Safari to the Abyssinian Rift Valley

the northern part of the Great Rift Valley

The Great Rift Valley runs north to south for almost 3500 km (2100 miles) through Eastern Africa.

The Abyssinian Rift is the part of this feature which cleaves a path diagonally through the Ethiopian Highlands, just south of Addis Ababa, to reach the Red Sea.

It is a 50 km (30 mile) wide valley that contains a wealth of volcanic scenery and a string of scenic lakes.

The Abyssinian Rift is generally considered to be somewhere that you pass through on the way to somewhere more exciting, rather than a destination in its own right. This is largely due to the expanded human population, which has severely encroached upon the wildlife areas.

The rift valley rarely features in trips that we put together for our guests since we usually fly between Addis Ababa and the Bale Mountains and Southern Omo Valley, but we do occasionally overland through here, notably when accessing the Aledeghi area a little further east, but even then we don’t tend to overnight here.

Although not always the case, if you see this area included in a trip, it’s usually not a good sign, most likely it’s a bland junket around the standard touristy areas, notably the abusive cultural interaction of the Eastern Omo River.

A notable exception would be specialised birding tours, which are legitimately lured into the area.

often features in lower quality overland trips