The view from the Bale Mountain Lodge that opened on November 1st, 2013. (NYT)
The first resort in Ethiopia’s wildlife-rich Bale Mountains National Park, Bale Mountain Lodge, opening Nov. 1, is poised to expand the African safari checklist beyond the Big Five.
Located about 250 miles southeast of Addis Ababa, the 15-room lodge lies within the 1,367-square-mile park of mountains, plateau and forests.
The nonprofit environmental organization Conservational International considers Bale Mountain a biodiversity hot spot based on its rare species, including Ethiopian wolves and Bale monkeys, plus endemic mountain nyala (a kind of antelope), black-maned lions and giant forest hogs.
Overlooking a mountain stream at an elevation of 7,800 feet, the eco-lodge was designed with such features as hydropower and biogas for cooking to be carbon positive. Rooms include private decks and wood-burning stoves, and common areas include a waterfall-fed pool and spa.
The lodge employs a resident naturalist and is working with universities from Mississippi to Stockholm to encourage research in the remote area.
Read more at The New York Times.
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