The East – Danakil, Harar and Bale Mountains Route
Eastern Ethiopia is a land of astonishing geographic extremes. In the far northeast, the austere lavascapes and salt-flats plunges to 116m below sea level in the Danakil. Further south, the Bale Mountains rise to above 4,300m and support a wealth of highland wildlife including Ethiopian wolves and mountain nyala. Tempering these climatic extremes, are lush well-watered mid-altitude slopes swathed in lovely crater lakes, unexplored montane forests, Harenna Forest, and the historic city of Harar, the spiritual heart of the predominantly Muslim inhabitants of Ethiopia’s exotic east.
- A popular first stop out of Addis Ababa, Bishoftu is set amidst a field of volcanic calderas, several of which host beautiful crater lakes serviced by modern resort hotels.
- The spectacular Fentalle Crater and Awash Falls are scenic highlights of Awash National Park, which also offers outstanding dry-country birding and the chance to see the handsome Beisa oryx and Hamadryas baboon in the wild.
- Serviced by a pair of remote wilderness lodges, Bilen Hot Springs is a good base for exploring Alledeghi Wildlife Reserve, home to Ethiopia’s largest population of the endangered Grevy’s zebra.
- With a combined area of 14,150km², the Yangudi-Rassa National Park and contiguous Mille-Serdo Reserve support the world’s only extant population of African wild ass, a Critically Endangered ancestor of the domestic donkey.
- The Lower Valley of the Awash, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, incorporates several important palaeontological sites, including Hadar, where the 3.2 million year old skeleton of ‘Lucy’ was unearthed in 1974.
- Custom built Semera, capital of Afar Region since 2007, is the popular springboard for expeditions into the Danakil Desert.
- The staggeringly beautiful multicoloured geysers at Dallol lie at 50m below sea level in a shallow crater formed by an eruption in 1926.
- The lowest point in Ethiopia, dipping to 116 metres below sea level, is on the shore of Lake Asale (or Karum), set amid expansive salt flats that have been mined by the Afar for millennia.
- The Danakil’s most spectacular sight, especially at night, is the permanent lava lake in the caldera of Erta Ale, a shield volcano whose rim is reached via a shadeless 10km footpath.
- Set at the base of the active 1,295m high Afdera Volcano, emerald-hued Lake Afdera (also known as Afrera) fed by hot springs, is an important source of salt, which is extracted from evaporation pools.
- The atmospheric walled citadel of Harar Jugol is the world’s fourth-holiest Islamic settlement and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Harar area also produces a distinct variety of coffee.
- Founded in 1902 on the railway between Addis Ababa and the port of Djibouti, Dire Dawa is now one of the largest cities in Ethiopia, and the main air gateway to Harar.
- The most accessible of southeast Ethiopia’s rock art sites is Laga Oda, a limestone shelter decorated with 5,000 year old paintings of cattle, people and wild animals.
- Spanning 7,000km² of semi-arid country, the vast Babile Elephant Sanctuary supports some 200 elephants belonging to a subspecies unique to the Horn of Africa.
- Jijiga, administrative capital of Somali Region, is a lively small town renowned for its large sprawling market and the strong Somali flavour of the local cuisine.
- The Adaba-Dodola Integrated Forest Management Project offers wonderful hiking opportunities between a series of five overnight huts on the northern slopes of the Bale Massif.
- Bale Mountain National Park, a spectacular hiking destination also explorable by road, is Ethiopia’s most important biodiversity hotspot, and one of the top five birding sites in Africa.
- Carved by the Web River, the labyrinthine Sof Omar Caves is a place of worship and a tentative UNESCO World Heritage Site named after a revered sheik who took refuge there in the 12th century.
- The most important religious shrine and pilgrimage site in the far southeast is the whitewashed dome tomb of Sheikh Hussein, who converted the Bale Oromo to Islam in the 12th century.
- Negele Borena is the pivotal town on the southeastern birding route, where the eagerly sought Ruspoli’s turaco occurs alongside several Horn of Africa endemics not easily seen elsewhere.