Danakil tour - Lac Assale and Dallol, Ethiopia

The one-night break in town was great, we were able to shower, sleep in a comfortable bed, use a real toilet, and have food other than pasta.

Plus it was a reasonable start, we only had to be at the ETT office (just around the corner from Johannes Hotel) at 9:30am, so we even got to sleep in.

We did some shopping for bread, so we could make our own peanut butter or tuna sandwiches, as we were getting tired of pasta.

For the next two days we were joined by another vehicle, carrying two British and two French. Our guide joined our vehicle so we were now three in the back seat, which is more normal, but after being spoiled on the first two days it felt a bit cramped.

The third day of our Danakil trip was just getting to Lac Assale for sunset, passing camel caravans along the way.

Lunch was actually not too bad, rice with a vegetable stew, with a banana for dessert, so we didn't have to make our own sandwiches.

We got to Lac Assale around 4pm, after picking up the various permits and scouts and armed police. It was impressive, different than Salar de Uyuni, not as smooth surfaced, and more brownish (I think from the different minerals). Parts were under a few inches of water, and the other tourists waded in. Heather and I didn't like the idea of having salty skin for the next day and a half (there's no where to rinse off, except by using our bottled water), so we stayed on the dry part.

The camel caravans passed about a km away, so we walked closer for better pics. There was a grouping of rocks in distance which made for a good background.

There were clouds on the horizon so we didn't see the full sunset, but it was still pretty, although missing the camels passing in front as a subject for my pics.

Back in camp just outside the lake, we had dinner of vegetable soup followed by, you guessed it, pasta. However it was the best pasta we had had on the trip, very good spaghetti. I added our tuna for protein, and when the cook saw that he brought out tuna for everyone. Maybe all we had to do was ask for tuna? They also served decent buns with dinner, with orange slices for dessert.

Our guide gave us an informative talk about the region, and then we went to bed.

In this camp we slept outdoors again under the stars, but on wooden beds with a woven base, on which the foam mattress was placed. The wind was kicking up a bit of sand so we slept leeward behind the vehicle. It was much warmer than at Erta Ale - there it dropped down to about 20C, so we were comfortable in our MEC sleeping bags; at Lac Assale it only got down to 26C. They don't call it the hottest place on earth for nothing.

The wind kept the sand flies away, and we managed to get a decent sleep.

We were up at 5:30am to catch the sunrise from camp and the camel caravans heading to the salt mines. Breakfast was excellent, although just scrambled eggs, bread and peanut butter (!).

The lighting and tiking was perfect for pictures - I got my sunrise pics with the camel silhouettes that I had been wishing for at sunset. It was really cool.

As we drove to the lake we passed by the other tour groups who were just waking up, and missed some of the best pics of the day. Another reason to choose ETT if you're doing the Danakil tour.

Over the next couple hours we visited various interesting rock formations. It was sort of like the Salar de Uyuni excursion, on a smaller scale. The highlight was Dallol - the sulphur lakes with bright yellows, oranges and reds. There's not much to give scale and we weren't sure how big it was from pics we had googled. It was a bit smaller than I expected, but still interesting to see.

The last sight of the morning was another highlight, the salt mining. Salt is mined using the same techniques and tools used for hundreds of years. Large blocks about 4 inches thick are raised from the lake surface by 3-4 men using long sticks for leverage. These are then cut into rough rectangles about 8.5"X11" by large axes. Finally, they are finished with smaller chisels to about 4-5kg per slab.

The slabs are tied and test-mounted on camels, donkeys or mules, and then removed until midday when the animals are loaded for the two day trip to the market town.

It's hard work under the hot sun, although the men are well paid by local standards - each man earns about 800 Birr a day, about $40 USD.

I wanted to buy a chisel as a souvenir, but they're handmade and forged, and there's not a chisel store where you can buy them. I'm sure as tourism picks up, they'll start to make cheaper replicas for tourists, but for now it's just pics.

That wrapped up the tour. We drove back to Mekele, stopping in Hamed Ela for lunch, pasta (served with tuna!) and a banana for dessert. From the village we bought 15 Birr Cokes and 10 Birr coffees. A cold Coke is always nice when you've been out in the wilderness for a while. The coffees were pretty good too.

Heather and I had a flight to Addis that evening so our ETT driver dropped us at the airport. We stopped in at the ETT office in town along the way, and we used the opportunity to get our shoes cleaned. Heather's shoes were quite beaten up from the past four days; my shoes held up much better and looked almost new after being cleaned.

My shirt also held up very well - it's a UPF 50 shirt that dries fast and is very difficult to get dirty. It also doesn't catch the dust unlike the merino wool or cotton tops we have. I bought it at Patagonia and it's a great travel shirt.

We had about three hours to kill at the airport, which worked out well because we could wash up our hands and face, use the free wifi, and have an early lunch.

The flight left on time (every single domestic flight we've taken with Ethiopian Airlines has departed and arrived on time), and we were back in Addis.

We had upgraded our room at the Addis Regency from the standard room we stayed in after Uganda to a Super Deluxe for an extra $20. It made a huge difference - the mattress was newer and firm, there was more space, and even had a little terrace. We upgraded for our final stay after Djibouti in a few days. The shower was also excellent.

Our flight only landed at 9pm and by the time we showered it was after midnight. We briefly thought about going down to the hotel bar for a drink (it was Christmas Eve on the Ethiopian Orthodox calendar) but as we had started our day at 5:30am at Lac Assale we were beat and just went to bed.