BY TEWODROS KASSA
We are on the top of the Bale Mountains National Park. Observing closely the Ethiopian endemic Red Fox, varied-coloured birds, mammals, and reptiles gives pleasures and offer relief from every stressful situations of life. The cold air of the mountain also refreshes mind and body.
Bale Mountains National Park is an area of high altitude plateau that is broken by numerous spectacular volcanic plugs and peaks, beautiful alpine lakes and rushing mountain streams that descend into deep rocky gorges on their way to the lowlands below.
Currently, it is a high rainfall season in Ethiopia. The mountain becomes green and covered with an ice that gives it an amazing view together with the fog that lays on the tip the forest.
Located 400 km southeast of Addis Ababa, Bale Mountains National Park contains a spectacularly diverse landscape. The high altitude, afro-montane Sanetti Plateau rises to over 4,000m and includes the highest peak in the southern Ethiopia highlands. This undulating plateau is marked by numerous glacial lakes and swamps and surrounded by higher volcanic ridges and peaks.
The southern slopes are covered by the lush and largely unexplored Harenna Forest, which is a tropical montane forest and one of the largest and most evergreen extensive forests in Ethiopia’s Bale Mountains.
According to the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Bale Mountains National Park is universally valuable for a number of reasons, not the least of which is its spectacular scenery. Its high mountains, sweeping valleys, dramatic escarpment and wide expanses of forests provide visitors with a diversity of vistas unique to the Ethiopian highlands.
The Bale Mountains ecosystem and its associated diversity of habitats are an internationally recognized centre for endemism and biodiversity, with a quarter of mammals and 6 percent of birds in the area being Ethiopian endemics. There are also a number of rare endemic amphibians. The area contains the entire global population of the Giant Molerat (Tachyoryctes macrocephalus), the largest global populations of endangered Ethiopian wolves (Canis Simensis) and Mountain Nyala (Tragelaphus buxtoni). Indeed it has been estimated that more mammal species would go extinct were the habitats of the Bale Mountains to disappear, than any other area of equivalent size on the globe were to disappear. Further, the Bale Mountains harbour 40 percent of the 1000 known species of medicinal plants in Ethiopia, and the largest remaining natural stand of wild coffee genetic stock. Half the park is montane forest, including both cloud forest and moist tropical forest – the second largest in Ethiopia and the origin of Ethiopian wild coffee.
The mountains and forests of this ecosystem are also a critically important water catchments area for southern Ethiopia and western Somalia, supplying perennial water to 12 million people in the lowlands of Ethiopia and Somalia.
Due to the altitude, plant diversity here is low in the park. However, one of the notable plant species is the giant lobelia found from 3,100 metres to 4,377 metres growing to a maximum height of six metres. On the plateau stands Tulu Dimtu at 4,377 metres. This is the second tallest mountain in Ethiopia, and the tallest in Bale. The plateau is also home to Ethiopian wolves and a trip to the plateau all but guarantees a sighting of this charismatic carnivore. The Bale Plateau hosts a large number of raptors that feed on the sizeable rodent population. This is also the most southern resident and breeding area in home to golden eagles. The lakes, rivers and swamps attract many Palearctic waders. Look for the endemic blue-winged goose (the rarest and most isolated goose in the world), spot-breasted plover, and ruddy shellduck (like the golden eagle, the ruddy shellduck population is unique and isolated). Additionally, the population of red- billed chough is the most southern population in Africa. Several pairs of wattled crane are also present on the plateau – the northernmost population in Africa.
The southern and largest area of the park consists of the second largest forest in Ethiopia: the Harenna forest. Along with the adjacent State- and community-managed forest outside the park, it constitutes an area of over 4,000 square kilo metres. It is also the largest cloud forest in the country. The road from the plateau takes you down the Harenna escarpment and into the forest. Mountain bamboo grows within the forest, particularly on steep slopes. Rubus steuderi, a member of the blackberry family, grows along the road from April to June. The upper area of the Harenna forest is wet cloud forest with an extensive bamboo belt, while the lower parts are drier mountain forest.
Bale Mountains National Park is the ultimate destination for hikers, wildlife watchers, culture and nature enthusiasts, bird watchers and more. Explore one of the highest parks in Africa by horseback, go fishing or experience an authentic community trying local coffee and honey. One of the best sites to spot the rare and endangered Ethiopian Wolf is on the spectacular Sanetti Plateau as the sun rises.
Accordingly, Bale is the best place for trekking and birding. After 6-8hrs drive from Addis Ababa, one who wants to visit the site will reach the National Park headquarters.
As she/he ascends into the mountains she/he will experience changes in the vegetation with altitude, from juniper forests to heather moorlands and alpine meadows, which at various times of year exhibit an abundance of colorful wildflowers.
Bale Mountains National Park is the largest area of Afro-Alpine habitat in the whole of the continent. It gives the visitor opportunities for unsurpassed mountain walking, scenic driving and the chances to view many of Ethiopia’s endemic mammals, in particular the Mountain Nyala and Semien Fox, and birds, such as the Thick-billed Raven, and Wattled Ibis.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD FRIDAY 5 AUGUST 2022
