Ethiopia (Summer 1973): Danakil desert and more
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This was my first trip to Ethiopia.
Prior to leaving, I knew little about this country and my goal was simple: hike
across the Danakil desert from the highlands of Tigray to the coast of the Red
Sea. I had seen aerial pictures of the Danakil (a.k.a. Afar) depression in a
magazine a few months earlier, and I had felt immediately compelled to travel
to this place. In books authored by Henry de Montfried and Joseph Kessel (Fortune Carree) I had also read that the Danakil people (also
called the Afars), the inhabitants of this desert,
were feared across North-East Africa as fierce fighters. I was young (26), and
these books made this place even more attractive to me. My one-month trip
across the Danakil desert turned out to be an incomplete success; indeed,
instead of ending on the coast of the Red Sea, it ended sooner in Dallol (read Danakil page below) on Lake Asele. Still, the trip has been extraordinary and unique in
many ways, one being that nobody with a right mind, except a Danakil, would try
to traverse this desert on foot in the summer. After more than four decades, it
remains the most memorable trip that I have ever done.
But the rest of the trip, although
totally unplanned before leaving, was also quite interesting. After returning
from the Danakil desert I traveled by bus to Massawa,
a port on the Red Sea, where I stayed a few days in a Danakil community with
two Danakils who had been my companions in the
desert. Later on, I went hiking in the highlands of Tigray mainly to visit
rock-hewn churches believed to have been built between the 4th and 15th
centuries. The first time I heard about these churches was in Mekele (the capital of the province of Tigray), while
waiting to obtain a permit to travel to the Danakil desert. In fact, these
churches had only been brought to the attention of a large public in 1970 by
the book ″Churches in Rock, Early Christian Art in Ethiopia″
authored by Georg Gerster. Since this first trip I
have returned several times to Tigray (in 2012, 2013, and 2015); this region
has been one of my favorite destinations. At the end of my trip I went hiking
in the Semien mountains (also spelled Simien), which
had been established as a National Park in 1969 and are now a very touristic
trekking destination. In total I stayed almost 3 months in Ethiopia.
In 1973, Emperor Haile
Selassie was still ruling Ethiopia. He was removed from the throne in 1974 and
murdered in 1975. Eritrea, still part of Ethiopia in 1973, became an
independent country in 1993. Asmara (my point of both entry and departure in
Ethiopia in 1973) is now its capital and Massawa its
main port.
Map. Trekks
are shown in dotted lines and bus travel in red plain line.
To see photos of this trip click on the links below:
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