3 Days Danakil Depression Tour

What's Included

Meeting and pickup

Itinerary

Day 1
Fly Addis Ababa _Semera -Erta Ale
2 stops
1
Erta Ale
At Semera, you’ll pile into the Toyota Landcruiser that will take you into the Danakil in convoy. You’ll begin the drive into the Danakil Depression at around 9 AM. The roads leading out of Semera are smooth and asphalted, and as you drive further out of town there are some wonderful views of the Afar landscape. As you drive further towards Afdera Town (Salt Lake), the roads get rougher until you reach the Danakil desert. Here, the roads are a maze of solidified lava, rock, and sand with an occasional palm-lined oasis. You will stop for lunch before continuing to the base camp of the Erta Ale volcano. The drive from Semera to Dodom is around 7 hours. Your cooking team will wait for you to prepare dinner. As the sun begins to dip behind the horizon, you begin the 1 half-hour hike up Erta Ale. You’ll reach the crater rim around 7:00 PM, where the fiery lava lake awaits You’ll spend some time on the volcano and you will descend to the campsite then you will be served your dinner.
8 hours • Admission ticket included
2
Afdera (Afar Afxeera) is one of the woredas in the Afar Region of Ethiopia. It is named after the saline Lake Afdera, located in the southern part of the Afar Depression. Part of Administrative Zone 2, Afdera is bordered on the southwest by Administrative Zone 4, on the west by Erebti and Abala, on the north by Berhale, on the northeast by Eritrea, and on the southeast by Administrative Zone 1. The largest town of this woreda is Afdera.
1 hour • Admission ticket free
Day 2
Erta Ale -Hamed Ela -Dallol
3 stops
3
Danakil Depression
This day wake up early morning hike to the top of the crater to visit the volcano activities for the second time before the sun rises too high. Visit the lava lake one last time before beginning the 3-hour drive to Hamed Ela (Dallol). You’ll begin your descent around 6:30 AM and will reach at campsite by 8 AM at the latest for breakfast. Today you’ll drive across the sweeping salt pans of the Danakil towards the small hamlet of Hamed Ela. You will reach around 1:30 pm then Visit Hamed Ela village a total population of about 600 people to see the lifestyle of the local people you’ll drive to Lake Asale visit to Lake Asale, to see local people mining salt and making salt into a rectangle shape then uploading on camels and the camel caravans. The sunset over Lake Asale is extraordinary and Salt Lake Asale is a huge salty lake where you will swim in the natural pool Salt Lake having a snack. Then drive back to Hamed Ela and around 7:30 pm serve your dinner.
8 hours • Admission ticket included
4
Danakil Desert
Local geology is characterized by volcanic and tectonic activity, various climate cycles, and discontinuous erosion. The basic geological structure of this area was caused by the movement of tectonic plates as Africa moved away from Asia. Mountain chains formed and were eroded again during the Paleozoic. Inundations by the sea caused the formation of layers of sandstone, and limestone was deposited further offshore. As the land rose again, further sandstone formed above the limestone. Further tectonic shifts caused lava to pour out of cracks and cover the sedimentary deposits.[2] The Danakil Desert has a number of lakes formed by lava flows that dammed up several valleys. Among these is Lake Afrera, which has thick saline crusts on its banks.[5] Other areas of the Danakil became sinks, dry endorheic basins as precipitation evaporates faster than it can collect in permanent lakes. The area is flanked toward the east by the Danakil Alps, a tabular mountain system that has a few
1 hour • Admission ticket free
5
Ahmed Ela
There are no roads from Dodom to Hamed Ela, the village near the salt works of Lake Asale, and also the base for a visit to the Dallol sulfur springs. With imagination, one recognizes the occasional track, but more often it seems to be just the gut feeling of our road runner, a local Afar who claims to know the way. Small trees are flattened in the process, occasionally a hamlet is covered in the cloud of dust we produce. We get stuck in the sand a few times, we get to a salty spring where hundreds of camels are drinking. And we hit something of a real road again. Miraculously, we have indeed found our next destination, Hamed Ela. Quite an achievement, given the size of Hamed Ela! Salt workers near the Lake Asale salt blocks being collected and packed onto camel and donkey, backs salt blocks being collected and packed onto a camel and donkey activity at the salt-winning place activity at the salt-winning place camels resting ahead of their two-day journey
2 hours • Admission ticket free
Day 3
Hamed Ela-Dallol-Semera-Addis Ababa
2 stops
6
Danakil Depression
Wake up early morning and drive to Dallol, one of the most stunning geological phenomena on the planet and one of the lowest hottest on the planet with an average temperature of 35 degrees Celsius there is a day when the temperature exceeds 48 degrees Celsius, and the average annual rainfall of between 100 and 200m, it is rightly considered one of the inhospitable places on the earth. The kaleidoscopic landscape its various acidic colors with fumaroles of greens, reds, and yellows formed by acidic springs and salt mounds create an alien landscape, watch the local Afar people mining the salt from the ground, loading onto the camel caravans and formation of the salt canyon. At Salt Canyon, you will have your breakfast around 9:am and you will drive to Semera around 3:30 -4:00 pm then directly drive to Semera airport to take your flight to Addis.
8 hours • Admission ticket included
7
Lake Karum
Lake Karum (also known as Lake Assale or Asale) is a salt lake in the Afar Region of Ethiopia. One of two salt lakes in the northern end of the Danakil Depression (the other one being Lake Afrera), it lies 120 m (394 ft) below sea level.[1] The volcano Erta Ale rises southeast of this lake. Werner Munzinger, who traveled through the Afar Depression in 1867, recorded that this lake was fed by four streams: The Didic, the Ala, the Rira Guddy, and the Ragali or Awra, which is the only permanent stream flowing into Lake Karum.[2] North of Lake Karum is the former mining-settlement of Dallol. The lake is extremely salty and is surrounded by a salt-pan, which is still mined. The salt is transported by caravan to the rest of the count
1 hour • Admission ticket free

Additional info

• Not recommended for travelers with spinal injuries
• Not recommended for pregnant travelers
• Not recommended for travelers with poor cardiovascular health
• Travelers should have at least a moderate level of physical fitness
• This tour/activity will have a minimum of 5

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