The last part of my ethiopia-journey lead me to the Afar region. The most exciting place to visit there is Erta Ale, the world`s only lava lake, but as there were some kidnappings in the last time I better stayed in a safer area around Assaita, the biggest Afar city. There the Awash river, bringing all the liquid waste from Addis Abeba, flows through several lakes untill he ends in the Afambo lake.
Assaita and the settlements along the Djibouti road host a large amharic population. Most of them came here to serve the hungry and tired truck drivers with restaurants and hotels (it`s probably the most frequented road of Ethiopia, as it`s the main connection of the contry to the ports of the world). But I was told that there is no conflict between the two ethnics, they (the Afar) rather have occasional clashes with the Issa, a somali tribe.
The backbone of the Afar is, of course, livestock, and in some areas salt plantation. Agriculture is only possible along the marshlands of Awash.
From the tourist office in Samara (it`s the regional capital but only consists of a cluster of administrational buidlings, very strange settlement) I took an official guide and a permission to go to the Afambo lake. From there I joined a camel caravan for a 3 day walk through empty desert untill Dikhil in Djibouti. It was a nice experience to see the caravan` s daily life but I wouldn`t recommend this tour to others, because the landscape after the lakes is very boring (only lava stones and, sometimes, an acacia tree) and the border crossing was illegal, so i had to go by truck from Dikhil to the border post in order to get my exit and visa stamps. Along some 100 km we (me and the caravan) didn`t encounter any settlements (except some stone cairns which protected us from the nightly desert storms) and no water, and as they fetched their water from the Afambo lake, I didn`t have any other choice than to drink the infamous "Addis Abeba water".
From the border it wasn't far to the capitol and main port, also called Djibouti. Like the Afar region in Ethiopia, Djibouti is mainly inhabitated by Afar and Issa, but in addition to their own languages and french (Djibouti is francophone) most of them speak also arabic and some amharic, which often leads to trilingual dialogues when I get in touch with them. Of course one also meets a lot of arab traders and, easily to indentify by their tough haircut and chunky bodies, american and french soldiers from the nearby military bases.
Since I left Harer I wear a Imama (turban) to protect my head from the heat, and I'm getting tired to explain that I'm no muslim. Just yesterday some bored policemen disturbed me half an hour with stupid question because I confused them (Atheist, austrian name and passport, looks like a muslim, speaks arabic...)
Assaita and the settlements along the Djibouti road host a large amharic population. Most of them came here to serve the hungry and tired truck drivers with restaurants and hotels (it`s probably the most frequented road of Ethiopia, as it`s the main connection of the contry to the ports of the world). But I was told that there is no conflict between the two ethnics, they (the Afar) rather have occasional clashes with the Issa, a somali tribe.
The backbone of the Afar is, of course, livestock, and in some areas salt plantation. Agriculture is only possible along the marshlands of Awash.
From the tourist office in Samara (it`s the regional capital but only consists of a cluster of administrational buidlings, very strange settlement) I took an official guide and a permission to go to the Afambo lake. From there I joined a camel caravan for a 3 day walk through empty desert untill Dikhil in Djibouti. It was a nice experience to see the caravan` s daily life but I wouldn`t recommend this tour to others, because the landscape after the lakes is very boring (only lava stones and, sometimes, an acacia tree) and the border crossing was illegal, so i had to go by truck from Dikhil to the border post in order to get my exit and visa stamps. Along some 100 km we (me and the caravan) didn`t encounter any settlements (except some stone cairns which protected us from the nightly desert storms) and no water, and as they fetched their water from the Afambo lake, I didn`t have any other choice than to drink the infamous "Addis Abeba water".
From the border it wasn't far to the capitol and main port, also called Djibouti. Like the Afar region in Ethiopia, Djibouti is mainly inhabitated by Afar and Issa, but in addition to their own languages and french (Djibouti is francophone) most of them speak also arabic and some amharic, which often leads to trilingual dialogues when I get in touch with them. Of course one also meets a lot of arab traders and, easily to indentify by their tough haircut and chunky bodies, american and french soldiers from the nearby military bases.
Since I left Harer I wear a Imama (turban) to protect my head from the heat, and I'm getting tired to explain that I'm no muslim. Just yesterday some bored policemen disturbed me half an hour with stupid question because I confused them (Atheist, austrian name and passport, looks like a muslim, speaks arabic...)
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