There’s nowhere like it on the planet for wildlife, wild lands and rich traditions that endure. Prepare to fall in love.
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...