After Harar, it was time to go back to the northern highlands via Addis Ababa and then to the city of Mekele which is the regional capital of the Tigray people. The Tigrayans, at least in my eyes seemed to share similar cultural traits with the Amharas which is quite understandable since they also live in the Ethiopian highlands. What is not understandable is why Eritrea (where the Tigrayans make up the majority) and Ethiopia are at loggerheads with each other. It’s basically the same people and the same culture. Moreover, the part that is now Eritrea was essentially a region handed over to the Italians by Emperor Menelik in a treaty during the late 19th century. Maybe being an Italian colony for a while made the Eritreans feel different from the Ethiopians but to me it seems a very senseless conflict between these two nations.
Morning at Hamed Ela
Driving through the salt flats
Up close to the springs at Dallol
Anyway, Mekele was to serve as a base from where I was going to venture into the volcanic badlands of northeastern Ethiopia called as the Danakil (or Afar) Depression. I had another agenda to go to this region which is considered as one of the most inhospitable places on earth…to be atop the live volcano of Erta Ale for New Year’s Eve.
An Afari in Dallol
Upon landing at the Mekele airport, I met another travel companion who was going to the Danakil on the same tour group as me. If you have followed my blog, you know that I am not a big fan of tour groups but due to the difficulty of the terrain and the political instability in the region it was essentially the only way to access this region.
After checking in with the Travel agency, I walked around Mekele to see what the city had to offer which quite frankly wasn’t a lot. Basically a couple hours of walk and I had pretty much seen most of the city. Perhaps the highlight of that evening was a delectable mango-avocado juice.
Salt formations close to Dallol's sulphur springs
Later, I met up with Tomas with whom I had stayed in touch since we completed the Simien trek and had planned on joining together again for the Danakil voyage. Both of us had had enough of Injera and were craving for some pizza and thanks to the Italian influence in Mekele, there were some really good pizza places around town. That day I also learnt that the trip to Danakil would be 4 days and not the initially planned 5 days which meant that I now had one more day but more on it in the next post.
Salt formations (similar to Tsingy)
Dessicated remains of a bird at the Potash lake
Mekele sat at an altitude of 2036 meter above sea level and we had to descend all of it and more to get to the Danakil which is more than 100 meter below sea level.
The descent from the Northern highlands to the frontier hamlet of Hamed Ela was spectacular. Camels in the mountains seem slightly out of place but that’s exactly what we saw with camel caravans snaking through the mountains. These caravans were transporting slabs of salt from the Danakil region to Mekele. I had seen these slabs being sold in the market in Mekele, now I was heading to the source of this precious commodity.
The liquid is not water but potash solution
On the way to Hamed Ela we stopped at the town of Berhale to register with the administrative bureau and picked up our mandatory machine gun wielding policemen who would be our security for the next few days. Berhale serves as a camp for the caravans to break their week long journey between Danakil and Mekele and provides a chance for the caravans to restock and recharge.
A large caravan getting ready to spend the night at Hamed Ela
We camped in Hamed Ela for the first night and the place was warm and quite a change from all other places I had been in Ethiopia. Without the need for a warm bed, a Khatia (traditional Indian bed, which is a made of a wooden frame work and has coir rope woven in between) like structure was sufficient for the night.
Ababa roasting coffee for the ceremony
Sand beatle
The next morning, we drove past a large salt flat to arrive at a place called Dallol and it was a place unlike any I have seen. Dallol’s sulphur springs were not very pleasing to the olfactory senses but for the visual senses it was a pure treat with myriad structural formations and a combination of brilliant fluorescent colors spewing out of vents along with hot sulphurous gases. We spend a couple hours walking through this surreal landscape before it got too hot in the mid day sun and it was time to move on.
The inhospitable desert of Danakil...a car is stuck in the sand in the background
Our vehicle's turn to get stuck in the sand
They were our guides
A little further from the springs were huge salt formations and caves. Some of the spiky structures brought back memories of the Tsingy from Madagascar and after scrambling through them for a bit it was time to visit the “Oily Lake” as our guide introduced it. Danakil is a pretty hostile region and to see a lake here was quite strange. It was no ordinary lake though and gave up it secret after dipping my hand into it. It actually was a Potash lake and the liquid was extremely greasy. Scattered all around the lake were desiccated bodies of small birds that had probably quenched their thirst here only to die by its wayside.
