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The Bale Mountain national park is a hidden gem with a wide range of attractions. Flora and Fauna with a high number of endemics, and landscape are top attractions of the area. The park is one of the top four Africa’s bird watching paradises with a check list of more than 310 water and forest bird species. The rich variety of flora of the park is more than 1300, in which 160 is endemic to Ethiopia and 23 unique to the park.
This unique and thrilling wildlife viewing destination is also home to more than 75 mammal species including the endemic and endangered world’s rarest Canid the Simien Wolf, Bale Monkey, Menilik Bush buck and Nyala. Other mammals include, lion, leopard, giant forest hog Buhor Reedbuck and many more.
We will set off early morning (07:00am) to drive to southeast of Addis to Bale mountains national park. We will stop at Dinsho for lunch. We will collect our entrance permit and local guide at the park headquarter in Dinsho and visit mammals such as Nyala and Menelik’s bushback and spot birds around this park before proceeding to Goba.
We will leave our hotel with a packed lunch to drive 55kms to extensive chilly moorland Senneti. The day will be spent spotting birds and the world’s rarest canid the Ethiopian wolf in large packs.
After breakfast, drive to Harenna forest for a wild life viewing. The park’s rich variety of mammals are found here including lions, the endemic Bale monkey, giant forest hog , caracals and many more. Then we proceed to Rafu where we stay in camps.
Today our visit to the lush green Bale Mountain comes to an end. After breakfast we will hit the road for Langano. Lake Langano lays some 200kms south of the capital. Langano is one of the Great Rift Valley lakes and a popular resort for weekend visitors from Addis. The lake offers a placid delight for nature lovers. Aquatic Birds and mammals including hippos can be seen around the lake while water sports and a beautiful sunset are also in the list to enjoy.
You will have a free morning at your leisure to explore or relax around Lake Langano. Before driving to Addis you will visit another birding paradise, the Abyjata shalla national park. The park consisted of lakes Abyjata and shalla. At the ostrich farm inside the head quarter, aside from the big bird, you can spot animals like, warthogs, grants gazelle and Columbus monkeys. The main draw of Abyjata shalla is Flamingoes and other water birds.