Danakil Depression & Highlands of Tigray -14 days

On arrival in Addis Ababa you will be met at the airport and transferred to the hotel for overnight. After breakfast we have a full-day city tour, which departs at 9:00am from the hotel. Addis Ababa is the third highest capital city in the world. Located at 2,400 metres above sea level in one of the highest parts of the Entoto mountain chain. We take time to explore the city. We will visit the National Museum (home of the remains of the famous hominid fossil, “Lucy”) and the Ethnological Museum at the Addis Ababa University (housed in the former palace of Emperor Haile Selassie). We will also witness the bustle of the one of the colourful local markets, which has an array of fascinating goods and curios, providing a great place for exploration and people watching.

Meals: Full board (B, L, D)

Overnight at Hotel

In the afternoon, a game drive into the savannah of the relatively unknown park (many species of birds and mammals to observe) and a stop at a viewpoint on the deep gorge of the Awash river and its powerful waterfalls are on the program.

Meals: Full board (B, L, D)

Overnight at Awash fall Lodge

If you are interested, you could join a group of salt workers in the early morning and watch the interesting technique to gain salt from the lake.

After breakfast, we pick up two Afar policemen and an Afar guide, then drive though the flat salt and lava desert to the Afar village of Dodom and set camp at the base of Erta Ale volcano. Unlike other expeditions, we don’t rush you up the mountain the same night, but enjoy a magical night in the desert at the foot of the mountain: when it becomes dark, the intense zodiacal light of stardust and the red glow from the volcano lake and the brightest of starlit skies will compete with each other.

Meals: Full board (B, L, D)

Overnight Camping

During the night, Afar guides will join us with their camels. At sunset, we will start the realtively easy ascend (ca. 10 km, 500 m climbing, ca. 3 hrs) during the fresher morning hours along the flat flank of Erta Ale’s shield volcano, while the camel caravan carries our luggage and the equipment.

The gently climbing hike itself follows interesting lava formations (aa and pahoehoe lava fields, lava tubes, hornitos, sand deposits, rare vegetation) until we stand on the rim of the caldera. An easy descend brings us to the floor of the caldera and after 10 minutes, we stand on the active pit crater containing the boiling ava lake.

This and the following two days are fully dedicated to observe the lava lake and the volcanic features of the caldera at our liking.

Meals: Full board (B, L, D)

Overnight Camping

There has been a lava lake at Erta Ale since its discovery in 1906, making it not only one of the very few present-day constant lava lakes as well as the by far longest existing lava lake. Yet the remoteness of the Afar area and difficult access to the volcano made that this wonder of nature was largely unknown up to the 1960s. Since then, there has been a gradual increase of adventurous tourists visiting this lava lake – a particular tourism that experienced a sudden increase due to improved accessibility in more recent years. Our small group will therefore not be the only one on Erta Ale´s caldera rim, but our extended stay there will maximise the opportunities to explore, observe and photograph the volcanic activity both during day and night.

Meals: Full board (B, L, D)

Overnight Camping

After a last sunrise at the spectacular lava lake, we break down our camp and using the camels again, we return to the point of departure where the jeeps are waiting.

After lunch, we continue for 1-2 hours back into the desert, where we will set camp near a typical temporary Afar village. Refreshing showers will be available from simple wells in a river bed. For those interested, we can also visit the Afar village and get an impression of the nomadic culture of the Afar.

Meals: Full board (B, L, D)

Overnight Camping

The sometimes difficult 4×4 drive through the desert northwards to the large, mostly dry salt lake near Ahmed Ela is our goal of the day.

In the afternoon and evening we can watch the endless camel caravans coming and going: arriving empty, they stay in the fascinating town. They are met by the ones leaving packed full with precious salt blocks. After nightfall, we can assisit the procedure of assigning walt cutters (the focolo) to the camel owners (the Arho), for the next day in the salt mine at the lake.

