After arriving in Addis Ababa at Bole International Airport, you will be picked up by your guide and transferred to your hotel.

The Ethiopian capital is full of worthwhile sites, including the former palace of Haile Selassie, the Entete Mariam mountain, and the national museum, home to the three-and a-half million year old skeleton ‘Lucy’, one of the earliest hominids ever discovered. Overnight Addis Ababa.

Driving south along the Great Rift Valley, we’ll visit Debre Zeit, famous for its picturesque crater lakes. Then we’ll continue on to Awash National Park, a rolling landscape of extinct volcanoes and savannah grassland.

The afternoon will give us time to explore the park, which is home to mammals such as oryx, kudu, olive baboon and many more. Overnight Awash National Park.

After breakfast you have a seven hour drive to Afdera, heading east through the city of Awash towards the Red Sea.

Along the way we’ll see dramatic Rift Valley scenery and numerous settlements the nomadic Afar tribe. Overnight camping by Lake Afdera.

A morning drive will take us to the legendary volcano of Erta ale.

In the evening, after the daytime heat has subsided, we’ll set off on a three hour trek for the 613 meter summit, home to one of only four active lava lakes on the planet, and one of Ethiopia’s most extraordinary natural treasures. Overnight camping on Erta ale summit.

At around 9am you will be at the foot of the volcanic mountain where you will have breakfast and drive to the Afar village of Hammed Ela, a challenging journey of sandy roads and searing temperatures.

Day’s end brings ample rewards, as we explore a series of mineral mines and vividly colored evaporated sulphur lakes. Overnight camping at Hammed Ela.

Today you will visit the Dallol Depression, one of the lowest points on earth at 116 meters below sea level.

By Lake Assale, You will see the Afar tribe’s traditional methods of extracting salt bar, which was once used as local currency, and have the opportunity to follow the camel caravans as they transport salt back up to the highlands. Overnight camping at Hammed Ela.

In the morning after breakfast, you will drive to Axum for about five hours.

For 3,000 years up to the tenth century it was the capital of the Aksumite Kingdom, a wealthy naval empire that was among the first regions to adopt Christianity as a state religion. Today, it is famed as the rumoured resting place of the Ark of the Covenant, said to reside away from public gaze in St Mary’s, one of the town’s many grand churches. Overnight Aksum.

Explore Ethiopia’s ancient capital. The town boasts an extraordinary spiritual topography of obelisks, temples and the tombs of ancient kings, together with a pair of fascinating museums. Overnight Aksum.

Drive to the Simien Mountains where you will have a day to explore the ‘Roof of Africa’, some of Ethiopia’s most spectacular highlands.

The trekking is high-altitude – most of the national park sits above 3,000 meters – but the trekking on the plateau is relatively gentle. Overnight camping. Overnight camping at Sankaber.

In the morning after breakfast, you will drive to Bahir Dar for six hours with a stop in Gonder.

In Gonder you will visit the Royal Enclosure, a sprawling castle complex built by Emperor Fasilidas in the seventeenth century, when this town was the capital of a vast empire. Overnight Bahir Dar.

In the morning you will do the boat trip to the island of Lake Tana to visit ancient monasteries.  On the way back you will be able to see the outlet of the Blue Nile River.

Later, we’ll head 30 kilometers east to visit the spectacular Blue Nile Falls. Known as Tis Abay (“smoking water”) in Amharic, this rumbling cataract is over 400 meters wide in the rainy season. Overnight Bahir Dar.

In the morning after breakfast, you will dive to Lalibela through the Wollo Mountains for about six hours.

The drive will take you through the Wollo Mountains, where there you’ll be able to stop regularly to observe highland farming practices (and, if we’re lucky, a traditional coffee ceremony in a mud-walled tukul). Overnight Sora Lodge.

In the morning after breakfast, you will visit the first group of Lalibela’s famous rock-hewn churches. Carved straight out of the bedrock in the twelfth century, they have been dubbed ‘the eighth wonder of the world’.

In the afternoon after lunch, you will visit the second group of churches including Beta Giorgis, the sunken crucifix church that is perhaps the most iconic of them all. Overnight Sora Lodge.

In the morning you will fly back to Addis Ababa, where the tour will come to an end.