Trek to the Danakil Depression
Destination: Berhale, Melabedi, Asabelo, HamadEla, Dallol
Duration: 4 Days/3 Nights
Day 1
Early in the morning we start our tour from Mekelle to the Danakil Depression the hottest place on our planet EARTH. After a drive of 160km we reach an Afar town called Berhale where we finish our entrance paper confirmation, hire police men, Camel for as a backup in case if one of us got tired and a Donkey to carry our Water for drink.
Jeeps drop us in a Melabedi a village found 30km far from Berhale and start our 5 to 6 hours trekking following the Camel caravan trails through the gorges admiring the spectacular views of the landscape till we reach Asabolo a place where the caravans will take a rest of about 3 hours.
Overnight: camping in Asabolo
Day 2
In the morning, we have our breakfast and drive to HamadEla a base camp found in about 20km far from Dallol to pick soldiers to accompany us then precede drive to “Reged” a place where we see and judge how tough to work in such an area is… The local people digs the Salt out from the ground curve it to a rectangular form and sale it to the Camel caravans who will take it to either to Berhale or to other places around the high land areas of Tigray.
Soon they are done of loading and start to trek, we follow the caravans for about 1 to 2km of trekking and drive to our base camp HamadEla to have our lunch and lunch.
In the after lunch, after we have some hours of rest, we drive back to Lake Asale to see and capture the long trial of the caravans walking back to the high lands of Tigray or…
We stay around till the sunset time of enjoying the charming view of the sunset reflection on the lake then we drive back to our base camp.
Overnight: camping in HamadEla
Day 3
After breakfast we drive around 20km to visit the colorful place “Dallol Volcano”. We walk around to explore the different colored minerals then we proceed about an hour trekking of to the naturally designed salt mountains. On the way we visit the 76 year old ruined Italian mineral mining camp.
We have our lunch under the shadow of the salt mountains and drive to visit the Sulfur Lake locally known for “Red Lake” and Mountain Asale then drive back to the base camp.
Overnight: camping in HamadEla
Day 4
We drive back to Mekelle via Abala.