Afar man and their huts in the background
A short drive away from the Oily Lake was another lake and this was not fit for drinking either. This was Lake Assal (different from the Djibouti one) and as the name suggests it was a salt lake. Though not as pretty as the Djibouti one, it serves the same purpose, i.e. salt production for the local Afar people and this was the source of the salt slabs. Around the lake were staked rectangular blocks of salt that were cut and cleaned ready to be picked up by the caravans to be send onwards to Mekele.
The region around Dallol is commonly referred to as Mars-like and after seeking its bizarre lakes and landscapes, I feel the it’s very extra terrestrial looking indeed. After getting back to the camp in Hamed Ela, the afternoon was spent exploring the village and we closed the night by having a traditional coffee ceremony under the stars.
Afar girls...one wanted to pose for the shot and
the other not
Next day was the last for the year 2011 and the destination for that night was going to be the summit of Erta Ale. The road from Hamed Ela to Dodom which is at the base of the volcano is reputed to be one of the worst in the world and until as recently as 2001, the only way to get to the volcano was by using camels or a helicopter. If vehicles breakdown or get stuck in this desert, they are pretty much abandoned there. In fact, it is mandatory to take a minimum of two 4WD even for a single traveler.
Burnt holes into my shoes
Fortunately for us, our driver Emman was very experienced and the vehicle was a fairly new one which meant that we negotiated the sand dunes pretty well even helping a couple other vehicles on our way. I am glad to report that none of my nightmares from Gabon were repeated here.
After almost 7 hours in the sands of the Danakil, we finally hit solidified lava around the base of Erta Ale and the vehicles took us as far as possible through the bumpy lava flows until we arrived at the base camp. A quick dinner and lots of caffeine to keep us awake through the night and we began the three hour hike up to the summit. From the summit we could see the red glow of the lava lake but to get to it we had to climb down from the rim of the caldera and walk through crusty solidified volcanic ash to finally reach the lava lake and what a sight it was! I cannot quite describe the site; perhaps my video below might be better able to describe it than my words.
The countdown for the New Year came and went but frankly, it did not matter because the wondrous sight in front of us had not changed. Most other travelers from the group left soon after ringing in the New Year until it was just four of us who were left back. The volcanic ash had hair like splinters which was itchy when it came in contact with skin so it made sitting on the crater’s edge discomforting.
Lava lake of Erta Ale
We stayed there for another couple hours until the fatigue got to us. Getting back to the rim of the volcano was not as easy as we had thought. It did not help that there was no moonlight and the ground below us was very unstable due to the crusty volcanic ash. For a while we thought that we had lost our way but we trusted our belief that the glow of the lake as well as the direction of smoke emanating from the crater would lead us in the right direction to the exit from the caldera. In the flashing torch light I spotted what I felt was a thin trail up out of the caldera and decided to inspect it a little bit more closely. Upon seeing a few stone huts at the top of the trail, relieved, I waved to the others to climb up.
It was a few hours to daybreak so I had to sleep at the summit with no warm clothes. Even though the summit was only around 600 meters above sea level, the windy condition made it extremely cold and I tried to go to sleep cursing myself for forgetting my sleeping bag at the base camp.
Getting up at day break was not a problem and we immediately started to descend down to the base camp. Soon we were on our way back through the inhospitable desert to Mekele via Hamed Ela. On the way, one of our vehicles broke down and we had to abandon it (with the assumption that the tour company would return back later to reclaim it).
Not our 4WD...but it was abandoned
Negotiating the solidified lava flows
Now that I look back at my four day journey into the Danakil region, I think it was an unforgettable experience and perhaps a very fortunate one as well. Just seven days ago a group of tourist/scientists were attacked in the same region with five of them being killed on the spot and two being taken as hostages. Here’s a link to the full story (http://news.yahoo.com/ethiopia-says-slain-tourists-europeans-australian-073122277.html)
This was a caravan of atleast 200-300 camels
Perhaps this was caused due to the bad blood between Eritrea and Ethiopia or maybe it was the work of disgruntled Afar tribesmen’s seeking autonomy for their region. My interaction with the Afar people however was very positive and it’s terribly unfortunately for the tourist/scientists who lost their lives as well as the Afar tribesmen who will now lose a regular source of income that otherwise would have alleviated their harsh living conditions.
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