National Park & Guides

We will accept US dollars, UK Pounds, Euros and Ethiopian Birr. Simien Lodge accepts credit card payments at our Addis office but not at the lodge (a modem connection to banks is required). There are now many ATMs in the main towns, including Debark, the frontier town of the Simiens. Bring cash with you for payment for souvenirs and tips. Ethiopia is generally very safe, and robbery is very uncommon. However, the largest denomination is the 100 birr note, which is worth about $2. So this might mean that you are carrying large bundles of notes. Credit cards are starting to be accepted.

There is currently only one map available, printed originally by the University of Berne in 1977. Most of the guides have photocopies. Occasionally, these maps are available at the park office for $30.

Most nights we have something going on in the lodge, varying from a film to an evening lecture.

Trekking and camping provide several possibilities. If you are staying in the lodge at the beginning or the end of your trek, then you can leave unwanted baggage with us so you can walk ' lightweight' for walking. You can hire donkeys and mule drivers. You can hire a horse to ride, although Simien horses are smallish beasts, and you might feel that you are abusing the unshod horse after a short while. The Simien people treat animals badly as a rule, and tourists can help through education. At the lodge, we have good new tents and sleeping bags. If you hire in Gondar or Debark, be careful, as most tents leak and the sleeping bags are thin. Our sleeping bags are rated to -5 and are properly cleaned after each trek. Please advise us in advance and list the number of tents, sleeping bags, mules, guides, etc that you require.

There is a ' refuge' at Sankabur but it is not a lodge in the sense of Simien Lodge, and we prefer that our guests not use it except in the rainy season. The same applies to so-called ' Community Lodges'. They are OK if you don't mind roughing it, but they are not real lodges. Don't expect a shower or a proper toilet.

Note: Clients staying at Simien Lodge may leave unwanted luggage at our store.

Activities Available at Simien Lodge

• Trekking
• Mountain Bike Riding
• Horse Trekking in the Simiens (see notes)

From Simien Lodge you can hire:

• Tents (two person) Quetcha automatic type
• (Winter) sleeping bags rated to -5deg
• Mattresses plates, spoons, knives, forks and cups

(and the stove can be rented from the Cook or Debark Park Office)

Beware of hiring used equipment in from places which do not specialise. The equipment is often poor quality and you could end up either very wet or very cold.

Different types of trekking available around the Lodge are:

It is possible to take either challenging or not too challenging routes from the lodge which last just half a day and either return to the lodge by foot or to walk further afield and get picked up by car in order to come back to the lodge for lunch (and if you are on a tight schedule to even return to Gonder that afternoon).

Day Walks

The walk to Saddick Amba monastery takes about two hours to go down and three hours to climb back up the escarpment. It is one of the most beautiful treks in the Simiens. 

You can order a packed lunch from the kitchen and stock up on water and head out for the day. You can stay on the relatively flatter paths of go off the beaten track and try some of the more challenging hillier walks to nearby view points, waterfalls and villages and then walk back and get picked up by car.

If you want a challenge then you can walk down the sides of the escarpment to the plateau to visit the Adarmaz monastery. The walk involves some narrow paths and stell ladders down vertical rocks (although the quality of these may vary!)

Every walk in the Simiens is a nature walk. But if you're keen on photography, beautiful landscapes and scenery, flora and fauna or wild animals, you don't need to walk far from the lodge to be immersed in amazing examples of all of these. (In fact, you can sit on your sun-porch and watch it come to you.) But if you aren’t that patient, tailored walks can be designed to incorporate any of these aspects. You can find one of the nearby Gelada Paths and sit just metres away from these amazing animals or walk to spectacular viewpoints.

You can, of course, extend your trekking experience to camp out and walk deeper into the park over a few days. Possible routes include:

3 days leisurely trekking from Buit Ras (Simien Lodge) to Sankaber (5 Hours), Sankaber to Gich (6 Hours), and Gich to Chenek (7 hours) and get picked up by car.

This can be made into a shorter or longer trip, as you can get picked up at the end of any day or could walk yet further into the park or make it into a 6-day trek if you walk back as well!

Variations include staying at Gich Camp for a few nights and doing some day walks around the Gich escarpments to avoid having to increase altitude any further.

2 more days of physical walking: from Buyat Ras to Gich (7 Hours) and Gich to Chenek (5 hours), and you can come back by car or walk.

You also have the opportunity to climb the highest mountain in Ethiopia - Ras Dashen. Although this could be done in 6 days from the lodge, we would advise taking longer over it unless you are properly acclimatised to these altitudes. Alternatively, you can travel by car to Chunnuk camp or Bwahit and start trekking from there.

From Bwahit, it is a three-day trek.

From Bwahit, you descend to the Mesheba River, a 4-hour descent through the village of Chiroleba. After the river at 2700m, you climb to the camp, which takes about 2 hours. The trek to the summit normally starts about 4 am the next day, since the summit is often shrouded in clouds that come later in the day. There is a long traverse through giant lobelia woods. The final 100 meters to the summit require some rock climbing skills. There are a couple of parts which are steep. The same morning, the return to the camp is quite simple, but the total walking time on this day is about 10/11 hours. The return to Bwahit the next day is perhaps the most tiring part of the three days. There is no radio communication, no search-and-rescue, no medical facilities on the far side of Bwahit.

As a result of the altitude, the more popular way of trekking requires you to hire a scout, guide, cook, mules and mulers. Extra horses are available to take if you would like a backup in case it is harder in places than you had imagined. This allows you to concentrate on the good views and the enjoyable trekking, with tents, food and navigation is taken care of.

If you are feeling fit, it is also possible to hire only a scout (who will know the routes of the more popular treks but may struggle more off the beaten track!). If you have a large enough rucksack, you can carry everything with you, including food, water, etc.

To make this a viable option, you will need to bring all your trekking equipment from home, as the equipment on hire here is not lightweight; it is designed for mules!

(Limited) Food can be brought from Debark, but it is more reliably brought from Gondar or Axum. Camping gas cylinders are available in Addis, or you can bring a multi-fuel or petrol stove with you instead, and it is best to buy fuel in Gonder, although limited supplies of fuel are available in Debark.

The Horses in Ethiopia are not the same size as those in Europe and tend to be a little smaller, so although they are good as a backup, they are generally unable to carry heavy loads up or down the steeper hills. The equipment used here is somewhat rudimentary and, as such, is not as kind to the horses. The horses are not treated to such a good standard as the horses in Europe.

Simien Lodge supports international efforts regarding global warming and assisted with the planting of 7000 trees last rainy season.