Danakil Desert and Erta-Ale Volcano
Description:
Day 1
Arrival at Addis Ababa International Airport, transfer to the city for breakfast and then on a domestic flight to Makela.
On this day, we have to rest after long flights and gain strength before the main spurt - a trip to the lowlands of Danakil, the hottest place on Earth and, of course, in Ethiopia.
Accommodation: Makele Planet Int Hotel
Food: breakfast, lunch, dinner.
Day 2
Today we start from Makele towards the active Erta-Ale volcano, famous for the accessibility of its crater and its free approach to it. The local Afar tribe believes that the volcano has magical properties and its blazing head has inspired more than one poet and director.
We will come to the camp at its foot in the evening, have lunch and in the evening, when the unbearable heat subsides, we will begin the climb to the vent of Erta-Ala. We have to travel several kilometers before we reach the summit of the volcano, and it will reveal itself to us in all its glory and power. Erta-Ale is one of the few places in the world where we can go directly to the edge of the volcano vent and look inside, feel its heat and fire.
We'll spend the night camping near the volcano's vent (we said this would be your most romantic night of your life?) and in the morning, before sunrise, we'll start the descent down.
Overnight: camping at the top of a volcano.
Food: breakfast, lunch, dinner.
Day 3
Right in the morning, while it is not too hot, we will go in jeeps to the salt lakes Assale and Dallol. This region, despite its complete savagery and primitiveness, is one of the main salt mining areas in Ethiopia. The Afar tribe works in mines and salt mines, cuts kilometer layers of salt into bricks, immerses them on camels and sends them to the nearest city in caravans. The spectacle is incredible and completely fabulous. It is here that we will see the strings of caravans and their drivers, and feel ourselves in a real fairy tale!
The place is so wild and undeveloped that there is no hotel, lodge or anything touched by civilization. We will discover amazing landscapes, colorful deserts, quarries, forests and wild, wild nature of the Danakil lowland, the incredible landscape with which no other place in Africa can compare.
And that’s great, because we’re going to have a real adventure – a place to spend the night in a campground that was broken by our Ethiopian team. We will have beds made of rods, mattresses, but most importantly - our own cook, who has no equal anywhere in the world!
After lunch, we head to the hottest place on planet Earth, the most beautiful part of the Syrian-African fault - Dallol Lake. What do you expect to see in the hottest place on the planet? Probably a monochromatic, boring desert? But no, in Dallol we will see so many colors, shades and bizarre formations that you have not seen anywhere before, even if you traveled around the world. The temperature here in the cooler season reaches +40. +45 ° C, but believe me, from here, from this hell on Earth do not want to leave: oxidized minerals, eruptions of hot geysers, huge salt blocks of purple, black, green, yellow... And at the same time - it all explodes, boils, lives under our feet. This place is so crazy that it is undoubtedly worth such a long trip here. After visiting Dallol, we will stop at the salt lake Assale, perfectly white and smooth as a mirror, another natural wonder of Ethiopia and Danakil.
Overnight: Hamed Ela Campground.
Food: breakfast, lunch, dinner.
Day 4
Early in the morning, after breakfast, we will start our journey back to Makela, the capital of Tigray County and one of the largest cities in Ethiopia.
In the evening, you can transfer to the airport for a flight to Addis Ababa or overnight in the city if you decide to continue traveling with us in Ethiopia!
Accommodation: Mekele Planet Hotel or similar.
Food: breakfast, lunch, dinner.