Ethiopia birding and culture (1 Viewer)

Hi:

In the "Winging It" newsletter of the ABA for Oct. 2010 they had an article on "Ten Places to Bird Before You..." The place that struck my fancy was Ethiopia. I did some research, Bradt guides, Lonely Planet and Birding Pals. There is a lot to see and do there. One of the guides in Birding Pals offers a two week birding trip, expecting to see over 350 birds (30 endemics), but the price for one person is $6,000. With one more person the price drops to just over $3,000. I was considering going the beginning of Oct., 2011. The fellow I usually bird with is unavailable. The website for the trip leader is www.birdingpal.org/ethiopian. I will probably spend another two weeks with my wife doing the monasteries etc. Anyone interested.

Pete

Suff,

Recently returned from a 17 day trip to Ethiopia. Will be posting a trip report soonish.

Had a tremendous time - a wonderful country, fantastic birds and scenery, great people, and a very friendly amoeba - but that's another story!!

We used Ethiopian Quadrants- who are excellent - and asked for Abiy Dagne as the driver/guide, on the advice of Claire Spottiswoode (W T Watch birds in Ethiopia) amongst others.

He was absolutely brilliant. Tremendous birder/driver/guide and great company. We saw over 550 species plus Simien Wolf, Gelada Baboons etc etc etc.

Please PM me in the meantime if you want any more info.

Was in Carlsbad in 1976 checking the Caverns out - great place.

Cheers,

Paul Higson

Can I just confirm what Paul says about Ethiopian Quadrants and Abiy Dagne.My Wife and I had three and a half weeks birding with Abiy in Jan./Feb.immediately preceeding Paul's visit.He was superb,worked his socks off to find us all the birds, generally mollycoodled us around southern Ethiopia, even cooking breakfast for us in the bush when we had been up at dawn for one of the specialities,and driving us 5500kms.over some pretty hairy roads.He speaks very good English and is a great companion.Like Paul I can't recommend him too highly.With only two of you on the trip it is important that you 'jell' with the guide! Incidently we did the northern historic church circuit after the birding,also organised by Ethiopian Quadrants.Again not a single hitch in all the arrangements,and at what I thought was a very competitive price in comparison with other quotes I had seen.One of the major advantages of Ethiopian Quadrants is that it is run by a delightful Irishman who has lived in Addis for 20 years,so there are no language problems and he fully understands what birders want.
Tom Lawson.