The Bale mountains in southeastern Ethiopia are a region of afro-montane forests and moorlands, arid and sparsely populated. An Avatar-like environment of gnarly old trees, bamboo forests and giant heather, often lost in a sea of clouds. The Bale mountains support many species of plants and animals endemic to Ethiopia. Most fascinating among them is the Ethiopian wolf, the world’s rarest canid, of which fewer than 500 survive. The Sanetti plateau, at an altitude of 4,000m and with temperatures which drop below 0 is the wolves’ favourite habitat.
Wandering through the ethereal bamboo and pine forests, hiking on the plateau, surrounded everywhere by an alien landscape – we end up getting a feeling of complete otherworldliness.
