Habtamu Mamo worked with us as our location fixer during our shoot in Ethiopia earlier this year. Sir Bob Geldof and a small crew spent three weeks filming across the country for a six part BBC series "Geldof in Africa".

Habtamu was given the responsibility to book the transport and accommodation and to make the necessary arrangements for a camping expedition to a remote area of the Mago National Park. He accompanied the crew throughout the shoot and acted as both guide and interpreter.

Our schedule was very intense and the shoot’s success depended on a high level of efficiency. Habtamu was extremely well organised, efficient, trustworthy and a pleasure to work with. He worked hard to ensure that the crew’s needs were always met. He made every effort to resolve problems that arose, as quickly as possible.

Habtamu did not help with our filming permit or temporary equipment import but would be able to organise these aspects if required.

Rebecca Kelly
Line Producer
 "Geldof in Africa"
+44 207 428 3141

Habtamu Mamo and Abiy with Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman  from  LongWayRound and LongWayDown

http://www.longwaydown.com

http://www.longwayround.com

Dear Habtamu,

We arrived home safely this afternoon, and have with us many fond memories of the holiday! We had an amazing time, so thank you so much for arranging everything, and looking after us, especially the boys!
We love Ethiopia and are sure we will return again one day, the children say it is the best holiday they have ever had, and have had such great opportunities during the holiday to experience the culture and meet such lovely, warm and kind people, which we can all count as our friends. Our time on the tour really has exceeded all our expectations and we wish we were back there already!

Thanks so much for taking us out last night, we really enjoyed your company, and will have great memories of our last night in Ethiopia, it was a great end to a fantastic holiday! The children enjoyed top view and the music and dancing at the Ethiopian restaurant was great, it was such a good atmosphere! After 2 meals we were then offered a dinner on our flight, needless to say we were full!

We will sort through our photos and send you a few, the boys also want to write you a report, Tom was so keen he has started his already! Oscar, Tom and Cory all send their love, and we will be in touch soon. Thanks again!

Best wishes,

Vicky, Nic, Cory, Tom and Oscar

Comment by Silvia Bua & Sabine (From Germany); Ethiopia is not yet known very well as a tourism destination which is worth to go there. But I can declare definitely that it is. It is a wonderful country with a variety of different landscapes, cultures, people and historical places .... and it is definitely worth to travel in this country. It was also a pleasure to meet the friendly, smiling, helpful and interested Ethiopians on the way of our tour. We only had good experiences wherever we have been.

We have done a tour to the historical places in Bahir Dar, Gondar and Lalibela. Each of these places showed us its specialty of cultural places, different architectures and of course the wonder of the 11 Lalibela churches. We are still fascinated what people can build.

Then we have visited the south of the country with the different tribes living in this region. All of them are open and friendly people.
Where we have been very disappointed, was the village of the Mursi people. Maybe we where disappointed on one side as we where expecting this visit as one of the highlights of our tour. But on the other hand, it was disappointing to see what negative effects tourism can have on people who formerly lived in peace. The Mursi react quite aggressive to tourists get money from them either for taking photos or for buying souvenirs.

But apart from this only one hour of disappointment, we where very happy to travel through this huge country with quite long ways to travel from one place to the other.
Of course, as Ethiopia is a poor country and infra structure is not at its best yet, sometimes you have to lower your luxury expectations of hotel rooms etc.
But food has almost always been very tasty!

With the choice to ask TIMELESS ETHIOPIA to organize the tour for us (we found them in the internet), we did the absolutely right decision. From the very beginning we had the good feeling by getting always very quick reply to our different questions and the price was very reasonable.

On our tour we had a good service, we got picked up for the sightseeing tours from our guides in the historical places always very punctually, the guides had a deep and wide knowledge about their city, the history, the places and the country.
For our tour to the south we had a crew of 3 people just for the 2 of us. We had a tour guide with a wide knowledge, a good and safe driving driver and a very good cook for the camping parts of the tour.
They really gave us a very nice time where we got to know a lot about the country and its people and we had a lot of fun with our crew. At the end we where like friends.

The car was a strong 4WD Toyota land cruiser where we always felt safe and also the tents where almost new with comfortable mattresses they offered us.

I just can express repeating: WE ARE HAPPY THAT WE HAVE CHOOSEN TIMELESS ETHIOPIA to organize our tour.
AND: WE WILL COME AGAIN TO ETHIOPIA - NEXT TIME IN 2007 TO THE MILLENIUM PARTY (as their calendar is different from ours they will celebrate the millennium by then)!!
We really can recommend Habtamu as a serious trading partner for private people and for tour operators who want to offer Ethiopia in their programmes.

Silvia Bua & Sabine
Rathausstraße 55
71576 Burgstetten
Tel./Fax: 07191 / 90 65 10
email: silvia.bua@web.de

Best regards, Mrs. & Mr. Gordon From London - E-mail: wendy@acacia-avenue.com

Comment by P. Steenbergen (from Holland); For a very special occasion we contacted Timeless Ethiopia, we wanted the director, Habtamu Mamo, to organize a four week trip through Ethiopia during August 2005. We were difficult customers. We had our special demands about our destinations and about our lodgings. Mr Habtamu patiently changed plans we mailed to him as our departure date drew nearer and nearer.

Our trip was finally arranged completely according to our wishes. Mr Habtamu seems to have his contacts everywhere. The local guides were well-informed of what assistance we wanted and, equally important, what we did not want: an over-organized trip with no possibility for a change of plans along the way.

Our expedition into the Danakil (salt)desert, from the city of Mekele, was an experience which lead us close to the Eritrean border (and at 46 degrees Celsius almost melted us). Again this leg was meticulously organized by Mr Habtamu. On the whole we are extremely grateful for everything he did for us.

We can recommend the flexible and professional services of Mr Habtamu’s great office to everyone who wishes to visit Ethiopia on their own terms!
P. Steenbergen - Holland, E-mail Address: pietsteenbergen1@hotmail.com

In Ethiopia I spend three weeks with my friends. We saw the north with its gorgeous monuments( hewn rock churches of Lallibella).We were impressed with unbelievable beauty of the landscape and unique quality of south tribes (Woito, Konso, Hamer, etc.). On the south we made over 3000 km driving jeeps, which was an unforgettable experience.

During such a long trip we traveled without problems thanks to Mr Habtamu Mamo and his office efforts -  they are professional . I would like to underline, that Mr Habtamu created nice and warm atmosphere.

I would like to recommend this office because of preparing not only interesting route but also original entertainment to make our stay better than we could expect.

Ewa Kasperska - Machura from Poland E-mail address ewakasperska-m@o2.pl