Tag: Ethiopia travel
-
Dallol in Danakil Depression, Ethiopia
Dallol in Danakil depression is about 120km from Mekele – the capital of Tigray region in Ethiopia. We travelled in December of 2018 when the situation in Tigray was peaceful and there was much hope about normalization of relations with Eritrea. Since then war broke out in Tigray making travel to Danakil an impossible proposition,…
-
Gonder and Simien Mountains National park, Ethiopia
The city of Gonder and Simien Mountains national park are located in the northern part of Ethiopia. Gonder is a former capital of Abyssinian empire and is mostly known to tourists for its castle. Now it is one of the major cities in Ethiopia with a number of daily flights from Addis Ababa. Simien Mountains…
-
Lalibela churches and monasteries, Ethiopia
Lalibela is a town in Ethiopia famous for its medieval rock-cut monolithic churches. Cut from solid rock some of the churches are more than 10 meters tall. It is hard to imagine how much effort it required to excavate these churches and decorate them. No wonder a legend says that the churches were built with…
-
Blue Nile Gorge, Ethiopia
Blue Nile Gorge is about 200km away from Addis Ababa and makes for a good day trip. The Gorge is sometimes described as the the largest canyon in Africa – competing with the Fish River Canyon in Namibia. Having not yet seen Fish River Canyon it is hard to tell – but definitely Blue Nile…
-
Awash national park, Ethiopia
Awash national park is one of the oldest in Ethiopia and is only about 200km east of the capital Addis Ababa. We visited in November 2017 for a weekend trip leaving Friday afternoon. The drive takes about 3 hours. The first part of the drive is along the new excellent Adama expressway toll road. After…
-
Lakes Langano, Abijatta, Shalla and Ziway, Ethiopia
Lakes Langano, Abijatta and Shalla are about 200km south of Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa with Lake Ziway along the way at about 150km. These lakes are a part of the string of East Africa Rift Valley lakes stretching further south through Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi and Mozambique. This is the line along which Africa tectonic plate…
-
Blue Nile falls in Ethiopia
Blue Nile falls in Ethiopia known as Tis Issat (Smoke of Fire) or Tis Abay (Smoke of the Nile) are about 30 km downstream from the lake Tana – the source of Blue Nile. We visited in September 2017 – the end of the rainy season when water level is the highest and the falls…
-
Lake Tana hippos and birds, Ethiopia
Lake Tana is the largest lake in Ethiopia and the source of Blue Nile. The city of Bahir Dar is a good base to explore the lake with its monasteries and to visit Blue Nile falls. A boat ride towards the marshes near the source of the Nile is good to see hippos and birds.…
-
Lake Tana Monasteries, Ethiopia
Lake Tana is the largest lake in Ethiopia and the source of Blue Nile. The city of Bahir Dar on the shore of lake Tana is a nice base to explore the lake with its wild life, islands with monasteries and to visit Blue Nile falls. There are about 20 monasteries scattered around the southern…