Qualla: Awash National Park https://qualla.com/awash-national-park en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:29 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/s/c/s/7/awash-national-park-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Awash National Park https://qualla.com/awash-national-park Awash National Park: Introduction https://qualla.com/awash-national-park/ Photo credit Nina R from Africa, CC BY 2.0. Steam rises from the ground at Filwoha, drifting through groves of doum palms that have no business growing in this parched landscape. The hot springs bubble up where geothermal energy meets the Awash River valley, creating oases of improbable green against the dry acacia scrub. Awash National Park, established in 1966 as one of Ethiopia's first protected areas, sits squarely on the floor of the Great Rift Valley, where the African continent is slowly tearing itself apart. It is a place of contrasts: a dormant volcano rising above sun-scorched plains, waterfalls crashing through gorges in a region that can go ten months without rain, and some of Africa's most diverse wildlife sharing space with the Karayyu Oromo pastoralists whose livelihoods the park's creation disrupted.

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Image: Nina R from Africa | CC BY 2.0

]]> Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/c/s/7/awash-national-park-wp/scs7-awash-national-park-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Awash National Park: Volcano on the Rift https://qualla.com/awash-national-park/ Photo credit DaneyWiki, CC BY-SA 4.0. Mount Fentale dominates the park's western skyline, a dormant stratovolcano whose flanks define the boundary between the acacia woodlands below and the open sky above. The Addis Ababa to Dire Dawa highway cuts through the park, splitting it into two distinct landscapes. To the so...

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Image: DaneyWiki | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/c/s/7/awash-national-park-wp/scs7-awash-national-park-volcano-on-the-rift.mp3 0:06 2 full Awash National Park: The Oryx and the Vanished https://qualla.com/awash-national-park/ Photo credit Jean Rebiffé from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, CC BY 2.0. Beisa oryx are the park's signature animal, their straight horns and painted faces common across the grasslands. They share the landscape with more than 81 mammal species: aardvarks and aardwolves hunting in the scrub, leopards and cheetahs stalking the plains, hippos wallowing i...

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Image: Jean Rebiffé from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | CC BY 2.0

]]> Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/c/s/7/awash-national-park-wp/scs7-awash-national-park-the-oryx-and-the-vanished.mp3 0:06 3 full Awash National Park: A Sky Full of Wings https://qualla.com/awash-national-park/ Photo credit Mulo Emmanuel, CC BY-SA 3.0. With 453 recorded bird species, Awash is one of Ethiopia's premier birding destinations. Somali ostriches stride across the grasslands. Kori bustards, the heaviest flying birds in Africa, pick through the scrub. Northern carmine bee-eaters flash crimson overhead, while Abyssinian...

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Image: Mulo Emmanuel | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/c/s/7/awash-national-park-wp/scs7-awash-national-park-a-sky-full-of-wings.mp3 0:06 4 full Awash National Park: The People Who Were Here First https://qualla.com/awash-national-park/ Photo credit Jean Rebiffé from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, CC BY 2.0. The park's creation came at a cost that the Ethiopian government originally intended to avoid. The Karayyu Oromo are indigenous pastoralists who have grazed their cattle across these lands for generations. When the park was established in 1966, and the neighboring Metehara Sugar ...

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Image: Jean Rebiffé from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | CC BY 2.0

]]> Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/c/s/7/awash-national-park-wp/scs7-awash-national-park-the-people-who-were-here-first.mp3 0:06 5 full