01 May Ethiopia: the Danakil Desert

I'm still doing my thing, with the deserts, (each crazy person with their own theme) and I recognise that my obsession is growing. I have made a long list of all the deserts, ergs, hamadas... that I need to see or return to, from the Tassili N'Ajjer to the Makgadikgadi salt flats. This time, I'm going to take you to one of the first on my list, the Danakil desert, one of the most inhospitable places on earth,

Both Nesbitt, the first adventurer to cross this desert, and the explorer Wilfred Thessiger described this area as a land of terror, hardship and death. And I, who despite my age still find in these words a clear invitation, managed to convince two friends to accompany me there to see if it was "that bad".

And the truth is that we saw almost the same thing they found: the hottest place on earth, with active volcanoes, rivers of petrified lava, endless plains of burning salt and scorched sand, hostile tribes and strong winds full of dust or days of suffocating calm. ... It's unimaginable without a good gin and tonic at sunset, thank goodness that Hamed Ela's military detachment at least had fresh beers, because God squeezes but doesn't drown...

Getting here is extremely difficult and tiring, so my great contribution to the world of dogflautism will be to reveal a good way to get there.
My first recommendation would be that you sign up for one of Kananga's trips around the country, not because I collaborate with them as a guide, but because I collaborate with them, I know that they are the best in Spain when it comes to travelling around Africa.

And after this totally spontaneous and unfortunately gratuitous burst of publicity, let's move on to the most dangerous hypothesis:
That is to say, you find yourself on a long weekend, drinking beers in the Punta del Este bar with your friends and suddenly your mouth gets hot and you say, there's no way you're leaving tomorrow for the Danakil desert...
Well, don't worry, if you jump into the pool in this way, I'll explain how to do it.

1.- You have to fly with ethiopian to Addis and from there to Mekele. If you fly with them, the internal flight will be 50% cheaper. As you fly through the night, I recommend booking the ticket in business class. Even so, and ignoring my own advice, I took my ticket in the kennel of the plane, to familiarise myself with the ordeal.

2.- You can NOT go to this desert on your own, you have to go with a minimum of two cars, with a driver as our licence is not valid there, you also have to process access permits for the Afar territory, hire an armed escort, Afar guide, camels to carry the equipment, take food, many beers..., etc etc etc. The best thing to do is to do it with memories tour, through Kananga, they will take care of it and that way you will ensure the success of the trip. My big idea was to have rented three tuc tuc like the one in the photo and go through the desert in them, everything will work out...

3.- From Mekele you head by road towards the Erta Ale volcano. The road drops in altitude from 2300m to below sea level as it enters Afar territory. After many hours in the car and the night walk to sleep next to the crater, I imagine that the hangover from the previous day will have worn off...

It is a joy to sleep next to the crater of this volcano that has been active since 1905, to see its sea of lava and then to close your eyes and hear...

The height of happiness is reached the next day when you get up at half past four to go down before it gets too hot. I imagine that after the descent, not only have you got over your hangover, but you've sweated off every last beer... Your equipment is carried by camel and you have a platoon of the army to protect you, as in 2010 they killed several tourists. Don't worry, not even the Uguguma rebels are active here, it's pretty quiet now, I only put this so my mother doesn't relax, (she still worries about nothing).

4.- From the volcano you can go directly to Dallol by what is known as the most tortuous path in the world. Although I think it is even more so the one through the aisles of ikea following the missus, armed with a meter, a pencil and your pda.

Well, as I said, you can go directly to Dallol or make a detour of about 5 hours, as the other road is not always accessible.
At least the trail is very nice and entertaining, and you can see a great diversity of wildlife, we saw: hyenas (2), foxes (1), lions (0) and I don't remember if giraffes, one or none...which, on the other hand, didn't look like anything there either.

On the way I recommend stopping at a roadside bar, I don't remember the place or the name, only that they had those cool beers, the kind you can get your teeth into. Few things feel better after having spent a few days at more than 40 degrees, I would have even married the waitress out of excitement, if it wasn't for the fact that I don't belong to her.

5.- After sleeping next to the Erta Ale volcano, you drive to the village of Hamed Ela. There, in the late afternoon, the camel caravans pass by on their way to the Berahile salt market.

Some will remember that on facebook I shared a photo of a caravan of salt from the Danakil, and announced that I was going there, well, I was there, the caravans were not there, because at this time of the year the afternoons are very hot.

In fact it is better if you decide to go from September to February so you can see them and the Afar people working in the mine. Although if you go in April, you have it all to yourself.
As I said, we did not see the caravans coming out of the salt mines, but since he protects the bold, we passed them on our way back from the salt market in Berahile, and we saw not one, not two, but seven, and I am not exaggerating here.

6.- The next morning you go to see Dallol, the only volcano in the world below sea level and the hottest place on earth. And this is where I go into detail with the photographs because the place is amazing.

And this is not the end of this part of the itinerary, in the access ravines is the Salt Mountain, so called because it is made of salt itself (how I like to give technical data, I die and I do not educate you...).

And finally, Lake Assale, a salt lake 180 m below sea level, one of the lowest points in Africa. The lowest is Lake Assal in Djibouti, but I told you about that in another post. No, if one day I'm going to give you a pop quiz and then the regrets will come...

Well, this is the end of the journey for today. On the way back we just have to retrace our steps. I hope you found it an interesting suggestion for the next long weekend and that it helps you to break the monotony of weekends of beer, sex and sofa.

Next day I will tell you what happened to us in the churches of Gera'Alta in the Tigray Mountains (p'habernos matao).