Courage is found in unlikely places
– J.R.R Tolkien
Ethiopian Danakil Depression – the most challenging place that I have visited so far.
This place challenged the tough me to the core.
Not a usual place for a relaxing aka healing vacation, the kind of place where I go for my self-discovery experience. Am I tough enough? How is my true character in the most physically challenging environment?
I survived a 3-day 2-night stay in Danakil Depression, Ethiopia at the end of summer 2015 (27-28-29 April 2014). The temperature in the desert was unforgivingly hot (during mid-day > 40’C) despite the assurance of my guide that “it was the end of summer, the heat should be bearable”.
Anything that doesn’t kill me will make me stronger.
Warning: This is going to be a very long post. The reason is that this post is a ‘keeper’ in my personal digital journal.
Danakil Depression is located in the Northeastern part of Ethiopia. Listed as the hottest and the lowest place on earth (nearly 120m below sea level). This place used to be part of the sea bed of the Red Sea. And because of its geographical complexity, this place is rich in salt and mineral deposits. If you are into science and natural phenomena, Ethiopian Danakil Depression is just the place for you. Salt canyons, salt lakes, hot springs, acid lakes, colourful sulfur acid mixed landscapes, active volcanoes with bubbly basaltic lava and many more fascinating geological sights that sure would blow your mind.
Rocky, dusty and bald landscape. No green trees, just rocks and sand in different colours and shapes. Yet, there was a world-class highway (built by the people of China) in the middle of the desert from Harar-Semera-Serdo to Lake Afrera, very impressive.
Additional note 2023: They are in the middle of constructing a connecting road from Lake Afrera to Mekela (passing through Erta Ale and Dallol)
Two ways to reach the Danakil Depression desert:
1. Take a domestic flight from Addis Ababa to Mekele. The drive from Mekele to Danakil Depression takes around 3-4 hours.
2. Be more adventurous, drive from Addis Ababa to Harar, Harar to Semera – Serdo – Danakil Depression (Lake Afrera – Mt Erta Ale – Dallol) and exit from Danakil to Mekela.
Driving all the way from Addis Ababa to Danakil Depression allowed us to experience the changes in the landscapes along the journey as we entered and exited the Danakil desert
We stopped at Harar for a few nights. The Harari people are Muslims who reside in the walled city of Harar. Harar Jugol, the old walled city, was listed as a World Heritage Site in 2006 by UNESCO. The best part was that they were friendly. While walking around the alleys we were invited into their houses for tea.
The journey from Harar to Semera was interesting as we passed through 2 Wildlife Reserve areas and the Yangudi Rassa National Park. The flat plain landscape.
We stopped at a few spots to enjoy the open-flat view.
What can you experience in Danakil?
1. I looked forward to meeting the Afar People of the Danakil. I googled them before I started the trip because they reminded me of Bilal bin Rabah, one of the companions of the prophet Muhammad Pbuh, the first muezzin chosen by the prophet himself.
2. Hang out at the Lake Afrera. A hypersaline lake located in the Danakil Depression. If you travel from Semera/ Serdo you will pass through this salty lake on your way to Mt Erta Ale. There is an excellent highway crossing the desert to Lake Afrera built by China people.
3. Hike to the Mt Erta Ale (613 m). One of the six active lava lakes on Earth. Watching bubbly lava/ magma a few meters right in front of your face is way cooler than watching it on a National Geographic show … seriously! that was in my head at that time.
4. Drive 4×4 off-road crossing the scorching hot Danakil Depression desert, the hottest place on Earth, the lowest place on the planet at 100m below sea level (wiki). The most inhospitable place on earth and yet the Afar people have been striving here since the 13th century, champion! … we went in early Summer (April 2014) and the heat was already beyond my expectation > 40’C. In Summer the temperatures can climb up to 50’C. A total out-of-the-world experience.
5. Visit the acid lake, the salt Lake Karum, and the hot springs in Dallol.
6. Sleep 1 night in Dallol, in the middle of the desert with a few huts (to hide from the sun) and some wooden frame makeshift beds. while enjoying the 1001 views of the stars. When we were there IN EARLY SUMMER the night was a loooong night for me, a windy, humid and hot night … imagine sleeping with a giant hair dryer at maximum temperature blowing on you nonstop.
3 days 2 Nights adventure in Danakil Depression is a true depressing experience, trust me!
Danakil is the homeland of the Afar people, famously known for being a proud and independent warrior-like character. They are predominately Muslim. Sharing some photos I took of the Afar people that we met along the journey. The tall and lean-built Afar people looked graceful when they were performing their traditional warrior dance on the stage. We saw them performing for an event at the Semera town community hall while we were stopping at Semera.
The Afar people are proud, resilient and very brave people. Try to google their story.
We entered Danakil Depression from Semera, the capital city of Afar state and exited through Mekelle.
The killing part about this place is its extreme heat combined with its high-humidity air. I had experienced dry and hot seasons before in Saudi Arabia but with low humidity. Here in the Danakil Depression, the heat made breathing difficult. I choked from the dust, the heated wind (it felt like being blown by a giant hair dryer at full heat, on your face) and my own heavy sweat.
Gobbling on warm drinking water did not help at all. Too much plain water made my stomach nauseous. Isotonic drinks or water added with packed oral rehydration salts would be a great help during a humid extremely hot day … at least for a start until your body gets fully adjusted to its surrounding environment.
