9 Days – Upper Omo Valley

At 7:30AM, you will be proceeding to Mizan Teferi, en route visiting the largest tea plantation at Wushwush and the scenic primary forests. Arriving Mizan Teferi late afternoon, you will be spending overnight at Salayish Hotel.

At 8:00AM, you will be driving to Tulgit, one of the two settlement areas of the Surma tribe. En route, you will be visiting the largest coffee plantation at Bebeka. Further ahead through Dima, you will be arriving Tulgit mid afternoon. Through the rest of the afternoon, you will have a brief introductory village sighting in the surroundings of Tulgit. End of the day, you will be camping overnight.

The Surma tribe are divided into three clans – Zilmamo clan settled around Tulgit, Chai clan settled around Kibish and Tirma clan settled around Jeba.
In Tulgit and its surroundings, you will spend the day visiting the Zilmamo clan of the Surma tribe. End of the day, you will be camping overnight.

At 6:00AM, you will be proceeding to Koka, one of the largest cattle camps in the Surma territory. Cattle being the daily life-stream of the Surma tribe, you will start off the by seeing their activities in attending to the cattle for water to river beds, feeding, milking etc. Mid-morning, you will be returning back to Tulgit and proceed to Kibish where you will have roughly a 2 hours walk to Magoloni village, one of the authentic villages of the Surma tribe’s Chai clan. Here, you will be spend the day seeing how they run their day to day lives, their lip plates that differ by shape from the Mursi tribe of the Lower Omo Valley. Late-afternoon, you will be returning back to Kibish where you will be camping overnight.

At 6:30AM, you will be proceeding to Kormu village, a village settlement of the Chai clan where you will likely be able to meet the photogenic village chief of the Chai clan. Through the day, you will be seeing their daily activities inclusive of cattle milking, farming, dressing patterns of the men and women and of course the lip plates of the women that differ by shape from the Mursi tribe of the Lower Omo Valley. Mid-afternoon, you will be returning back to Kibish where you will be camping overnight.

At 8:00AM, you will be proceeding to Bonga via Dima and Mizan Teferi. En route at Dima, you will be seeing the Nuer and Annuak tribes, best identified by their tall figure and stripped foreheads. Proceeding further and stopping at Bebeka Coffee Plantation for lunch stop, you will be continuing on to Bonga, arriving late afternoon and spending overnight at Coffee Land Hotel.

At 7:30AM, you will be proceeding to Woliso via Jimma and the Gibe Gorge. Arriving Woliso mid-afternoon, you will spend the rest of the afternoon at Negash Lodge, a one-time recreational retreat for Emperor Haile Selassie in the 60s, set up with attractive traditional tukuls. End of the day, you will spend overnight at the Lodge www.negashlodge.com.

At 8:00AM, you will be heading to Wenchi Crater lake where you will be able to appreciate the surrounding scenery plus visit to a Monastery by the lake. Mid-afternoon, you will be proceeding to Addis Ababa. Arriving Addis Ababa at noon, you will be checking into the Jupiter Hotel, thereby ending your 9 days tour of the Upper Omo Valley of South West Ethiopia.