Trekking in Ethiopia

country:	Ethiopia
location:	Lalibela
price:	From £80 (5 days) excluding flights. Price includes food, accommodation, guide and pack animal. This itinerary can be arranged throughout the season from 1 Oct - end June.
vouchers:	Gift vouchers can be used with this holiday

Ethiopia holidays

Moderate walking holidays

Community based tourism

description

Experience the ‘Real Ethiopia’. Ethiopia is a varied and diverse country, with at its core an age-old culture of farmers, who have been ploughing their fields with ox-drawn ploughs for a few thousand years. Their life is intrinsically linked to the agricultural seasons and the ancient Ethiopian Orthodox calendar with its saints’ days and festivals punctuating their life.

Local communities near Lalibela invite you to accept their hospitality trek through their age-old lands. Set in the dramatic landscape of the highlands of northern Ethiopia, with basalt cliffs, Gelada Baboon and birds of prey soaring on the thermals, your visit in Meket will be the highlight of your trip to Ethiopia.

You will stay in spartan but comfortable local cottages (tukuls) designed using local materials, set on the edge of the communities’ villages. Food will be prepared to suit western tastes, along with a traditional coffee ceremony. Donkeys will carry your luggage as you trek with a trained local guide from one village to the next along escarpments and through church yards of ancient trees. This is a fantastic opportunity to slow down and become part of this ancient land.

Best time to go: The trekking sites are open from 1 Oct – 15th Jul. Oct – Jan is the best time to visit.
Oct: after the rains have ended the landscape is at its most beautiful, with fields of green crops, flowers, butterflies and birds in their mating plumage.
Nov - Dec: The fields turn golden as crops ripen, and harvest activities begin to start.
Mid Dec - mid Jan: Peak agricultural season. Timkat celebrating the baptism of Jesus by John, is the most important festival in calendar, and it is possible to join local communities in their celebrations.

itinerary

Day 1:	Half day trek starting at Werkaye Mariam – to Mequat Mariam. Werkhaye Mariam is outside Filakit, a 2 hour drive from Lalibela.
Day 2:	Full days trek (7 hrs) to Wajela, following escarpement, taking in local churches.
Day 3:	Full days trek (5 hrs) to Aterow with optional extra walk to magical forest surrounding old church, and cave churches.
Day 4:	Full days trek (5 hrs) to Yadukulay site, perched on hill top.
Day 5:	3 Hours walk via cave church complex to settlement of Taja, from where a hired vehicle or bus can take you to Lalibela.

Itineraries can be reversed and shortened or otherwise tailored to fit with guests’ preferences.

travelling with a local operator

This holiday is operated by a company based in the holiday destination and they will be able to provide expert local knowledge. They will be able to tailor make your holiday to suit your requirements not only concerning the dates of travel but also typically the standard of accommodation, and thus price. It is rare for local operators to be able to help with the booking of your flights.

how this holiday makes a difference

The sites are part of wholly community owned enterprises, run for and by the local community in which they are situated. Environmental considerations are an integral part of the enterprises.

Ecotourism is a fundamental part of the project.

numbers of tourists per site will be limited to 6-8
eco-toilet (dry composting urine separating toilet)
water available for washing, but tourists made aware of limited resource
shower – (sun heated water) water diverted to promote tree growth
Indigenous tree planting
Protecting cliff faces with terracing
Encouraging local community to see flora and fauna as a resource to protect

These community tourism sites are owned and run by the communities themselves, with the support of a local development organisation. The tourism generates incomes for some community members and the profit goes in to a fund for the whole community. The community receive training on management and running of a business. Given confidence to work together for joint benefit.

The communities are your hosts. Sixty percent of your payment goes directly to them, twenty five percent goes to the guides and their business (which supports the community run trekking sites) and fifteen percent goes to cover marketing costs and coordinate the bookings. This fund will be held by the community to be used as they decide. One community is saving for a grinding mill (they currently hand grind corn or have to travel a long distance to a mill).

Every drink you have puts more money into the local communities, and as much of the produce as possible is sourced by the communities from themselves and their neighbours. TESFA, the local NGO supporting this community tourism initiative are working hard to help communities realise how important it is to conserve and improve their environment and are planting indigenous trees and the like.

This holiday is part of the responsibletravel.com and Conservation International Community Based Tourism Programme to support and promote community based tourism ventures that offer significant conservation and development benefits to local communities. To see other community based tourism holidays and find out more about the programme click here.

Tourism can be good and bad for destinations & local people.

We carefully screen every holiday against our criteria for responsible travel.

'Look behind the brochure' to find how each holiday makes a difference (see left).

We don't claim to be perfect - there is no global accreditation - but we've led the way since 2001 and screened 1000's of holidays.

We invite every traveller to write a review about their experiences and responsible tourism.

This valuable feedback is sent to the people who run the holidays. We keep a very close eye on it and take off holidays that don't live up to our standards.