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Tesfa Tours

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Tesfa Tours - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (2024)

Tesfa Tours

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Tesfa Tours - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (2024)

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Tesfa Tours

Mark set up Tesfa Tours in 2010 to continue promoting the community tourism he'd been developing since 1999. To us community tourism means a sustainable partnership between philanthropic businesses and community run enterprises. Although the last few years means not all guesthouses are operational, we currently have around 12 operational community run guesthouses in Wollo (near Lalibela) and Wof Washa forest (closer to Addis).

A few days trekking through these areas will give you an insight into the local way of life, while at the same time supporting these local villagers and providing you with a sustainable and wonderful holiday. We design tailor made holidays that mostly combine community tourism, with visits to the cultural heritage sites for which Ethiopia is famous, and some national parks which offer something quite different to the rest of the continent. We love hiking but we will work around your preference.

Our Recommended Tours

• Jaunt In Abyssinia incl. Betelhem hidden monastery
• Trekking in the historical North
• Low Carbon – 2 Weeks Trekking & Exploring Across Northern Ethiopia
• Bale trip with the Rift valley lake
• Community Trekking In Wollo (Lalibela)

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Tesfa Tours

ETOA Member

The Ethiopian Tour Operators Association (ETOA) is a member-driven, non-profit organization dedicated to empowering our community of tour operator professionals, including inbound tour operators, outbound tour operators, destination management companies, travel agencies, transport providers, guides, and other tourism-related businesses across Ethiopia, through training, advocacy, and sustainable development initiatives.

Company Description:

Tesfa Tours are the experts in Trekking and community tourism in Ethiopia. We believe community tourism means holidays that support local communities, but we also believe that holidays must give our guests a wonderful time. Tesfa Tours was set up in 2010 to take on the mantle of promoting the community tourism that has been developed in Ethiopia under Mark Chapman’s guidance since 1999. Our holidays all include a key element of this community tourism. We work closely with the communities, the guides and other stakeholders to ensure the success of this special ‘project’ which now involves over 20 communities serving food and hosting guests in both the Wollo (Lalibela) and Tigray areas. In addition to these treks, we organise complete holidays combining Tesfa community treks with visits to the historic churches in Tigray, to Gondar, Axum and Lalibela, to see remote churches on Lake Tana and Lake Ziway, to see the jagged peaks in the Simien mountains, and the Afro Alpine moorland in the Bale mountains or Gwassa Menz, the old Muslim city of Harar, the Danakil depression with lava lakes, mineral deposits and camel caravans, and all the other amazing sights of Ethiopia. In addition it is our objective that our tours are as socially responsible and environmentally sustainable as possible ... So let us create your Ethiopian Adventures!

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Tesfa Tours

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TESFA TOURS (Addis Ababa) - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go

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TESFA TOURS: All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (with Photos)

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Kremt Season – The Ethiopian Monsoon

Rain storm approaches in mountains of Tigray

When is the Kremt ?

The Ethiopian highlands get drenched each year from late June through September. In Addis the rains are heavy and start early and end late finally finishing at the start of October. But by mid to late September the rain becomes noticeably lighter and less frequent. Further north they might not kick in till mid July and tend to fizzle out a bit earlier in September.

Visiting Ethiopia during the Kremt

People ask about visiting Ethiopia during this Kremt season. For people living in Addis Ababa, looking for an escape from the cold and wet weather the best advice is to go to somewhere lower in

Kremt rains in Addis   

altitude. Take a break from Addis by visiting Bahir Dar or Arba Minch. Or just head into the Rift Valley, as even the 50km drive to Bishoftu gives you a change in climate. Yes it’s still rains, but the rain storms are shorter lived with more blue sky between, and temperatures are a good deal higher than in Addis.

If the Kremt is your time to visit Ethiopia, don’t worry most places are still good to visit. You just need to be prepared that a rainstorm might track through and you will be sitting in a cafe, chatting to people waiting for the weather to clear. So don’t try to pack too much into one day but give yourself a little bit of extra time. And of course do pack the right clothes (it will be cooler and rain jackets are  needed – and maybe an umbrella!).  Of course the high mountains with moorland at around 4,000 meters altitude are perhaps not the best places to go. Particularly in the

Blue Nile Falls

Simien mountains where you could be in cloud and driving rain for very long periods of time. But it may still be worth spending a night at the lodge for the probability of clear skies early in the morning and amazing views. Some of our community treks are not advisable at this time and we close at a number of guest houses. However Lalibela, Gondar and Bahir Dar are well worth visiting at this time. Indeed by August the Blue Nile Falls – locally known as Tissisat are really pumping. Harar to the east, and many places in the south are also great to see in the rainy season. In fact in the far southwest, in the

Meket Shepherd boy with whip

Omo Valley July and August are not even rainy season.

Festivals in the Kremt 

There are also some key festivals to look out for in August. The Buhe/Ashenda festival time comes in late August. Buhe is celebrated in Addis on 19 August with the Debre Tabor holiday marking Jesus’ Transfiguration. Special bread is baked, and there is singing and dancing around campfires. A few days later, Ashenda is celebrated as the two week long Filsetta Fast ends. This is mostly a women’s day where they dress up often with skirts of grass and dance and sing, but in some areas such as around Lalibela and Meket, boys will have a contest to see who can make the loudest whip crack.

What is the Kremt?

Trading routes used by dhows and the monsoon

So is the Kremt season really a monsoon? Technically yes, this rain is driven by the same global patterns that drive India’s monsoon. There is a kind of climatic equator where the Southern and Northern Hemisphere’s meet called the Inter-

Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) . This was the phenomenon that causes the doldrums sailors used to fear. In July-September this band moves north, far north into Asia and it also moves north of the Horn of Africa. Behind it it pulls up winds that blow broadly north from the Indian Ocean, and these moisture ladened winds soak the Ethiopian highlands with life giving rains.

This monsoon even has an effect on Oman’s east coast with the Dhofar mountains getting a good soaking in the same period, before returning to the usual dry arid climate. Along Africa’s east coast trading Dhows used this shift in winds to sail north the July-Sept and as the ITCZ shifts south from October, so the winds would switch allowing sailors to take their shows as far south as Madagascar. Zanzibar was off course a key port and trading centre in this international traffic, with its fabled spices. It was in fact part of the Sultanate of Oman.

The Kremt and the Origin of Ethiopia’s Calendar

Nile flood waters at Giza

Ethiopia’s Kremt rains have also had a huge effect on Egypt. Ancient Egyptians relied upon the Nile’s floodwaters to reinvigorate the lands beside the Nile and so allow them to plant a crop as the floodwaters receded. For them the flood was a renewal. The ancient Egyptian New Year started when the Nile began to flood . And it is no surprise that this flood was due to the deluge in the highlands of Ethiopia, most of the water from which makes its way into the Nile basin. And in an ironic exchange Ethiopia has taken the basic timeframe of the Egyptian calendar for itself. The Ethiopian New Year which is currently on the 11th of September each year is derived from the ancient Egyptian New Year. Over the many thousands of years the date has slipped back from mid August when the flooding starts.

So whether you live in Ethiopia and are wondering if you have to endure endless weeks of rain in Addis, or you are considering to visit Ethiopia and are wondering if the rainy season is an OK time to see this marvellous country, please talk to us as Tesfa Tours and we can ensure you see some blue skies, get some sunshine and experience the best of Ethiopia.

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