Village - Ethiopia

The Afar Region lies east and south of the Abyssinian highlands and is bordered by Eritrea and Djibouti to the east, both countries having substantial Afar populations. The northern part of the Region is the driest and hottest part of the country - the Dalol Depression, with its salt flats and lunar landscape is both one of the lowest and hottest places on earth, being 116 m below sea level with a mean annual temperature of 35 oC. (The Afar Depression, part of the East African Rift system, is the site of a triple junction where three tectonic plates of the earth's crust are moving away from each other, and is therefore the site of much past and present volcanic activity.)

The Afar Region has consistently turned up evidence of the earliest hominids, from the Lucy (3.4 million years old) dig in 1973 to the discoveries in the last decade of Arbi Pithecus Ramidus (4.4 million years old ) and Arbi Pithecus Ramidus Kadaba (5.2-5.8 million years old).

For thousands of years the people of Afar have had resort to the hot springs at Bilen, for water for themselves and water and forage for their livestock. Travellers and explorers have stopped here, Wilfred Thessiger camped at Bilen while following the route of the River Awash and took photos of the hot springs.

Village Ethiopia's Bilen Lodge is located on Elalaytu, a hill overlooking thehot springs of Bilen and the vast sea of reeds which fringes them. 300 km from Addis Ababa, 10m km from the asphalt road to the port of Djibouti, you take a step into a quieter, calmer and more natural world.

The fifteen accommodation units, thatched with grass on the outside and covered with reed mats on the inside, are fully self contained with their own covered patio, bedroom and bathroom with flush toilet, wash basin and shower.

Sitting out on your patio you can see across the reeds to the escarpment of the Abyssinian highlands, and early morning you may be lucky and catch site of Bilen's resident lions, emerging from the reeds where they lie up to survey the world. At night you may well hear them coughing and grunting in the scree below the lodge.

Our well stocked bar and restaurant is at your service, day and night. We offer a variety of dishes, and vegetarians and vegans are well catered for.

There is a variety of different habitats around Bilen for birds, wildlife, flowers and plants: the hot spring and surrounding wetlands, the patch of natural forest at the northern tip of Ilalaytu Hill, the riverine forest along the Awash River, acacia woodlands and savannah grasslands, lakes, rocky hills, cliffs and escarpments.

Over 440 species of bird have been recorded in this area including rare species such as Yellow Throated Serin, Sombre Chat, Arabian Bustard. Wart hog, dik dik, mongoose, vervet monkeys, olive baboons and turtles are common, while we may also catch site of Lesser Kudu, Gerenuk and Oryx.

Camel treks around the vicinity of the lodge and across the Awash River will bring us to lakes with hippo and crocodiles.

The Afar people are the owners of this land and we will meet them as guides and mediators to Afar culture, working in the lodge, accompanying us on our treks and as we pass their villages on treks or excursions by vehicle.

Village Ethiopia has been conscious about ensuring benefits for the host community, through employment and income generation, and our consultation with the community and their elders is a continuous process. A percentage of profits from the lodge along with a small levy on visitors go to projects identified as priorities by the community, currently we are focusing on the school in the nearby village. Bilen Lodge runs a tree nursery – we plant a tree for every visitor received, and there are opportunities for tree sponsorship – you can “own” a tree where the human race began!

Whether you come to take it easy, to explore the countryside or simply to get away from it all, your stay at Bilen Lodge will be a memorable experience.