Science vs logic … hmmmm
Our tough and reliable transportation 
A parking spot at nowhere while waiting for jeep no.3. Noticed the landscape? it is just totally bald and empty 
Lake Alfera, 120m below sea level. The temperature at this time was at 49 degree 
Erta Ale based camp. This where we hide for the sun and the heat until the temperature dropped before we start our 3 hours trek to Erta Ale volcano
We were heading to Mt Erta’ Ale, known by the Afar people as the “smoking mountain” and the “gateway to hell”. A continuously active basaltic lava with two lava lakes. Sitting at 600m below sea level, this place is not for the faint heart.
We plan to stay overnight near the crater, shoot milky-way, enjoy sunrise at the crater overseeing the active bubbly lava as our background, head down right after dawn and reach Basecamp before the sun starts to release its intense heat.
It takes 3 ‘normal trekking’ hours to reach Mt Erta’ Ale from Basecamp. And with the extreme heat, we could only start hiking when the sun is down. Everything went wrong that night though. We took 6 hours to reach the Erta Ale base camp, we were lost in the middle of nowhere, in the dark desert and we were out of drinking water too.
Note: Back home, when we were lost in the forest (while hiking) we would recite the Azan as a way to seek guidance from the Almighty. That night when we were lost in the desert, one of our local guides, A Muslim Afar, recited the Azan to motivate us to walk further.
All sorts of trekking or hiking activities are not my thing, so much so that I avoided any Nepal trips and I never trek at night.
I thought that this one would be as easy as hiking up Mt Bromo in Indonesia well, I was totally wrong and I was not prepared for this. There were a lot more things that happened that night but I am still not comfortable talking about it lol life is already as interesting as it is and a few breakdowns here and there will never break my spirit.
I am sharing my lesson-learned moment here with all of you, so next time you plan to visit here … you will be well-equipped:
- Avoid the summer season, the heat is intense beyond normal
- Be mentally prepared that you will be trekking (15km) up at night with the heat (35-40 degrees) and camel riding is not advisable due to the rugged volcanic terrain landscape
- Wear proper trekking shoes with socks on and no sandals at all (including trekking sandals) as the landscape here is nearly 100% badland terrain of volcanic rocks.
- Carry 2 litres of water as the heat is really extreme
- Bring along extra packed Oral Rehydration Salt as you will be losing a lot of minerals while sweating and drinking 2 litres of mineral water in 3-6 hours could not help to replenish our mineral lost.
- If you have chronic gastric especially GERD, bring your medication along. The heat and extreme tiredness will trigger your GERD.
- Bring extra energy bars to boost your energy, especially on your way down from the crater to Basecamp as you will be racing against time to avoid the escalating heat.
- Bring your mirrorless camera instead of your heavy DSLR (unless somebody else is willing to carry your DSLR) and I think a super wide lens (16-35mm or 12-24mm) should be good enough ( maybe fish-eye lens would be good too). Don’t bring your whole lens collection as you are racing against time here.
We reached Mt Erta’ Ale at 12:45 am (started at 7pm), and I was nearly half dead. My mind was so disoriented due to the heat and it went totally blank and my focus naturally switched from photo mode to survivor mode. No milky-way or gorgeous sunrise shoot for me as everything that I shot there was merely just some record shoots, nothing to shout about.
The view of the fiery red light coming out from the crater against the pit black night was a mesmerising, out-of-the-world experience. It feels like I was in the movie set of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. What a view …
Yeah. Witnessing and listening to the bubbling sound of basaltic magma straight from its crater a few meters in front of my face is way cooler than watching it on TV shows. Smelling the hot stingy sulfur straight from its burning pot is way more interesting than hearing the story from some strangers on YouTube. I feel blessed, alhamdullilah.
This is the craziest thing that I have ever done so far (other than staring 30cm eye to eye with a group of wild hyenas). All this introversion, impulsiveness, blurriness, carelessness, ‘lost in transition’ and my easy ‘tidak apa’ (careless) attitude that I have could lead me either towards a new life experience or a life disaster tragedy for me … ;-).
I learned my lesson well and I am just glad that I survived to tell my story.
I have the habit of keeping everything bottled up inside me and I refused to complain or put the blame on others for whatever misfortune that I had experienced. I do open up a little bit for a few selective souls but nowadays I prefer to just lay low, as the only person that you can really trust is maybe just yourself <— lol, a bit sidetracked here 😉
Our journey continued as we drove out from Mt Erta’ Ale Basecamp heading to Dallol, the famous ghost town in Danakil Depression. We spent one night at the ‘million stars’, minimalist and zen Dallol hotel lol. It was windy that night 😉 the hot wind (around 40 degrees) kept on blowing dust straight onto my face. I woke up every hour either to gobble in more water or to splash more water onto my face and head … it felt like a looooong lonely night for me.
It was a great relief when we were finally driving out of the Danakil Depression.
And, when we reached our hotel in Mekelle I had the best shower in my entire life (3 days 2 nights without a proper shower he he he) my bed felt like the best bed in the world and the hotel air-condition felt like the luxurious thing that life could offer me, lol.
This is a picture of me and my local guide aka host aka friend Daniel Million. I was with him and his team during both of my visits to Ethiopia. A very experienced guide and a well verse ornithologist with an angel heart. I highly recommend him as your guide if you decide to visit Ethiopia. You can contact him via his email or Facebook account at danielhummingbird@gmail.com or you can check out his website Traverse Ethiopia Tours.
14.11.2023: RIP Danny. It has been over a year (September 2022) since you’ve gone. A good friend with the best heart and you are missed, my dear friend. May Allah bless you with forgiveness and grant you Jannah Ameen ya Rabb.
“Why tiptoe through life, to arrive safely at death? If you’re gonna be afraid to live, what’s the point?”
I am signing off now.
Cheers
MM
p/s Wish me luck … 😉
MATSUDA MASHIMARU 