Yabello » Venture Ethiopia - Tours and Travel

Yabello

The 2,500 km2 Yabello Wildlife Sanctuary was created in 1978 to protect the endemic Swayne's hartebeest, but unfortunately, none now remain in the area.  The sanctuary is however the ideal place for bird-watchers to see the endemic Abyssinian bushcrow and white-tailed swallow.

From Yabello, you can take a trip to a crater lake named El Sode, meaning "place of salt" in the local Oromifa language.  This inky-black lake, surrounded by 200m-high walls, is an important regional centre of salt extraction.  In the dry season, there is also the opportunity to see the famous "singing wells" of the Borena people.  These wells, which were dug centuries ago, can be up to 30m deep.  Men form a chain, balanced on precarious-looking ladders, along which they pass giraffe-hide buckets of water.  As they do so, the men sing in unison to help maintain the rhythm and pace of the passing.

Map of Yabello