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"Lets keep going up?"

Danakil Depression Day 1.

So I've left Haramaya University for a week of travelling to "Mekelle" for 4 days, then Addis Ababa for 3 days. By "Mekelle" I mean Mekelle airport, then from there getting in a car ready for a 6 hour drive into what is known as the Danakil Depression.

The Danakil Depression is also among the lowest places and on average the hottest place in the world. So the title of "lets keep going up?" might not make a lot of sense. But the first day in the Danakil Depression involved hiking up Erta Ale. The drive getting there was an experience in itself. We had lunch in a village in the middle of a desert area, followed by driving through lava rock terrain on a road consisting of way to many 45degree angles.

Erta Ale is a volcano containing one of only 6 lava lakes worldwide. Angie, Stine (the two other girls at Haramaya I've moved here with) and I were in a tour group of 40 people and were ready to have a blast. On the 6 hour journey, I'd also met two crazy Irish and a Frenchie too. This would surely be fun.

It was.... Just not in the expected way. We got split into two groups, a slow and fast one. I was in the fast group, hiking along side one of the Irish, Graham. The first hour just consisted of a lot of laughter and at one point we stopped for a quick water break. How it happened, we really have no idea. Looking up ahead, torch lights from the fast group were gone.... turning around to scope out the slow group... total darkness.

So there we were, an hour into the hike, alone together.

"Lets keep going up?" The following hour consisted of small glimpses of light that would disappear soon after spotted. So we headed towards the red lava glow. Along the way also discussing what to do if we stayed lost. Sleep on "smooth" lava rocks and wait till daybreak before hopefully being found?

After climbing over rocks that occasionally felt more like we were rock climbing than hiking, we found some lights! Later we heard that the fast group had been asked to switch off their lights due to two unknown torch lights coming from a rocky area to the right of the hiking path. That being us, no wonder we had troubles finding the group.

I also learned that back in 2012, a research group had gotten attacked, kidnapped and killed by rebel group. Thus also why the tour group had military follow us during the hike. I'm relieved I did not know that before getting lost. Plus we got reunited with the tour group, so no harm done. But kind of scary anyways.

FINALLY, after a three hour hike, we were at the top of the volcano looking into the crater and seeing a red glow minutes away on foot. Erta Ale lava lake! A serge of energy made me want to sprint towards it but seeing as the lava lake had flowed over a mere month prior to our visit, the freshly harden lava could not exactly be trusted. It crackled occasionally to the point of making a hole big enough for ones ankels to get scratched up pretty badly. So I made my way to the edge (well a meter from the edge) of the lava lake, slow but steady.

Standing on the edge was like nothing I had ever experienced before. Lava really has a life of its own. Its so mesmerizing that it was impossible to peel your eyes from it. Well, only when the sulphur smoke got so bad that the lungs needed a break for a bit. The photos I took are no where near the true beauty of lava, so please do yourself a favor and visit one of the 6 lava lakes.

My bucketlist now includes visiting the other 5 if possible. The mesmerizing and truly addictive nature of lava is just.... I could have stayed there for hours if not days on end!!

And definitely check out Graham's blog:


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