect to witness some famously impressive sunsets. Eventually we find ourselves in very simple communal accommodation for the night, nicely placed for our much shorter journey the next morning.
🇪🇹 Day 6: We drive for about an hour to Dallol and visit amazing landscapes in the Danakil Desert formed by volcanic activity. Dallol, at 116 metres below sea level, is one of the lowest and hottest places on earth with colourful landscapes and bubbling chemical springs (see our August 2021 newsletter). But don't panic! We have chosen this relatively cool time of the year to enjoy these experiences to the full. After a morning of memorable and extraordinary sights, we drive down to the capital of the Tigray region, Mekele. This is the gateway for our upcoming adventures. We shall visit Yohannes IV’s castle complex and its well-appointed museum in this very attractive and pleasant city and take in the eye-catching local landmark, the TPLF monument. A much more comfortable night will prepare us for a very different road trip through this ancient area.
The rock-hewn churches of Tigray
🇪🇹 Day 7: We use expert local guides for the next three days, first driving from Mekele to our base in Wukro to visit one of the most important churches in this area, the church of Wukro Chirkos. After a lunch break in Wukro town, we visit an excellent, new archaeological museum before going to visit a yet more magnificent church, Abreha we Atsbeha, before spending the night in a small but very comfortable hotel in the centre of town..
🇪🇹 Day 8: After breakfast we transfer to the peaceful village of Hawzen and a very welcoming and well-appointed hotel. We have another two church visits here, the church of Giorgis Maikado in the morning and then a beautiful hour's walk along a picturesque valley to the church of Maryam Papasetti in the afternoon. We return to our hotel for dinner and sleep.
🇪🇹 Day 9: We are off to Axum today, driving through wonderful, dramatic countryside and calling in at Debre Damo, perhaps the most famous ‘challenge’ in Ethiopia. The monastery church here sits high on the vertical amba rock with only a rope to get up there. Women aren’t allowed to climb up and men are unlikely to want to (although the option is there!). But it has to be seen and we shall certainly find some local youth willing to demonstrate the vertiginous climb. We take a lunch break before moving towards Yeha village to visit the impressively restored Yeha temple. We eventually arrive in Axum, the centre of the powerful Axumite Empire more than 2000 years ago, and the place where we shall be witnessing one of the truly great festivals of the world.
The extraordinary Timkat festival.
Once seen, never to be forgotten!
🇪🇹 Day 10: The festival of Timkat is the most notable festival in the Ethiopian Orthodox calendar and one of the great religious spectacles of the world. This is the first day of the celebrations and, after spending some relaxed time during the morning, perhaps doing some serious shopping for beautiful hand-crafted souvenirs, the afternoon celebrations will get underway. We shall witness extraordinary processions with hundreds of priests singing and dancing under colourful umbrellas as they move the ‘tabots’ (the holy arks) from all the local churches to a special site where an all-night vigil will be held before returning them to their normal homes the next day. Everyone is dressed up in their best and most beautiful Ethiopian clothes, with joy and devotion on every face. We shall make sure of some more peaceful time when we eventually take our excellent dinner.
🇪🇹 Day 11: The second day of Timkat can be more relaxed if we wish, and we can choose how much we want to engage with the continuing processions, music, and dancing. We might well wish to visit the resting place of the tabots once again before they begin their return journeys. But we might choose to spend some freer time in the city, visiting the Cathedral, revisiting some of the antique shops for which Axum is well known, or even taking ourselves out into the surrounding countryside for some peaceful wandering. But we shall again have an excellent dinner in one of the many fine places available.
🇪🇹 Day 12: Today we take the return flight to Addis Ababa, supplementing our tourist activities in the capital city if we wish to, taking in an art gallery, visiting the magnificent Sheraton Hotel for a drink and a wander around the stunning gardens, or whatever. With our return flight on the morrow, we shall have a farewell dinner in one of the many impressive restaurants that now exist in this ambitiously-developing city.
🇪🇹 Day 13: Flight back to the UK or wherever you started out, taking with you some truly unique memories of an extra-ordinary trip!
" We had a wonderful group, all with curiosity of mind and, most important of all, a sense of humour."
Notes
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We can never be sure of flight costs in advance, but at certain times of year (particularly Ethiopian Christmas and Timkat) the cost of flights can change dramatically. Our present estimate therefore is that the whole bundle of flights for this tour, both international and domestic, might well come out at something like £1200, but we shall monitor any changes with care.
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The cost of the tourist visa is £48 at present.
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For other general information, see Our tours > All the tours information.
IMPORTANT NOTE REPEATED FROM ABOVE
Although we are avoiding the town of Lalibela for this tour, still considered to be problematic in terms of security by our UK FCDO, we do need you to be aware that there are some areas of this tour where there still remain some lesser concerns relating to security and calm. We would not be suggesting this tour if we were not ourselves, as Ethiopian experts, convinced that any risks are of a low level, especially at this devotional season. But you must be likewise happy with the situation. You shouldn't find difficulty in arranging your travel insurance nevertheless. We are confident of this, based on the recent experience of our touring guests.