Harenna Forest visit

While based at Bale Mountain Lodge, you should definitely spend at least one day exploring parts of this expansive and very beautiful evergreen forest. There is a well mapped system of trails, some starting from the lodge. Those keen on scenery can visit sites like the Rira Falls, while birders may want to focus on exploring the forest itself. Around the lodge, birding is rewarding, with regularly seen 'specials' including Africa's finest songster, the Abyssinian catbird. You should also see beehives placed high up in certain roadside trees - the kids who harvest the honey here are incredibly adept at scaling up and down the trees. Wildlife enthusiasts can seek the likes of Giant forest hog, Warthog, Menelik's bushbuck, Tree hyrax and the area is also noted for being home to an unusual, forest-dwelling population of Lions. Among the resident primates is the rarely seen, endemic Bale monkey, which frequents tall stands of bamboo, some not very far from the lodge. Depending on which trail you want to explore, your guide and/or your driver will take you to the start point from where you set off with your guide, afterwards returning to the lodge.