Week 18 - Salt lakes, coloured rocks and castles.

I continued to follow the tourist circuit of northern Ethiopia this week. The first two days were the second half of the 4 day tour I started last week. These days were spent in the Danikel Depression, the lowest point of the country at 100m below sea level,  and also one of the warmest at 45 degrees when we were there  (and it often passes 50). The pictures tell the story.

Salt Lake stretching as far as off could see (and mandatory army guard)

Workers cutting the salt ready to send to market (a work practice reputedly unchanged for 2500 years) 

Camel train taking the salt to market. 

Where there isn't salt there are various minerals bubbling up through the ground from the volcanic action just below creating these vividly coloured rock formations (and enough acid to dissolve your shoes if you're not careful where you walk)

Our luxury accommodation for the night - a bed under the stars  (well it was a budget tour)

After the tour ended it was back on the road again through beautifully scenery, often finding myself winding up and down a thousand metres or more at a time.

The one problem of being on the road was finding petrol. There are virtually no private cars outside the capital Addis Ababa so most fuel stations are only set up to sell diesel (or gasoil as is called here) to the trucks and buses. To get petrol I found I had to wait until I got to a town large enough to have tuk-tuks for taxis and then negotiate with them to get supplies being sold from cans and bottles.

All filtered through a tea strainer

Ethiopia is a largely Christian country, with has its own very special version of the orthodox church,  which dates back to the fourth or fifth centuary.  My journey took me through the town of Axum one of the most important religious centres.

Inside this chapel is supposed to be the Ark of the Covenant  (a box containing the stone tablets, given to Moses, on which the ten commandments are carved). Why this is now in Ethiopia is a long and not very believable story - but I didnt say that in front of the local believers

Pre Christianity the kings built obelisks just like the Egyptians (and didn't always give them adequate foundations - that's 33m of granite that's come falling down a few hundred years ago)

After Axum it was onto Gondor,  which surprises with a group of stone castles from the 17th centuary which would make any European country proud. Not what one expects.

From here it was onto Sudan, but I'll leave that for next week.