The tour begins in Dorze marketplace where, on market days, visitors will experience the hustle and bustle of a traditional Ethiopian market and can test their bargaining skills. From the market, visitors head to the potter’s house where skilled artisans explain the different soils used to create clay coffee pots, bowls, and sculptures. Inspired guests can try their hand at making a bowl. 

In Amarana Bodo, visitors can refresh themselves with a gourd of borde, Dorze’s local beer. The local brewer explains how borde is made and guests can stir the thick malt before tasting the results, served with a hot chili pepper! Visitors then move on to learn about Dorze’s bamboo houses. Carpenters demonstrate how to cut and weave the long bamboo strips into a circular structure, and how bamboo leaves are used to cover the house.

In Hirpo, leather artisans demonstrate softening, preparing and weaving leather into bags, saddles, and bridles. Hirpo is also the home of the traditional Dorze woven scarf. Visitors follow the process from scratch, learning how to spin cotton into yarn before continuing to a collective weaving compound where local artisans create beautiful scarves, traditional clothing, and blankets.

Following a packed picnic lunch at a scenic viewpoint, visitors set off on the two-hour Highland Fruit Tour, beginning in Ira Kebele where local families grow apples, plums, and pears in addition to traditional false banana (enset) plants. Farmers will explain how young seedlings are grown, grafted, and mature into fruit-bearing trees. During the harvest, visitors learn how to pick a ripe fruit from the heavy boughs of apple and plum trees.

This tour is available from December-July, when highland fruits are in season.

Highlights

• Meeting the local residents in their own family compounds
• Having a go at making a bamboo house, borde beer or a clay bowl while the skilled artisans offer guidance
• Learn the skills needed by local farmers to cultivate fruit in their gardens

Itinerary

• • Meet guide at Chencha - Dorze Tourist Information Center
• Start tour at market – time to browse stalls on market days
• Reach potter’s house in Dorze 01
• Visit to brewer’s house with local beer sampling
• Bamboo house demonstration in Amarana Bodo Kebele
• Visit the leather and calabash artisan settlement
• Learn to spin cotton and weave with artisans in Hirpo Kebele
• Extension: Lunch at scenic viewpoint
• Two hour highland fruit tour

What to Bring

• Camera
• Closed shoes for hiking round the village
• Sun screen and hat
• Insect repellent
• Light waterproof and a warm layer
• Gratuities for guides 

Price

• 300 Birr for 1-2 tourists, 25 Birr for each additional tourist

Price Includes

• Guided hike, entrance to compounds and all demonstrations

Note: There are limited dining options in Dorze so visitors are encouraged to bring a packed lunch from Arba Minch.