the way back

From Hamed Ela we drive west, through the low hills at the edge of the Danakil Depression, to Berhale where the camel caravans end, and then up the escarpment – which is a bit more than just one vertical slope – and across the boundary fault, out of the rift valley.

We get back to Addis Ababa via Mekele and Kombolcha, a road we also took four weeks ago. Then it looked so dry, so barren here, but somehow, after more than a week in the Afar region, this now seems fertile paradise, there is actually water in some of the rivers, and irrigation along the banks, turning the fields green.

But after Erta Ale, after Dallol, we’re done. Trip completed, whatever there is left cannot generate the same interest anymore. The weather agrees with us, and for the first time in eight weeks it rains. Cloudburst, including a short hail storm! Water comes down from the hills in buckets, and in several places violently crosses the tarmac road. Glad we have four-wheel drive, even here!

It keeps raining, on and off, all the way to Addis Abeba, all the way to the airport.

(1, 2) some more camel caravans, and also donkey caravans (aparently, the Afar use camels, the Tigray, of the neighbouring province, use donkeys)

(3) Afar girl

(4, 5) along the edge of the Danakil Depression some more impressive dry river beds, and hills, occur again

(6, 7) and what's more, it also pays to photograph the people again, here in Berhale

(8) for my geologist friends

(9) even some natural colour - apart from sulphur springs - returns to the landscape

(10) as we leave the camel caravans behind us

Danakil Depression

This trip was expected to have many highlights, but one of them, standing out among the highlights, must be the Danakil Depression. It is not only the lowest point on the African continent (in places 116 m below sea level), not only the hottest place on earth (34-35 oC, on average (!), and hottest temperature ever measured, at 64.4 oC). It is also one of these places without any infrastructure, no roads, no towns, forget about hotels, even of the Assaita standard – why on earth are we going here in the first place?

Danakil is the only place on earth where one can observe continental spreading. Continental what? Continental spreading, the actual moving apart of continents, and the widening of the ocean in between. Well, observing is a big word, this process, although one of the fastest in geological terms, still only takes place at a rate of a few centimeters per year. And nobody is sure whether the East African Rift will in fact succeed in creating an ocean – it isn’t there yet, and the geological record is full of failed rifts: if anything this will take another 10 or 20 million years. But the process is in full swing, with all its expressive features. We are talking emerald salt lakes with hot springs, a permanently active volcano with bubbling lava at the bottom of the caldera, yellow-caked rock formations around sulphurous springs, thick salt packages in evaporated lakes: for a geologist, even a retired one who has hung his hammer in the willows (I know, I know) years ago, this is exciting stuff.

Watch this space....

the road to Yabello

From the South Omo Valley we drove back to Weyto and to Konso, and then on to Yabello. The road first crosses the Buska Mountains, as far as I can see the western escarpment from yet another section of the rift valley, before descending in the Weyto desert, a flat expanse of land that looks conspicuously like a rift valley floor.

(1, 2) River valley in the Buska Mountains, ultimately arriving at the rift valley floor, formed by the Weyto Desert

(3) some of the boys go to school, others tend the cattle and goats

This is where the Erbore people live – generating another disappointing visit to a village; the first word uttered when we arrived was “pen?”, and even before we could get out of the car we were surrounded by photo-beggars. We did have a local guide here, part of the mandatory package, who wandered with us in between the flimsy round huts, the tukuls. The other good thing he did was admitting that the boys that had painted their face did this for special ceremonies, a few times a year, but since there was no ceremony now, they mostly did it for the tourists, instead - something I had already suspected in earlier villages.

(4, 5, two more tribal people, Erbore people in this case, and that is it, no more!

Strikingly, it turned out that there is in fact a much larger village 500 meters down the road, which one would normally not see – but our driver had to come here to get our receipt from the entry payments. Here people live in normal houses, ie. square huts with corrugated iron roofs, and here people wear Western cloths; would they do shifts, Monday, Wednesday, Friday one half of the village goes and entertains the tourists in traditional garb, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday it is the other half’s turn? Anyhow, further undermining the authenticity of the whole thing, that’s for sure.

Perhaps the most astonishing thing from the valley floor here is the habit to employ human scare crows: in the sorghum fields small platforms have been raised, every 100-200 meters or so, where young men and boys sit with long branches, and a few pebbles, to chase the birds off the crops. Just imagine the opportunity costs, having all these able young men, well, throwing stones at birds the whole day. There must be a more efficient way!

(6, 7) human scare crows in action

Closer to Weyto there are extensive cotton fields, just before we climb back into the mountains, on the other side of the rift. Past Karat – Konso country, remember?, extensively terraced; in retrospect probably our best tribal experience, almost a week ago – we enter Borena territory, another semi-nomadic pastoralist tribe, who cover large parts of the central southern part of the country. Once again into the village, once again without guide, and without means of communication, yet with all the same recognizable features of a tribal village; this was another totally useless exercise, and we left within five minutes.

We enjoyed the country side, instead, all the way up to Yabello.

(8, 9) cotton, and cotton harvest in the Weyto area

(10) and a tree in a dry river bed, hoping for some rain