Cyber Ethiopia

One of the most interesting but rarely visited places in Ethiopia is the Afar Lowlands. This desert like area stretches through the northeast of the country north of Awash and Dire Dawa, and east of Wolo and Tigray. This fierce land, which includes the Danakil Depression, one of the hottest spots on the planet, also has gentle oases, rivers and lakes. The Afar people also have a reputation for fierceness, which has kept intruders as well as visitors off their land, but also are well known for their gentleness and hospitality. The Road from Awash to Mille The easiest way to travel into Afar is on the road from Awash or Kombolcha. This is the road which runs to Djibouti, and formerly to the port of Assab

in Eritrea. The road from Awash is paved and usually well maintained, which makes it one of the fastest and easiest roads in Ethiopia. The flat terrain allows for the road to be straight as well, so that the occasional livestock are usually visible for a long way. This has not, however, prevented a lot of livestock from being killed, no doubt to the high speed of the many trucks on the road. The 300 kilometers from the turnoff near Awash to the next turn near Mille is fairly uneventful. Perhaps the most interesting point is the turnoff itself, a few kms past Awash and the Awash River bridge. This is a major checkpoint for traffic. So there are plenty of vehicles, as well as an interesting mixture of Afar, Oromo and sometimes even Somali people. There are several villages along the way, and it is a good idea to stop at one of them. The Afar people are very picturesque. The men normally wear turbans and a white shawl with shorts and sandals. They usually carry a stick and a large boomerang shaped dagger, called a 'ghille' and are accompanied by camels. The women normally wear a light shawl on their shoulders or head, with beautiful necklaces of beads and silver from their necks onto their chests, which are usually bare. They have long skirts from the waist down. Often they wear their hair in elaborate braids. The women are striking, confident and friendly. The towns along the way are not the best places to meet Afar people-they are mostly truck stops. Typical is the bland, ugly and hot town of Mille (pronounced mil-lee) . This is a strip along the road, with trucks lined and full of little hotels and restaurants. There are almost no traditional Afar around, only truck drivers and the various people who serve. You can get a local meal in one of the hot and dusty restaurants, but after that, I preferred to move on! Past Mille to Djibouti From Mille you can travel West to Kombolcha, or East to Djibouti. The turn off to Djibouti is about 200 km further on. After that it is still a long way to the port, most trucks take a full day to get there. Not only are there the border formalities, the road on the Djibouti side is very bad, the victim of the vastly increased truck traffic since the war with Eritrea started. The capital of the Afar Region, Asaita is also about 50 km. off this road, halfway between Mille and Djibouti. It is showing some growth and bustle as a result of this status. However, the capital is apparently soon to be shifted to Semera. Asaita is also the jump off point into the swamp and lake area to the south. The Awash River runs into the desert here, ending in a series of lakes near the Djibouti border. The Awash doesn't reach the sea, it ends here in the desert. The swamp and lakes at the end of the Awash get few outside visitors. One of the most famous was the explorer Wilfred Thesiger, who visited in the 1930's. He documented his experience in his diary and letters, recently published as "The Danakil Diary, Journeys through Abyssinia, 1930-34". Only through fierce determination did he overcome the bureaucracy and difficulties in travelling to this area in search of the endpoint of the Awash. I always feel uncomfortable with the notion of Europeans going off and 'discovering' something which of course the locals knew about all along. The reality is that these Europeans leave behind the only written record, so they become the source of information. Although Thesiger comes across as a bit of a colonialist and old 'pip and all that' type of Brit, he is genuinely sensitive to the local culture, and obviously much more comfortable in a tent in a desert than in a house or a car. He is intensely interested in the culture of the peoples he lives with, and makes quite detailed and interesting comments. He travelled from the train station at Awash more or less up the Awash River, and finally made it to the lakes and swamps at the head of the Awash. He then travelled to Djibouti and finished his journey by taking a boat to the port. Pretty impressive!