📍 Bale, Oromia
Afro-alpine moorland and the Sanetti Plateau, home to the endangered Ethiopian wolf.
This is a magnificent high-altitude plateau with numerous dramatic volcanic plugs, seasonal tiny alpine lakes and cascading mountain streams. Located about 400 kilometres from Addis Ababa, it stretches over an area of 2,000 square kilometres at an altitude ranging between 1,500m and 4,377m above sea level.
It is the largest Afro-alpine habitat park in Africa, and the range of country it covers - from the juniper woodland at Dinsho, up across the Sanetti Plateau, and down into the moss-draped Harenna cloud forest - is what makes a visit here unlike anywhere else in the highlands.
Bale Mountains National Park entry permits, a certified Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Authority guide and an armed park scout are all arranged before you set out.
Game viewing in the pristine wilderness is the centrepiece, and it is fantastic - many endemic species, but most famously the Ethiopian wolf, tracked across the Sanetti Plateau. The wildlife woodland walk at the Dinsho headquarters, where mountain nyala graze at close range, is included as well.
Wilderness hikes take you into the alpine plateau and the rafu volcanic rock fields, with a summit excursion to Tullu Dimtu at 4,377m, the highest drivable point in the country.
Horse riding is offered in the high plateaus or down in the Gaysay grassland, an area with outstanding wildlife viewing opportunities, and there is fishing for trout in the clear mountain streams where waterfalls cascade down from the high country. The descent into the Harenna forest, through wild coffee growing under the canopy, closes the route.
Not included: specialist mountain camping and sleeping gear, personal thermal clothing, and gratuities for guides, scouts and camp staff.
Travel with community-owned guides who know every trail and story. Your visit directly supports conservation and local livelihoods across the region — part of what makes Oromia’s abundance possible.
