Safari to Gheralta

a deeply aesthetic experience

Set in the remote Tigray province in the far north of Ethiopia, the Gheralta Mountains is an extensive area of granite inselbergs and undulating hills which conceal an incredible wealth and diversity of rock-hewn churches.

Many of these amazing places are extremely inaccessible and can only be reached by traversing some pretty extreme hiking trails.

The experience of visiting these churches is, without doubt, one of the most exciting and atmospheric things to do in Ethiopia. It really feels an honour that the lovely local people are generous enough to share these intimate places with outsiders.

A visit to the remote churches of Gheralta tends to feature in most of the more active and adventurous trips to the north of Ethiopia.

The Gheralta area tends to be combined in trips with various places of interest in the north of Ethiopia, including Danakil DepressionAxum, Lalibela, Gondar, the Simien Mountains and Bahir Dar.

Seasonality

The best time to visit the Gheralta Mountains is generally considered to be during the Oct-Mar dry season period, but it really is a viable option year round.

The greater region has a subtropical highland climate, with an Apr-Sep rainy season, which reaches a peak during Jun-Aug.

But whilst the majority of the north of Ethiopia experiences significant rains, in this more arid part of the country only tends to bring light afternoon showers, which tend not to be too disruptive to treks and the water soon evaporates and drains away.

Peak daytime temperatures are usually very comfortable, at around 27C/80F. But in advance of the rains during Mar-May they can rise to 30C/85F, potentially accompanied by high humidities, which can become uncomfortable (although night time temperatures usually still fall to a pleasant 13C/55F).

In an ideal world we would be able to plan visits around specific cultural events such as the wedding season, but these tend to be quite unpredictable. The main religious festivals of Ledet (Christmas) on the 7th January and Timkat (Epiphany) on 19th January are certainly interesting, but there tends to be a surge of both local and international visitors, so they might actually be worth avoiding.

Getting there

The north of Ethiopia is usually reached by means of regular daily flights from the capital Addis Ababa.

Some of the interconnecting journeys within the region are best done by air, others have to be done by road.

Gheralta is usually connected by air to most locations (via the airport at Mek’ele), but by road to nearby Axum and the Danakil Depression.

Where to stay

Unusually for Ethiopia, the Gheralta Mountains area actually contains two decent lodge options.

The most obvious option is the simple but rather pleasant Korkor Lodge, which is the main base for the most popular churches.

The other choice is the rather more upmarket Italian-owned Gheralta Lodge, which is actually rather stylish and sympathetic to the environment.

If you want to get more involved in this area (which is highly recommended), then there is also an excellent option for immersive multiple day walking tours of the area, organised on behalf of the local communities by the excellent Tesfa Tigray, staying in various communally owned guests-houses, some of which are in the most ridiculously scenic locations high in the mountains.

gentle sightseeing or serious hiking