The Wandering Scot

Ethiopia’s Dallol region combines a salt flat with volcanic hot springs, to wildly colorful effect. Hot rocks far below are forcing up hot salty water, laden with minerals.  The bubbling hot springs then form brightly colored salt formations and salty lakes. The active areas are continually changing, with new features appearing and old ones drying […]

And you thought your job was tough… The Danakil depression in Eastern Ethiopia is one of the lowest and hottest points in all of Africa. It’s at -127 meters and is dry, HOT, and salty. For centuries, the locals have mined the hot salt flats and exported blocks of salt to the farmers in the […]

From 1974 to 1987, Ethiopia was ruled by a ruthless Marxist-Leninist regime known as the “Derg”. They renamed themselves in 1987, but were only finally overthrown in 1991. There are still odd traces of them in Addis Ababa. The statue of Lenin is long gone, toppled in 1991. But a striking Soviet-style obelisk, known informally […]