Sharyem Tours
The Ethiopian Travel Specialists

Dodola – Juniper Forest

The journey to Dodola takes your through some sensational landscapes in southern Ethiopia, craggy peaks, waterfalls, and streams. After the rainy season, a festival of colour arrives, bringing red-hot poker and yellow and blue wildflowers set against a backdrop of lush green vegetation and trees.

Dodola is perfect hiking and trekking. The mountain scenery with its high altitude natural forest and Afro-alpine moorland, are attractive. Amazing juniper and hagenia forests protect a variety of birds including Rouget’s rail, black-winged lovebird, and Abyssinian longclaw. Colubus monkeys can be seen sitting casually in the trees. The forest gives way at 3,200 metres to open moorland of St John's wort and heather, along with giant thistles and giant lobelias dotted on the mountain sides and through the plains.

The full five night, six day trek will take you round a circuit of five mountain huts from west to east: Wahoro, Angafu, Adele, Mololicho and Duro. If your time is short, then a one, or two day, trek can be arranged. The altitude is high and trekking on horseback is a lovely way to move around the mountains.

What is so fantastic about this trek?

This trek was established by the IFMP (Integrated Forest Management Project), with implementation by GTZ (Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit), as a non-profit activity aimed at protecting, and conserving what remains of the precious Afro-mountain forest. The project has generated community earnings and employment from tourism by ensuring that each of the huts are run by locals of the area and that payment for staying at the huts is given directly to the keeper. Similarly, the same for the hire of horses: each leg of the circuit has fresh horses brought and payment is to each of the owners, as horses are changed over. This whole, simple process makes the tour inexpensive as there are no travel companies involved for profit and enables the local population to take responsibility of the precious mountains. We highly recommend this trek.

The Forest Management Project (IFMP)

Since 2005 the Integrated Forest Management Project Adaba-Dodola (IFMP) has become a unit under the GTZ-SUN (Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit- Sustainable Utilization of Natural Resources) for Food Security Oromia program. This is a new arrangement under the Ethio-German development cooperation programme.

The GTZ-SUN Dodola office is a technical cooperation project of the Governments of Ethiopia and Germany, which started in 1995. Its mission is to develop a feasible approach for the conservation of natural forests in the Oromia Region of Ethiopia.

Shashamene

This non-descript town is a junction town and is best known for the Rastafarian community called Jamaica and not much else. The land given to the Rastafarian community by Emperor Haille Selassie has been developed and is now home to the Twelve Tribes of Israel who follow the teachings of Jah. The community is not open to unexpected guests just passing through but do welcome anyone with an introduction or with the true intent of studying with them.

Sharyem Tours is connected with the Bingi Tribe and is able to arrange formal house-stays for those wishing to truly communicate and experience these deep roots of the peaceful Rastafarian way of life. The elders of the churches are gentle, chosen individuals who are the keepers of the church. For those who are merely interested, the Black Lion Museum is a good place to gain some knowledge about the community and its beginnings. Shashemene is not the best town to overnight in and it is worth taking the opportunity to stay in the nearby hot springs resort of Wendo Genet or to overnight at Lake Awasa.

The Bale Mountains

Taking you through the Rift Valley Lakes at a more leisurely pace, we turn South-East and start climbing toward the Bale Mountains. There are more dramatic changes in topography when we reach the forests, dominated by Juniper and St John’s Wort trees. Some of these majestic trees are over 12 metres high, hosting Colubus monkeys as well as other wildlife.

After our journey through the forest we reach the Bale Mountains, temperate by day and often a few degrees below freezing at night. Crater lakes and trout filled streams make for a wonderful trekking experience.

The Bale Mountains scenery is wildly alpine and can be explored on foot, horseback or by vehicle, making it accessible to all.

The Bale Mountains is undoubtedly the best part of Ethiopia for endemic birds; a bird-watching enthusiast’s paradise. More than 40 streams rise in the Bale Watershed eventually flowing into the mighty rivers of Juba or Wabe Shabelle.

These mountains, formed from solidified lava, make a wonderful trek during which it is possible to see endemic wildlife. Menelik’s bushbuck, warthog, mountain nyala, monkey and baboon can all be seen from the mountain treks. Lion, leopard and African wild dog do inhabit the Bale Moutains but are rarely seen by visitors. A most important fact is that the Bale Mountains are home to a population of the rare Ethiopian Wolf and it was when this was proved and data collected that the Bale Mountains were declared a national park.

The Moyale Road

Heading back from the Omo Valley, via Konso, the next town of note is Yabello, on the junction of the Moyale Road, the main road south of Awassa, stretching for 500km to Kenya. This road is mostly travelled by those heading to or from Kenya. Yabello can also be reached from the south east Bale Highlands through the small town of Negele Borena. Regardless of which route, heading from the highlands, the landscape gives way to low-lying acacia scrub. You are now in the land of the Borena pastoralists, who measure their wealth by the size of their prized cattle herds.

The biggest and most developed town along this route is Dilla, which is undoubtedly the last town where good accommodation, banking facilities and fresh fruit are available. But most notably, Dilla is a very convenient town for a number of wonderful archaeological sites such as the Tuta Fela Stelae Field and the Machitti Rock Carvings.

Yabello

Yabello is a non-descript town that mostly serves as an overnight stop for onward travel to Kenya, Awassa or the Bale Highlands. The main interest is mostly to ornithologists or bird watchers as Yabello is in the heart of the territory occupied by the white-tailed swallow and the Streseman’s bush crow. These are two of Ethiopia’s most localised endemics. Small wild mammals like Guenther’s dik-dik and ground squirrel are sighted around the Moyale road but for larger animals like Zebra, Swayne’s hartebeests or gazelles, the Yabello Game Sanctuary Park is probably a better bet.

Dilla

Dilla is a relatively large town south of Awassa and north of Yabello on the Moyale and is the administrative capital of the Gedea zone. The town lies in fertile green mountains and is also known for the excellent coffee grown in the vicinity: both Yirga Cheffe and Sidamo are sought after on the international markets. If coming to Dilla from the south or southwest, the fresh juices and pastries are most welcome, as is the reasonably good accommodation to be found along with some good restaurants. The recent news is that Dilla now has a much needed national bank, which gives this town further significance for those journeying from the south.

Dilla is a lovely town to use as a base for excursions to see the Stelae of Southern Ethiopia and the fascinating prehistoric Machitti rock carvings. The rock carvings are based in the Oromia region and it is possible to arrange a local Oromia guide. It is important to start out early though, as it is a good 8 km walk without a vehicle and the sun gets hot. The rock carvings are thought to be at least 3000 years old and show affinity with similar carvings found in South Africa and as far north as Eritrea: they depict herds of cattle with small heads, large decorated horns and large udders.

The Tutu Fela Stelae Field is one of the most impressive archaeological sites out of the 50 or so fields known in the Gedea zone, the other site being Tututi. There are two styles of stelae: the phallic stelae thought to date from the 9th century and the anthropomorphic stelae, thought to date from the 12th century. Tutu Fela has around 300 stelae of both styles (mostly anthropomorphic), whereas the Tututi stelae are mostly phallic and some standing up to 6m high. These obelisks are essentially grave stones and excavation has revealed artefacts ranging from iron and copper bracelets, to pottery, beads and tools, which were buried along side the occupant.

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