Kingsley Holgate Encounters a Lava Lake and Sulphur Springs in the Danakil Depression
As part of his humanitarian journey, the Great African Rift Valley Expedition, Kingsley Holgate traveled right to the rim of the lava lake Erta Ale in the Danakil Desert – officially the hottest place on earth. In his latest Rift Valley Dispatch for Getaway magazine, Holgate recounts their journey through “a surreal bubbling, multi-hued field of sulpherous hot springs studded with steaming conical vents, caramel coloured mushroom shapes and rippled rock formations”:
Welcome to the desert
We must cross the dangerous Danakil Desert. We check water, fuel and supplies. Our guide Ali Abdella has organised two men each with a Kalashnikov (AK 47). The Danakil’s climatic inhospitality is mirrored by the reputation of its nomadic Afar inhabitants, who as recently as the Italian occupation in 1937 had the somewhat discouraging custom of welcoming strangers by lopping of their testicles. Hope we keep ours!
Lost in the Danakil Desert
Flash floods in the distant highlands have made part of the Danakil track impassable and we are having to navigate by the seat of our pants – very difficult when Ross who is navigating has got dysentery and is being fed antibiotics and Rehidrate. With tyres down to 1 bar we grind through choking powder soft dust and then pump them hard again to bounce over ancient solidified lava flows. It is incredibly tough on man and machine. Get lost out here and that will be the last you hear from us.
Book details
- Africa: In the Footsteps of the Great Explorer by Kinglsey Holgate
EAN: 9781770071476
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- Afrika: Dispatches From the Outside Edge by Kingsley Holgate
EAN: 9781770075047
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- Cape to Cairo: One family’s adventures along the waterways of Africa by Kingsley Holgate
EAN: 9781770071766
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Image courtesy Getaway
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