Bye Dorian,
This morning we returned from a beautiful tour of Ethiopia. Definitely worth it! Unlike Africa other than the 'safari countries' we've been to.
Our experiences:
- Organization of the trip was in total very good: immediately the reception of Maria in Addis, a cup of coffee, tips, suggestions for restaurants etc. we appreciated and made use of. The same applies to the last day in Addis where Maria has taken us back and guided us around by Addis.
- Driver/driver Josef: fine. He drives carefully whatever is needed, good driver, friendly and caring. All the compliments to him.
- Car: Nissan Patrol: indispensable in these countries so fine
Travel programme:
we were happy with the combination North and South. Over all, the program was well put together. Here and there we have made small adjustments.
- Simien Park we have shortened to one day. The reason was that the Eco Lodge was more than 2.5 hours away from the park (only). The weather was moderate with regular lots of fog and cloud cover. Nevertheless, we were lucky enough to see virtually all specific species. Since the trip to Aksum included many hours, and if we were to travel a day earlier we would have a whole day available in Aksum, we opted for this adjustment. In addition, the hotel in Sona and the place Debark did not appeal to us. Furthermore, the program in the north was fine, engaging and very well organized. The program in the south was a little less well put together (in terms of our expectations).
- Day 11: After arriving in Arba Minch, the day of arrival, we had plenty of time left and visited the mountain village of Dorze for an extra fee.
- Also at Maria's suggestion we took the excursion with the boat trip over Lake Chama, where many crocodiles etc. would be seen. Unfortunately, this was disappointing: initially we understood that the boat trip would take three hours, on the day itself it turned out to be the shortened version of one and a half hours and crocodiles etc. we hardly saw it. In itself the area is beautiful and the boat trip is also beautiful but in terms of wildlife it was the same for us as Lake Tana. Too bad, especially since we heard from Americans we met more often in the same hotels/lodges that they have seen many crocodiles etc. at the same time and day as the description in various travel guides also indicate.
- Day 12: The tribes: we expected to see three special tribes. After the morning visit to Mursi, which we experienced as special, we had the afternoon program; a visit to the Omo village and museum. This was a downright disappointment. We had viewed the museum within 20 minutes and the visit to the village was really nothing. We were back at the Omo Lodge after noon, a break from two hours to 2pm and after the afternoon programme we were back at the lodge at 3.15pm. This part of the day was a really lost afternoon where we would have preferred to visit a special tribe. This we found a missed opportunity because time in this trip was precious to us.
- Day 13: We therefore had the morning program changed because there was another visit to a similar village on the program and given the disappointment of the afternoon before, the driver adapted the program on request with a visit to the Hamarstam. This was also easy to fit in in terms of time/distance and we were obviously happy with that. The visit to the Konso village was again good and fascinating.
Hotels:
generally satisfactorily. You know you're in Ethiopia and have to accept that there's no hot water several times and the electricity goes out - under the heading 'this is part of it' - and we're certainly happy with the later added better hotels in the program.
- Gozamen: acceptable given the city/surroundings. Location good, room spacious, shower/hot water limited, food moderate.
- Tana Hotel: location beautiful, very friendly and helpful, accommodation dated (faded glory), two days no hot water but the friendliness and the food were good and the location compensates for the rest.
- Goha Hotel: the best hotel we have had. Beautiful views, good food, friendly, nicely decorated, nice hotel room with good plumbing.
- Kossoye Eco Lodge: very friendly, food reasonable, it was very cold in the hut (well thought of) and the operator gave hot water bottles for bed. View stunning.
- Sabean Hotel: actually bad. Not really friendly, very bad breakfast, dinner thanks to the vegetarian pizza reasonable, hotel room acceptable.
- Top 12 Hotel: beautiful view, very friendly, food reasonable, too bad the restaurant space is so unsociable. Plumbing good.
- Paradise Lodge: view spectacular, nice hotel room, food/restaurant mediocre, too bad it's mass but overall good.
- Omo Eco Lodge: I think - given the surroundings - this was the best. Nicely set up, nice fixed tents, Food limited in choice, after one day (lunch and dinner) you are eaten out on the map. On special request we still got hot water in the morning after we were explicitly told that this is an eco lodge... 🙂
- Congo Lodge: beautiful, with all the flowers and views. Good food, nice hotel room.
Summary:
we have had an exciting, beautiful and well organised trip and are definitely satisfied with the above feedback.
Rest our thanks for the effort you have made to offer this trip and make it to our liking.
Sincerely
Leon and Celine Savelkoul