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I will go to Mekele, try to join a salt caravan and with them I want to go to the Danakil Depression.

One Year Africa: Maybe the Hot Season

Maarten de Boeck
2006-05-01 17:15:05

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/>From the beginning Senay had done the talking. He explained them why I was here and what it was about. Soon we showed the permission paper for which I had gone to Assaita.
They received us friendly. They seemed to take responsibility for me, given the condition I had to pay for it. They offered me a guide to whom I had to pay 100 birr per day. The assignment was obligatory. They would also arrange a camel for 50 birr per day and provide me a goatskin to carry water.

In the evening, Senay and I strolled through Bera Ale. At the edge of the village, I was enthralled by the view of the rest place for the camels, where the traders unload their animals and train them in a circle to feed them the hay they brought from the Highlands. This town wouldn't exist without the minerals of the Depression. Each year one million camels pass on their way to the mines.*
Bera Ale is one of the most interesting places I've ever been to. Its rustic character appealed to my imagination, its setting between rugged mountains, its camels' rest places full of animals, its men with shaurits (kind of skirts) and women in colourful gowns, its chaotic pattern of streets and houses.

The morning of Thursday February 27th I was off on my way to the Danakil Depression. Early in the morning, while it was still dark, I stood in front of the office in Bera Ale, waiting for Abdella Ali to pick me up. About ten minutes later two men appeared. One of them is Abdella. We take my luggage and walk into the night. We pass the dry riverbed and arrive at one of the houses at the other side. Here we will wait for the caravan.
Half an hour later, at dawn, a camel appears. My luggage is loaded onto the animal. Before joining the caravan, we eat bread and drink tea.

It was a cloudy and drizzly morning. I dried off my glasses several times. I had printed in myself to drink and keep on drinking. At that point, I just had to open my mouth. I had a water capacity ...