Ethiopia is unlike anywhere else on the planet, a beautiful country blessed with a peerless history, fabulous wildlife, and some of Africa’s most soulful people.
We made it to the world’s saltiest lake, Lake Asale, also known as Lake Karum. It is a hypersaline lake in Ethiopia’s Danakil Depression, located about 120 meters below sea level, making it one of the lowest points on Earth. Lake Asale was formed over centuries through a...
Then we drove on asphalt until Erepeti, where a 49-kilometre-long dirt track runs through a rough, hot and dry desert landscape with solidified lava, rock, and sand. For this trip, we joined other tourists to share the costly permit. After arriving at base camp, we rushed for 30 minutes...
We drove from Semera to Lake Afdera for about 4 hours on an asphalt road, taking us from the city into the increasingly arid, otherworldly Danakil Depression. The scenery transformed from a more populated area to a vast, volcanic, and desert landscape of solidified lava, rock, and sand...
Luckily, we found a gas station with diesel, so we filled up our tank and jerry cans to make it to Aksum. Then, we drove for a full day, some 380 kilometres from Awash to Semera on good tarmac through a bit unfriendly Afar region. The scenery is characterised by a landscape that...
After the visit to the Khat Market in Aweday, we continued on good tarmac for approximately 325 km, passing through varied terrain including acacia woodland and grassland near the Awash National Park. The road is full of heavy trucks from Djibouti, and it was getting slow, particularly in...
On our way back to Awash, we made a short stop in Aweday, often referred to as the “khat capital of the world”. Here is located the world’s largest vibrant and bustling market for this cash crop, with trade 24 hours a day and trucks leaving for destinations such as...
Feeding wild hyenas in Harar is a unique cultural practice that has persisted for centuries. The practice is said to have started in the 19th century during a famine to stop hyenas from preying on livestock by providing an alternative food source. Today, it is a tourist attraction (🎟️500...
Today, we spend the whole day in Harar, a fortified historic city in eastern Ethiopia, in the Ch’erch’er Mountains, at an elevation of 1,800 metres. It is known as the “fourth holy city” of Islam and has been considered a major commercial centre in the Horn of...
The road from Chiro to Harar offers a mixed landscape with some beautiful scenery, but it is also marked by rough, chaotic traffic in the smaller towns along the way. The tarmac was good, with a few short, damaged sections, so driving through the Ethiopian Highlands was not so bad, with...
We started early morning in Addis Ababa, took a highway (70 ETB), and continued on a pretty good tarmac road up to Awash National Park, where we made a half-day excursion with a local ranger (600 ETB), then continued through mountainous scenery to Chiro. It is a town and former...