Overnighting in Lac Abbé, 10 km from Ethiopia

Road to Lac Abbé

 The Drive to Lac Abbé

(Happy Birthday, Philip Hodges!)

Friday morning, I headed north  with a guide and driver to the famous Lac Abbé, and Lac Assal, regions of Djibouti. 

I am just back from the two-day trip. Because there was no wifi or cell service, I could not communicate with anyone, and I am behind in the blog. I know Will was a little worried he did not hear from me. I assured him there had been no kidnappings of Americans in Djibouti this year. 

Of course, I'm kidding. I was hesitant to go on the overnight so I texted the guide, and he assured me that it was very safe and that he would take good care of me. I was hoping he didn't mean he'd take good care of me for a million bucks. 

Fathi, my guide picked up at 8:00 AM on Friday.  He brought  with him a driver, Leo, who did not speak English or French. He spoke Somali, I think. However, this driver was the absolute best driver I could have asked to take me to this extremely remote, otherworldly place. Sitting next to my driver is Fathi, my 33-year-old guide. Fathi grew up an orphan and was placed in the Djibouti orphanage. He was fostered by four different families, one of them abusive. He still volunteers at the local orphanage. 

Observations on my trek North.

• I have never seen so many container trucks and MAC trucks on the highway, ever. Every day of the year, thousands of 18 wheelers and 36 wheeler trucks begin a journey from the Djiboutian port to Ethiopia, and thousands of trucks begin their journey from Ethiopia to Djibouti. Every day. The first four hours of the drive were on the paved two-lane road that these trucks take. Since DJ drivers believe there is a center lane, too, this is how they pass all these trucks. And, semi-trucks will pass trucks, weaving in and out and a crazy Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. Watch out for the goats or camels or toddlers on the road. When spotted, all vehicles slow to a crawl while honking horns to move the animal or child, or Khat man from in front of the convoy. Sometimes, you try to pass the truck in front of you and find out that there is a semi-right smack in the center of the road passing from the other direction. Or, in our case, when there was a 200 plus bottleneck of truckers on the other side of the road, impatient semi's would just pull out and use the make-believe 3rd lane to pass ten, or twenty or fifty trucks until he could find enough space to pull back in. All the while, we have to drive halfway on and off the road because there are no shoulders. Whew. 

  Trucks everywhere.  Blue cabs mean Tigray, Ethiopia

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• Djibouti's main imports are fresh produce, khat, and water from Ethiopia. Ethiopia imports petroleum, animals, steel and machinery, and electricity. Of course, these are the largest categories. 
• The Chinese are everywhere, building, building, building. They have a military base in DJ, too, and a very large port, a manufacturing plant, a Free Trade Center, a new international hotel being built next to the port, and a very unusual complex that Fathi calls the prison. It is still being built, but it is impenetrable, and no one can see what is inside or what it is used for. 

• Once out of the city, we went through a hilly, almost mountainous region and then were spit out into the sprawl of the endless desert. DJ's desert is a light rust color and is hard-packed from lack of rain. No grass grows, only an occasional tumbleweed bush, or if it hasn't been cut down to make a hut for a family, there are a few scraggly trees. But, there are not many of them. 

• Women are the workers. Ethiopia pipes water into DJ as DJ is a dry country with no freshwater. For a hotel like the Kempinski, desalination plants supply basic water needs. Drinking water is all by bottle. There are a series of wells, several miles apart, all the way through the desert. Women walk to the well daily, fill up old gas cans, plastic jugs, and anything with a lid or screw top, and haul the water back to their huts. Some women have a donkey to help; most do not. And, most women have a bevy of toddlers hanging on their a long diaphanous voile dress. As young as three and four, I saw other children herding goats out in the desert. During the daytime, I never saw men in the hut complexes. We passed many huts and small villages, and the men I saw were sitting together on the ground talking and chewing khat. Unemployment in DJ is running at almost 40%. Fathi tells me a family survives by selling a goat when they need food.  

• No one has a vehicle or transportation. Hitch-hiking is standard. Fathi only let us take one hitchhiker, a young man who needed to go to a village 40km away, through the desert, to buy food for his children who were hungry. He made him ride on top of our jeep. The terrain was so treacherous and hilly at this point in the trip, not to mention hot, that I couldn't stand thinking about that poor man on top of the vehicle. Fathi relented and let the man ride in the front seat with the driver and Fathi. There are only two seats in a jeep. It was crowded, but no one seemed to notice. I had the whole back seat to myself. Fathi made us all wear masks. 

• Each village was named (or nicknamed) from a characteristic of the town. We went through peanut village, where we rolled the window down and a young boy brought us five rolled cones of freshly heated peanuts. And, they were good! Another was aptly named Pink and Blue Bags. The village was literally littered with pink, blue, and white plastic grocery bags. They hung like Christmas decorations on every bush, tree, or crag that one could creatively hang a grocery bag. It may have been charming, except the whole village was nothing but trash. In fact, every village was full of garbage. There are no trash cans in Djibouti. The world is our trash can! Trena, I know you are cringing! Whoever talks the government into paying the 40% of unemployed to pick up litter and dispose of it will be our next trillionaire. 

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  Ethiopian drivers drink alcohol when they drive their trucks. Djibouti truck drivers use Khat. My driver used khat, as well. He asked me if I'd like to try it. Did I? I'll never tell.

• After hours of paved roads and trucks, we turn off to dusty, sandy back roads. We came to a substantial town where we stopped at a local motel, the only one I have seen, for the midday siesta and lunch. The food is delicious. It is grown across the street from the motel in a garden so lush and green it must be an oasis. The owner irrigates from a lonely freshwater stream. It is behind a locked fence. The Secret Garden has everything - tomatoes, peppers, mangoes, potatoes, etc., and a mini herd of cows. I would estimate that it covered two to three acres, and Fathi and I got turned around and lost in the garden and had to search for the exit gate. Fascinating to find this in a country that is so desolate, so dingy and so beige. I did benefit from the garden as my lunch was fresh and tasty. 

• We had another three-four hours of off-roading. I was quietly terrified. Our driver thought he was in the Formula 1 race. He would reach speeds of 120km on these sandy, rock-pocked roads. He would swerve, downshift, slam on the breaks, and hit the gas, all in an expert dance he did with the desert road. He was a very good driver. Exceptionally good. We did not pass but a handful of vehicles while off-roading. One of them was a Djibouti camouflaged truck that hit a sandy embankment and flew. It landed on its back like an upside-down turtle. It must have happened within thirty minutes of our arrival. We stopped and checked on the soldiers. I think they were embarrassed for me to be looking out my window. One had a machine gun on his shoulder and started to the car. I rolled my window up very fast. There was an ambulance on the way, they pointed. We could see a dust trail many miles away. After handing them a case of water, we continued on our journey.

• Water. Water is currency. Water is hospitality. Water is life in Djibouti. Fathi handed water out to small children, the soldiers, and anyone I bargained with and received a good deal; Fathi would hand a bottle of water. Fathi made sure I never, and I mean never, had a half-empty bottle of water. He would carry an extra bottle just for me when we were on foot. I never realized that there are whole countries that are dry. Djibouti is one of them. 

We will arrive at sunset at Lac Abbé. This is the most unusual, otherworldly, natural terrain I have ever seen. There are claims that Planet of the Apes was filmed here. I think it was more likely the dark side of the Lion King. It is so dark and scary but so geographically unique that I can't help but see the beauty in it. And, by the time I leave Lac Abbé the following day, I am sold. 

Next post tonight: Lac Abbé and Lac Assal. I'm off to snorkel and hunt for whale sharks.  Wish me luck!