The Bale Mountains
As a total contrast, the Bale Mountains, with their vast moorlands, their lower reaches covered with St. John’s wort, their extensive heath, their virgin woodlands, their pristine mountain streams and their alpine climate, are a beautiful world all of their own set in the southern highlands of Ethiopia, 425 kilometres from Addis Ababa. The mountains rise to a height of over 4,000 metres, with Tulu Dimtu, the second highest peak in Ethiopia, rising 4,377 metres high. The bale mountains National Park, which covers an area of 2,740 squre kilometres, and through which one can either walk or drive, is one of the best places to see the endemic Abyssinnian wolf, the Mountain nyala and Menelik’s bushbuck. Amongst a profusion of birds, other animals to be seen include Anubis baboons, colobus monkeys, giant forest hog, lions and leopards. The creeks of the park, which become important rivers further down, offer some of Africa’s finest fishing both rainbow and brown trout. Not far from the Bale Mountains is one of the world’s most spectacular and extensive underground caverns: the Sof Omar cave system. Formed by the Web River as it changed its course in the distant past and carved a new channel through limestone foothills, Sof Omar is an extraordinarily natural phenomenon of breath-taking beauty. The two southernmost of the chain of Ethiopia’s Rift Valley lakes, Abaya and Chamo, are the lushest in vegetation and the richest in wildlife. The Nechisar National Park embraces the eastern shores of the lakes and was established as a sanctuary for the endemic Swayne’s hartebeest. The lakes support many species of fish including the Nile perch and the tiger fish, as well as hordes of hippos and crocodiles. The bluff between the lakes has numerous springs after which the nearest town, Arba Minch, the local name for ‘forty springs’, is named.