If you usually come to this blog for our fun point adventures and epic hotels….then this post is one you’re going to want to skip. If, however, you want to see our most intrepid travel to date then keep on reading my friends.

We have officially visited the most inhospitable place on earth.

I’m not going to lie, we feel like badasses for being able to say that. This portion of our African adventure challenged us in the most uncomfortable of ways and then decided to humble us on top of all of that.

It all started 6 months ago when we were planning our Gorilla and Volcano trek in the Democratic Republic of Congo. We had our dates and had planned to book our treks on the incredible easy and user-friendly Virguna National Park Website over the weekend when news broke of a kidnapping in Virunga. Unlike regular news there, this kidnapping involved two British tourists, which is highly unlikely even in an area as volatile as eastern Congo. As a result, the park was closed indefinitely. Desperate to trek and visit this country, we held off as long as we could until June 9th, at which the gut-wrenching announcement was made to close the park for the remainder of the year and investigate what happened. The tourists were returned unharmed a few days after they were kidnapped but the damage was done.

Brief history of Virunga: it’s not secret that DRC has been riddled with corruption for decades now and recently, oil companies have been lobbying to drill within the confines of the park, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Netflix released a fantastic documentary called Virunga that we cannot recommend enough to learn the heartbreaking history and reality of the park today. I knew, in my gut, that the kidnapping would have detrimental effects on the park and when they closed it for the remainder of the year, a park that relies almost exclusively on tourism dollars, I knew it would be a matter of weeks before the announcement was made that oil would be allowed in. Let’s just leave it at….I wasn’t wrong.

As a result of the park closure and now 3 months out from trekking, we scrambled to rebook in Uganda. As much as we would have loved to have trekked in Rwanda, gorilla permits are twice as much as Uganda at a whopping $1500 PER PERMIT. In moving around flights and securing permits, we found ourselves with 3 days in Ethiopia, a country we were excited to visit.

Let the research begin!

It took just a few hours to stumble upon the Danakil Depression in all of it’s photographic gorgeousness . I was instantly hooked and had to get there. After researching the extremely limited options, I realized exactly what it meant to actually visit this part of this world. But more on that in a bit.

Fast forward to September and we’re flying to Addis Ababa. We had read so many articles and stories about how innovative and quickly Addis was growing so I’m not going to lie, we had unrealistic expectations. This is still a city in the middle of a developing country and I think we forgot that a bit.

With that being said, I am desperate to give Addis another chance. We didn’t realize we planned our one day in Addis Ababa on New Years Day. Yep, you read that right! Ethiopia celebrates new years on September 11th AND since they follow the Julian calendar, the celebrated the year 2011. It was like a step back in time and a total mind trip ha!

Because of the holiday, there was only one museum open and luckily it was the main one we wanted to visit where the famous Lucy remains live. Lucy is the oldest in-tact remains found of early humans, who are said to have originated in the Cradle of Mankind in central Africa. Ethiopia and surrounding countries lay claim to our earliest ancestors and it was so cool to be in the presence of something so old and so meaningful .

We spent the remainder of the day with a driver our hotel recommended just driving around the city and observing. We drove through the largest and main market in the city and it humbled us immediately. Everything from old cords/wiring to large barrels for storing water to second-hand clothing can be found here with legal vendors in shops and less-than-legal vendors laying out blankets in the middle of the road.

That evening, we caught a flight out to Mekele, the closest town to the Danakil area and stayed overnight in the nicest hotel they had, hoping for a touch of comfort before the next 48 hours. The room was massive but a true double bed greeted us and it felt like a room from the 60s but we embraced it and headed downstairs for a big meal of Ethiopian food before our trek.

The power went out 3 times during dinner.

It paled in comparison to food I’d had back home, which was disappointing because we both love Ethiopian food and kept striking out with limited options. Off to be we went not realizing what was in store for us the next day.

We met at 8am the next morning ready to tackle the craziness that lie ahead and were off by 9:30am. I will say that the driving portion of the trip isn’t that long at all. It’s only about 2-2.5 hours from the Depression to Mekele but the first day was all about leisurely getting there. We stopped in a very small town with donkeys in the middle of the road and had some tea with locals but spent another hour or so just waiting around “for the rest of the group to show up.” This annoyed me because we were all on time and I thought we were missing out on epic adventures because someone else couldn’t bother to be on time. Turns out, due to the proximity to Eritrea, ALL groups going to the Depression have to caravan out there for safety. That might have been the very first time I thought, “ok, so I’m running with the big dogs now.”

The drive down into the depression was stunning!

