10 DAYS SOUTH WESTERN OMO VALLEY WITH CHEBERA CHURCHURA

DAY 1 Addis Ababa

Upon arrival at Bole International Airport you will be met by a Ruba Tours representative and be taken to your reserved hotel. Depending on your arrival time, we have various sightseeing options:

• Mount Entoto with the best views over the capital.
• Institute of Ethiopian Studies, where you can see a variety of artifacts from all the different regions reflecting the history and culture of the country
• National Museum which among other exhibits the 3.5-million-year-old bones of Lucy.
• Saint-George Cathedral, where paintings by the famous Ethiopian artist Afework Tekele and other ecclesiastical wealth and cultural heritage of the past are displayed.
• Trinity Cathedral: this is the burial place of members of the imperial family and noted patriots; the cathedral is the most magnificent of its kind in the country, ornamented with carvings, mosaics and other artistic works.
• The Mercato, the largest open-air market in Africa

• Unity Park, located within the National Palace of Ethiopia , embodies generational legacy of Ethiopia And Ethiopians.Prime minster Dr Abiy has announced that The park will be open to the public as of October 11, following the October 10th launchThe National Palace was Built under Emperor Menelik II over a century ago, the Palace rests on 40,000Sqm of land. For generations, it has been viewed as the epicenter of political power, where the most powerful family in the land resides. The renovated compound incorporates several sights of interest to visitors, including an arena, a playground, a zoo,three churches,House of Royals and an imperial banquet hall.

Day 2 Drive from Addis Ababa to Jimma

We will leave early in the morning and drive thru beautiful landscapes. We will have lunch in the town of Welkite. Later we will cross the Gibe and Gojeb rivers before arriving in the late afternoon in the old town of Jimma. A few buildings have survived from the time of the Jimma Kingdom, including the Palace of Abba Jifar. The city is home to a museum,  several markets, and an airport . 

Night and Dinner at Central Hotel.

Day 3 Drive from Jimma to Chebera (camping)

Chebera Churchura National Park is a national park located in South West Ethiopia Peoples’ Region in the south west of Ethiopia. The park was founded by the regional government in 2005. The park is located 133 km south from Jimma and 483 km southwest from Addis Ababa.

Camping

Day 4 Chebera

Flora

The park covers 1,250 km² and contains four types of habitat. Most of the park which is covered by 62% is wooded grassland dominated by elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum), with montane woodland comprising 29% along with woodland and riparian forest the rest. Palm trees are significantly diverse within the park’s ecoregion.

Fauna

The park is home to 37 species of large mammals and 237 species of birds. The park provides protection for the herds of African Elephants that are abundantly rare within the protected forest areas and open grasslands. Mammals that are also found in Chebera Churchura national park include Lions, Leopards, Servals, Greater kudus, colobus monkeys, Vervet monkeys, hippos, Defassa waterbucks, warthogs, and Cape buffalos.

Camping

Day 5 Drive from Chebera to Bonga

Bonga is a town, woreda and capital of the South West Ethiopia Peoples’ Region in Ethiopia. Located in the Keffa Zone upon a hill in the upper Barta valley, it has a latitude and longitude of 7°16′N 36°14′ECoordinates: 7°16′N 36°14′E with an elevation of 1,714 meters above sea level. Not confused with another town named “Bonga”, near Gambela Region

Night and Dinner at Coffee Land Hotel.

Day 6. Drive to Mizan Teferi

Mizan Tefere (also called simply Mizan) is the largest town in South West Ethiopia Peoples’ Region and one of four Capital cities of the region.^[1] Mizan is also the administrative centre, of the Bench Sheko Zone in the South West Ethiopia Peoples’ Region of Ethiopia. Located about 160 kilometers southwest of Jimma, Mizan Tefere has a latitude and longitude of 7°0′N 35°35′ECoordinates: 7°0′N 35°35′E and an elevation of 1451 meters. Mizan Teferi, together with the neighbouring town of Aman, forms a separate woreda called Mizan Aman. This is surrounded by Debub Bench woreda.

Night and Dinner at Salayish Hotel

Day 7. Drive to Tulgit

The Omo Kibish Formation or simply Kibish Formation is a geological formation in the Lower Omo Valley of southwestern Ethiopia. It is named after the nearby Omo River and is subdivided into four members known as Members I-IV. The members are numbered in the order in which they were deposited and date between 196 ka ~ 13-4 ka.^[1] Omo Kibish and the neighboring formations (Shungura and Usno) have produced a rich paleoanthropological record with many hominin (e.g. Paranthropus boisei) and stone tool (e.g. Oldowan tools) finds.^[2] The Kibish formation, in particular, is most notable for Richard Leakey‘s work there in 1967 during which he and his team found one of the oldest remains of anatomically modern Homo sapiens. Known as Omo Kibish 1 (Omo I), the fossil was dated to 196 ± 5 ka old and is among two other Omo remains (Omo II and Omo III) that were found in Member I.^[3] The Omo fossils were more recently (in 2022) re-dated to approximately 233,000 ka old.^[4] In the early 2000s a research boom enriched the knowledge base about the Kibish Formation. Study of the faunal remains (large mammal and fish faunas) and stone tools provided insight into the archeological associations of Homo sapiens and thereby their behaviors and the complex environmental contexts in which they lived and evolve.

Camping in Tulgit

Day 8. Drive to Kibish

The main settlement in this area is the colourful village of Kibish. Set in a bowl in the forested hills, it is a fascinating place populated by the striking Suri people. Photographing the Suri attracts a fee for adults, children and animals. Photographers likely to take a lot of photos will be better off negotiating a fee for unlimited photos over a set period of time.

comping in Tulgit

Day 9 Drive to Mizan via Bebeka coffee plantation.

The 93-sq-km Bebeka Coffee Plantation, 28km southwest before Mizan Tefari (an hour’s drive), is Ethiopia’s largest and oldest coffee farm. There are no longer any official tours, but we are able to drive thru the plantation.

Night and Dinner at Salayish

Day 10 Drive to Jimma and fly back to Addis Ababa.

We will have an early start to drive back to Jimma and catch our flight back to Addis Ababa.