Itinerary

1. Day 1: Arba Minch - Mekelle

   • Take an early morning flight from Arba Minch to Mekelle. 

   • Depart at 7 AM to arrive in Mekele at 8:15 AM. 

   • From the airport, we leave directly for Erta Ale Volcano via Abala-Erepti, a new asphalt road to Afdera. Some 30 km before Afdera town, we turn left and head towards the village of Kisrawad at the foot of Erta Ale. At Kisrawad village, we collect the camels which will carry our supplies: food, water, camping and cooking equipment, and the local guides and militia who will accompany us to the top of Erta Ale. 

   • Set off up the volcano at around 5 PM. The ascent should take around 3-5 hours hiking, depending on how fit the tourists are. At the top of the caldera, the Afar people have constructed simple stone shelters, there are no roofs, but the walls offer some protection against the wind, making it quite chilly in the early hours of the morning. The best time to see the lava pits of Erta Ale is at night – you can sit back some distance and see the lava bubbling like soup, with the occasional eruption which throws gobbets of lava up into the air before subsiding once again.

2. Day 2: Hamed Ela - Dallol

   • Start your descent of the Volcano mountain at about 5:30 AM to avoid the heat. The descent is much faster than the ascent and will take around 2.5 hours to reach the base at the bottom, where you will stop for breakfast. 

   • Drive to Hamed Ela via Berahile, an attractive little town set among mountains. The road is much improved with the advent of potash mining investors in Dallol.

3. Day 3: Leave for Mekelle

   • Before leaving for Mekele, we will make an early morning visit (when temperatures are still low) to Dallol. 

   • This morning, we visit the salt mines, Lake Asale and the strange, multi-coloured mineral formations around Dallol. Salt is extracted directly from the ground in great slabs, carved into blocks called amole, which was once currency in Ethiopia, and then, loaded on camels which carry the salt up to the high lands. Camel trains can be made up of hundreds, even thousands of camels. 

   • Arrive in Mekelle late afternoon for your return flight to Addis Ababa.