We finally set off for our next stop for “lunch” and arrived around 1pm to a small group of shanty huts and kids who had perfected the art of the deal. (seriously, they learned english and would change their stories based on who they spoke to in order to get more cash. Not going to lie, I was really impressed with their hustle!) Lunch consisted of a big pile of rice, a literal can of tomato sauce, and half cookies veggies tossed in the sauce. The only reason this was overly offensive to me is because every single person around us from the village had heaps of injera, spicy meats and veggies, and seasoned rice and I was begging to try the local meal. They refused because they didn’t want us to get sick. (I get it but I was ready to risk it. Worst case scenario, I lose a few pounds, ha)

After our sad lunch, we finally embarked on the purpose of the trip and just 30 minutes after leaving the town (which had increased in temperature from 72 to 90), we entered the depression and 106 degree weather for the next 36 hours. Being from Texas, it was a heat I had experienced before so that portion of the trek wasn’t overly crazy to me. We cranked up the air con and drove further in.

When you read about a place being inhospitable, you image a place with relatively few people and mostly animals or plants around you. What we saw were rocks and salt and that’s it. And a well paved road perfect for taking those impossible-to-capture photos with literally no one in them! Turns out, Bush Jr. visited the depression years ago (via helicopter, as I would do if I had Bush money) and after seeing the locals trekking with their camels across dangerous road conditions, he setup USAID to cover the cost of a road to the salt mine. While my personal feelings on the president are extremely mixed, this made my heart happy. We receive no benefit from this road being in place and yet we funded it solely to make the lives of the locals here better. That compassion made my heart sing.

A pit stop was made at camp to drop off anything that wasn’t needed for the evening and to deliver supplies to the locals who live there permanently. (around 40 people) Ok, let me rephrase. We stopped at a series of wooden cots that were laying out to deliver supplies to the locals. We really tried to prepare ourselves for this level of camping but honestly, nothing prepares you for the mix of heat, lack of any facilities (you do you business behind that 3rd rock over there), and donkeys walking around. As someone who isn’t a fan of camping, I knew I would owe the hubs one for this portion of the vacation haha.

We then drove to our first location, in the middle of a huge salt field. We kept assuming we were seeing small rocky mountains but literally EVERYTHING was made of salt. There were small ponds that you could jump in and the salinity was so great that it would be impossible to sink. I wanted to jump in but didn’t have a swimsuit or anyway to rinse the salt off of my body once out so I passed.

The evening ended with a sunset over Lake Karum, a salt lake that had just a few inches of water in it, making for some of the most incredible photos ever. Unfortunately, it was the wrong time of the year for the camel caravans to be out but being able to see Eritrea from where I was standing was really cool.

Night fell and back to camp we went. Dinner was being cooked up in large pots over an open flame and we were served a meal of potato and chicken stew with bread. We ate and everyone walked to their cots where they fell asleep in record time.

Us, however…

Let’s just say that I’m happy my phone was charged and I had some Kindle books ready. I was anxious and excited, which didn’t help my sleep, and like an idiot, packed very light sleeping bags that I thought would be perfect for our situation. Windbreaker material + sweaty bodies = sticky mess. We also had to sleep in our clothes because there wasn’t really anywhere to change (or a reason to) so that added to the fun smells. Toss in a very angry donkey who let the surrounding 2 miles know what he thought about being tied up for the night and you get the idea.

It wasn’t all bad though! There is zero light pollution so every star imaginable was visible and we saw shooting stars multiple times an hour. It was almost spiritual in a way to be so removed from the world and yet feel more in it than ever before in those moments. Then the donkey would “honk” and reality came crashing back down haha.

The next morning came early, mostly because the second the sun rises, everyone races to the cars for air con. I changed shirts using my old cheerleading and dance techniques so nothing would show, and off to the entire reason for this journey we went. The early morning didn’t seem THAT warm. We had grown accustomed to it I think and it was in the upper 90s so basically any summer morning in Texas.

Boy was I naive.

We drove to Dallol from camp and I almost didn’t take a cold, huge bottle of water with me because I didn’t want to lug it up and down the “hill.” I am forever grateful for the guide who flat out refused to let me stick with that decision. We started the trek up what looked like a small hill only to realize it’s a small mountain and the temperature rose 20 degrees from where we were at. We reached the top and entered into the hottest sauna you can imagine. I was in awe of the surroundings at first - the crazy formations the salt had made and the sulfur bubbling all around me. As we trekked on, I started to suffer hard core. (as did everyone else) We were POURING in sweat but still so enamored with the sights around us. We tossed up the drone for a few minutes before receiving the overheating warning and brought it back down. Curtis had already drank his entire water bottle and I was halfway through mine, now warm enough to add coffee to and have a nice cup if needed.

I think we spent a total of 30-45 minutes walking around in Dallol. It was clocking in at 126 degrees. I finally said “I have to go” and realized only then that we were some of the last people up there! Badass factor increased! This place is literally impossible to describe so I’m going to let the photos tell the story here.

The Hike Up

One of our Afar Guides

The walk down was the most challenging thing I’ve ever done in my entire life. Not because the terrain was rough or the walk was difficult. I was actively doing everything I could to avoid blacking out and rolling down a mountain in rural Ethiopia. I didn’t speak and focused 100% on putting one foot in front of the other. it took around 20 minutes to walk down and once at the bottom, the guides poured an entire bottle of cold water over each person and we sat in the air con for almost an hour before anyone spoke.

