In an effort to beat the heat, we awoke on our string beds around 5:30 a.m. and set off for our final day of sightseeing in the Danakil Depression. On our way through the salt flats, we paused to watch a pair of salt miners work. They pick squares of salt off the ground (yes, off the ground – it’s just sitting there) and hack them into the appropriate shapes, then load them onto camel caravans for transportation to the salt market in Berhale. It seems like a hard way to make a living, mining for salt in such an inhospitable place.¹

Continue reading Last Day in the Danakil Depression: Camel Caravans and Sulfur Springs →

We were exhausted after climbing Erta Ale volcano – not only had the nearly 20 kilometer trek been physically tiring, we had gotten less than four hours of sleep – and so it wasn’t too disappointing that our second day on our tour of the Danakil Depression was mostly driving. The reality of traveling in the Danakil is that there is not too much that can be (enjoyably) done – beyond sitting in the comfort of a well air-conditioned vehicle – during the day. By the time we had eaten breakfast and packed up to leave the Erta Ale base camp, roughly 8:00 a.m., the temperature had already reached 38°C/100.4°F.

For the most part, the driving was slow and bumpy, it took us hours to traverse the path through the volcanic flows back from the Erta Ale base camp to the main road. At times, however, the driving was exciting: after discovering that a landslide had blocked the road to the village where we planned to eat lunch, we took an off-road detour through a river bed.¹ Continue reading Days 2 & 3 in the Danakil Depression: Salt Flats & String Beds →

After spending a couple of rainy weeks up in the high-elevation of Ethiopia’s mountains, how could we pass up an opportunity to balance out our travels around the region with a trip to the Danakil Depression, one of the hottest (and lowest) places on Earth! Sounds fun, right? Well, Marc thought it did; I took some convincing.

With an average annual temperature that hovers around a staggering 34.4°C/94°F, the Danakil Depression ranks as the hottest place on Earth, on a year-round basis.¹ Unfortunately, because of the inhospitable nature of the environment (daytime temperatures regularly exceed 50°C/122°F), as well its proximity to the volatile Eritrean border, the Danakil is not an area which you can explore independently. As such, visits to the area are best arranged with an organized tour. We signed up for a four-day trip with Ethio Travel and Tours, which not only quoted us the best price for visiting the Danakil, but also gave us a discount since there would be four of us (Marc and I, plus our two Kiwi friends that we met in Tanzania) traveling together. Continue reading Sleeping On the Side of Erta Ale Volcano →

Back in August (a phrase which I almost hate typing because it demonstrates just how far behind we are on updating this blog!), I celebrated my third birthday abroad. The first two of my birthdays abroad each involved border crossings,¹ and early on in this trip I had put my foot down: I would not be crossing any land borders on my birthday, and I would prefer not to have to engage in any minibus shenanigans either.

Accordingly, we traveled from Bahir Dar to Gondar the day before my birthday. I’m not going to bore you all with yet another tale of haggling over minibus prices (although this time there was an involved discussion of the fare paid for the giant cabbages being transported on the roof), but I’ll just say that I’m glad that we didn’t have to do it on my birthday.²

Continue reading The Year I Celebrated My Birthday In an Ethiopian Castle →

When we finally accepted that we were not getting a visa for Sudan, we left Addis Ababa and embarked upon a ten-hour bus ride to Bahir Dar, a fairly picturesque city located on Lake Tana. While there are plenty of places in town to sit and admire the lake, the real attractions are a couple of worthwhile day trips.

Continue reading Day Trips from Bahir Dar: Blue Nile Falls & Lake Tana Monasteries →