North West & Gambela – 13 Days

01. MON. Arrival in Addis Ababa. Transfer to the chosen hotel. Have a free morning. Afternoon (1400 hrs from the hotel) tour of the capital: visit Entoto mountain with views over the capital, the National & the Ethnographic museums, St George church and the Mercato, biggest open air market in Africa.
Meals free. ON (overnight) hotel.

02. Leave your hotel around 0700am and proceed to the DebreLibanos monastery. Visit the monastery and very nice views over Jemma river. Visit also the Old Portuguese Bridge and spot the endemic Gelada baboons.
Continue then to Bahirdar, crossing the Blue Nile gorge, to reach late afternoon
Lunch on the way. Dinner & ON hotel (Abayminch or Tana. With supplement you can choose the Kuriftu lodge. Inform us during the quotation)

03. Morning drive approximately 1 hour to reach the Blue Nile falls. Admire these spectacular falls. Then late morning drive back to Bahirdar.
Afternoon make a boat excursion on lake Tana to visit the monasteries over its islands, as Ura Kidane Mehret and Asua Mariam.
Lunch at your hotel in Bahirdar. Have dinner in a restaurant in town. ON hotel

04. THU. Start your drive from Bahirdar early in the morning (not later than 7am) for Chagni (285 km from Bahirdar), where you start visiting the Gumze people. Being Thursday enjoy the colorful Gumze market at Chagni village.
Then proceed to Beles (other 40 km), admiring on the way the Agew & Gunze villages.
Lunch on the way; dinner & ON camp at Shinashia next to an Agew people village.

05. Proceed then to a traditional Shinashia people village (120 km from Beles). Then drive to Asosa, the capital city of the Benishangul & Gumze people (the population reach around 1,000,000 people including also the Berta, Shinashia, Mao & Komo). Visit the town and the old palace of Dej Asmach Jemal, built during Emperor Menelik reign (19th century).
Lunch on the way; dinner &ON camping or local hotel at Asosa.

06. SAT. Early morning drive to Sherkole, where you can admire the Berta people. Here you can see them extracting gold (which is really very interesting). Later proceed to Bambasi (40km from Asosa) to visit the Mao and Komo people. The Mao & Komo are semi-nomadic & hunters people with scarification all over their body & different tradition. Being Saturday we’ll visit the very colorful market of the Mao, Komo & Berta people at Bambasi.
Late afternoon drive back to Asosa.
Lunch on the way; dinner &ON camping or local hotel at Asosa.

07. After having breakfast set on to drive to Ghimbi. On the way visit Yr’amsera village of the Mao & Komo people.
Lunch on the way; dinner & ON local hotel at Asosa

08. Drive to Gambela, which is 430 km from Ghimbi. The town of Gambela is the regional town of the Gambela peoples, where different tribes live together such as Anuak , Nuer and more.
Lunch on the way; dinner & ON hotel in Gambela.

09. Drive to the Baro river (which was a very important navigable river for commerce between Ethiopia & Sudan in the 19th century) and visit different villages of the Nuer and Anuak people. They are very colorful and you can see men and women with different scarifications, paintings and ornaments all over their body. See their day life in the villages and families. Late afternoon drive back to Gambela.
Lunch on the way; dinner & ON hotel in Gambela.

10. Drive to Jima, which is 465 km from Gambela (6-7 hrs). Jima in the capital of the Kaffa region, famous for its best production of coffee. Ones in Jima visit also the Aba Jifar palace (19th century) and the museum, with all the artifacts of Aba Jifar.
Lunch on the way; dinner & ON hotel in Jima.

11. Drive to Cheberra Churchurra National park, which is one of the new established park in Ethiopia. Visit different animals as antelopes, and also elephants & buffaloes. Have the game drive in the afternoon.
Lunch on the way; dinner & ON camping in the park, with very nice views.

12. Morning have your game drive. Then drive then to Woliso town (called also Ghion) and proceed to Negash lodge, where you can relax in a beautiful nature and can enjoy also the swimming pool.
Lunch on the way; dinner & ON Negash lodge

13. Drive to Wonchi crater, for spectacular views over the lake down to the crater. Optional can visit also the church on the island. Then back to Addis Ababa.