Once we all recovered a bit, the laughing and high fives started! We had done it. Very few scientists have done this trip, much less tourists, and he were are covered in a mix of salt, sweat, water, and dirt with the pride that we saw this place.

We stopped a few more places before starting the journey back to Mekele and one was insane. I don’t know how these formations came to be from just salt but they were so impressive and massive. I stayed in the car for most of the stop (this wasn’t somewhere I wanted to try out the local hospital) but did get out to view a few of the formations.

Our last stop before hitting the actual road was to a salt mine. In this heat that we were struggling with hard core, salt miners carve out blocks of salt, load up their camels, and trek 12+ miles or so back to the town we had lunch in to trade it. The salt doesn’t have a lot of value - 4 weeks of work (which includes carving the salt, loading it up, walking it to the village, and coming back) only yields about $80 for these guys. We read beforehand that they love to receive donations like lip balm, sunscreen, and sunglasses, so we offloaded a bunch of those items to them in hopes to make their lives just a touch easier.

One the way back, we stopped again for the infamous tomato sauce and rice lunch and then headed to Mekele for our flight to Uganda. We so looked forward to getting to the Marriott early in Kigali and taking long showers and enjoying big beds.

But Ethiopia wasn’t done kicking our ass yet.

We tried to get on an earlier flight in Mekele but they claimed they were full. (narrator: they were not full) Had we tossed a little money at the gate agent, we may not have the following story to tell but in hindsight, it was a reminder that everywhere in the world is different.

Storms started to roll in and after we cleared security, we soon realized that our flight would be delayed to Addis and there was a potential we wouldn’t make it to Rwanda that evening. (our driver in Rwanda made it clear that we needed to leave by 11am in order to make it past the border and to the lodge in time) We ran back to the gate agent who gave us handwritten boarding passes for the flight that was on the tarmac currently delayed by 1.5 hours and assured us our bags would be put on that flight and make it to Rwanda with us. Skeptical, we boarded and waited. And waited. And more and more people boarded and time was ticking. We finally took off knowing we would have only 55 minutes to connect in Addis. Since we were connecting, it shouldn’t be an issue.

And enter naivety again.

We landed in Addis, were bussed to the baggage area, and told we needed to walk to the international terminal from there. Which was over 1 mile away. We were RUNNING. We got to the front entrance of the international terminal gutted, because we were now entering as if we weren’t connected and had FOUR security screenings and immigration to clear. I begged the people in immigration to let us go first and finally we go through, did the last 2 security checks (shoes off, laptops out, the works) and I ran barefoot to our gate screaming to hold the plane. We literally watched the bus of people going to the plane leave and the gate agent refused to allow us to join. (still barefoot)

I’m not proud to say this is where I became the stereotypical American traveler. I lost it on this dude. He kept blaming us for being late to the airport and we kept showing him our handwritten boarding pass from Mekele and explained that off all the flights we HAD to catch, this is the one because we were going to Uganda, etc. Yes, I cried. People were watching us and I didn’t care. One of the main activities on this trip, the only one we had no control over, was in jeopardy of not happening over that airport and I’m going to have a hard time flying through there again.

Oh wait, Ethiopia still isn’t done with us.

We headed up to the rebook counter and stood in line. (first mistake) After a solid hour and phone calls to our travel agent who setup the trek, Curtis realized that everyone was just cutting in line and walking up to have their issue handled. So he stated to do the same. At some point, our luggage tags in our passports with our boarding passes fell out and were lost in the disorganized shuffle of complacency behind the counter.

Getting nowhere with the agents, and because our flight was booked on miles, we called Singapore Airlines (who’s miles we used) and they said they had already rebooked us on another flight at 12:30am and someone was supposed to be at the counter waiting for us with a sign to let us know. It was 12:20am and we’re outside of security (the 4 checkpoints) and livid. Curtis said that was impossible to make so after about an hour of searching everything, we had to settle on the 11am flight the next morning, putting us in Kigali at 4pm. Our amazing travel agent, Sophie, assured us that as long as we were on the road by 4pm, and there were no issues or potty breaks, we MIGHT be able to make it. (mind you, I’m meeting my friend and her dad so their trek is now in jeopardy as well)

We finally left the airport at 2am (we landed at 10pm) and I insisted that we go back to the Radisson Blu we stayed at before, even though it was pricey, for just some sense of normal. Stressed about our bags, which we were assured were in a holding facility but we couldn’t get them out for our now overnight stay, which had almost all of our clothes, we showered and slept and awoke early to head to the airport to check on the bags again, which we were assured “100% would make it with us to Kigali.”

Did we get our bags? Read the next post to find out!

That was super long - thanks for reading!

Visiting the Most Inhospitable Place on the Planet - Danakil Depression, Ethiopia