Meals: Full board (B, L, D)

Overnight Camping

A full day will be available to explore the fascinating volcano of Dallol – a volcano hidden under kilometer-thick deposit of salt. The volcano marks its presence by the updoming of the salt and hundreds of fumaroles and hot springs in all colors.

We can visit the remains of a ghost town, almost entirely built in salt, at Dallol, where miners lived in the 1930s to extract potash from the Dallol area. The town was the hottest inhabited place on earth.

Meals: Full board (B, L, D)

Overnight Camping

Drive to Mekele in the afternoon, where we will stay in a good hotel and celebrate the expedition with all crew members in a stylish restaurant serving delicious Ethiopian and international food…

Meals: Full board (B, L, D)

Overnight at Planet hotel : http://www.planetinternationalhotel.com

Drive to Mekele in the afternoon, where we will stay in a good hotel and celebrate the expedition

Drive from Mekel to Hawzien and the Gheralta Cluster. This Tigray region is home to some of the most remote, hard-to- reach churches, often situated in incredible locations. Some churches involve precipitous climbs and some are unfortunately forbidden to females. Your guide will discuss the options with you and you will stop and explore some on route.

Meals: Full board (B, L, D)

Overnight at Gheralta Lodge: http://www.gheraltalodgetigrai.com

Sheer cliffs, surreal rock formations and vertical spires dominate this stunning region. It is a region that makes us wonder whether Christianity was something about being an adrenaline junky! (In fact these cliff top churches were intended to bring devotees closer to heaven and more practically to be out of sight of raiding armies passing through the valleys below!) The churches are certainly not very accessible to raiding armies or tourists, and some of the churches involve visitors literally free climbing sheer sandstone walls, hiking razor canyons and skirting cliff edges!

Don’t worry – your guide won’t expect you to do this and many are much more accessible so strike out for a day of exploration around churches that really do signify the birth place of Christianity including Abreha Atsbeha Monastery, Cherkos Wukro and the church of Petros and Paulos home to charmingly unsophisticated murals of saints and angels – built on a steep ledge you can climb a rickety ladder for some jaw dropping views.

Meals: Full board (B, L, D)

Overnight at Gheralta Lodge: http://www.gheraltalodgetigrai.com

We drive to Axum and in the afternoon explore to Axum is the seat of the ancient capital of the Kingdom of Axum, which was once one of the most powerful in the ancient world. Located at the centre of the trading routes between the Mediterranean and India, and the great port of Adulis on the Red Sea, it was economically, politically and technically advanced and at times had control over both sides of the Red Sea. Axum is also the origin of Christianity in Ethiopia and believed to be the resting place of the Ark of the Covenant. The old church of St Mary of Zion was the first church to be built in Sub-Saharan Africa around 330AD. Its ruins can be seen in the precinct of the church compound. We visit the famous monolithic stelae of Axum, the tallest one still standing reaches over 21 metres and the greatest one of them all, once 34 metres high now lies toppled on the ground. It is still, however, the largest monolith ever erected by man. The subterranean tombs, stone inscriptions of ancient Axumite kings and the small archaeological museum are also living witness of the ancient Axumite history. We will also visit the ruined palace of the Queen of Sheba who is said to have given birth to Menelik the First, fathered by King Solomon, the founder of Ethiopia’s ruling family until the late Emperor Haile Selassie.

Meals: Full board (B, L, D)

Overnight at Hotel

flight back to Addis Ababa. If you leave on an international flight in the evening, we provide you with a day-room and suitable airport transfer in Addis.

In the evening before departure, you will be invited a farewell dinner party at one of the best traditional restaurants in Addis where you taste variety of Ethiopian meals, and watch the folkloric dancers of the Ethiopian people. Departure

Meals: Full board (B, L, D)

• Please note: This tour may precede or follow any other Ethiopian tours offered by Zagwe Ethiopia Tour.

This trip can be tailor made throughout the year to suit your requirement.