Djibouti - Down to the lowest point in Africa

Arrived in Djibouti this morning and my plan is to visit Lake Assal. This country is the third smallest country in Africa, but almost all of it is desert. There are no rivers, only salt lakes in the desert.

Getting a visa here is no problem and as most nationalities can enter the country with an E-Visa which is quickly issued. Only had to bring the print-out and they put the stamp in the passport upon immigration. Regarding immigration and infrastructure, it's a convenient country to visit. I also was not stopped even once for taking photos.

It's not a very touristy place but still, a lot of police is around all the time. So it's more "civilized" here compared to other African countries, for example, their neighbor Somalia. The officials try to lure more tourists here but the funds are not enough.

But why is Djibouti is so heavily secured?

The government does a lot to keep it ordinary here and also the fact that this country is home to the largest permanent USA military base in Africa does help a lot to maintain security all over the small country. Meanwhile, even China is intruding Djibouti with their own Military base, also the French are having a big military presence in the country. But its no surprise China is increasing their appearance in the country as China does it all over in Africa. They basically emptying the resources of the country so its not just military but also interest in economics, as Djibouti is strategically very well located seen on the world map, directly at the red sea.

Map of Djibouti

April 21 - Arriving in Djibouti city

Departed yesterday from South Sudan and had a stopover in Ethiopia. This early morning it was a short flight from Addis Ababa to here. The airport is a small but modern one. I was supposed to be back in the airport tomorrow to pick up my rental car but found out the Europcar office is not here but somewhere else between the airport and the city.

From the airport, it’s a 15-minute ride to Djibouti City downtown, the capital. The taxi driver drove along the road where the Europcar office is located and so I had a preview where I have to be tomorrow early morning. But that's for tomorrow, today's plan was seeing the city.

After leaving the luggage in the hotel and having lunch I spent the afternoon roaming around the city. There are not that many particular things to see and it's very hot to walk around.

But the street life around the market is interesting. Also, the buildings are. It's clearly visible how France influenced the country with its baguette&croissant-culture. Many restaurants are in the downtown.

I expected tons of tourists, but there aren't

When I was looking on google maps it seems that Djibouti has a lot of restaurants and hotels in the north part of the city but that’s just on google maps. Up in the north is almost nothing but the governmental and rich residential area with dozens of embassies and expat compounds. There are a few restaurants and hotels but not really made for tourism purposes.

Around the central market.

Beach of Djibouti

Further is the beach to swim on the east coast of the city and on the west coast at the harbor is the wharf, which is one of the biggest in Africa. Its a popular urban beach with a narrow strip of sand.

Djibouti is also a khat country, like its neighbors

Khat is something like a plant and used as a drug in all over the horn of Africa. But especially Djibouti has a severe Khat problem, similar to Somalia.

Half of the population is using this stuff and is legal. The product has been imported to Ethiopia and always needs to be delivered as quickly as possible. From the morning onwards, the streets are flooded with khat sellers. When walking through the streets of the city, the khat shops are right next to the chicken restaurant, the water shops, the cake shops, and the mobile phone shops. The only difference to the other shops is that the salesperson is talking nonsense mumble while chewing with a mouth full of Khat.

April 22 - Self-Driving to Lake Assal or not?

Probably caught some kind of cold because of Airconditioning, cause my head starts to hurt and the nose to block air. Not very comfortable these colds, especially when having a long day out in the heat and many things on the things-to-do-today checklist. Went up early in the morning and a taxi brought me back to Europcar car rental.

The only rental car company on the internet...

The Europcar office was thankfully open as planned and everything looked fine for me to pick up the reserved car. But the lady wanted to know where I'm taking the car to and when I replied to Lake Assal she was like:

Nope, sorry, that’s not happening. You cannot take this almost brand new car to Lake Assal. You need a 4wd. Also because there is a lot of salt and the road is terrible. 

All my ridiculous arguments that the “salesperson” in the online chat on Europcar website told me that I'm allowed taking the car to Lake Assal, the lady was resistant and didn’t allow me to rent the car for driving to the salt lake. She only said I can pay an upgrade for a few dozen dollars and take the 4wd. There was no other option and as I already was here and a taxi or an organized transport to the lake was around 180 USD anyway, the price for the rental was even cheaper, including the fuel.

Yes, Djibouti is expensive and I guess I never ever paid more for a rental car for one day.

Self-driving is more convenient and cheaper than a taxi

But my thinking was that I surely will have more out of the money when I drive my own car than being driven around by a taxi in high-speed mode and have to listen to the driver's stupid music all day long.

With self-driving, I would be able to make as many breaks an photo stops wherever I want and even can drive back to the airport tomorrow morning and don’t need to organize and pay an expensive taxi to the airport.

The ride to Lake Assal is easy as the road is mostly sealed and traffic reduces with every driven kilometer. Parts along the way have some good view over the valleys.

It's a minimum of about two hours and a nice ride through the desert. Many camels and nomad people are sitting beside the road. However, they definitely don’t like when being on camera. I frequently saw the locals eventually picking up stones from the street when they saw a white “SUV” that probably looks like an average tourist car with people and cameras. I guessed they will throw these stones at my car when I try to take photos while driving through.

The bright white salty lake - Lake Assal

After the hours of driving along with the google maps GPS coordination, I finally arrived. It’s a public place and no entrance fee to be paid. Three other SUVs were there already and based on the language spoken I figured out it was a group of Italians.

From a distance, Lac Assal looks like tropical waters with white sand. Up close, it's an inhabitable moon landscape.

Lake Assal is the saltiest lake on earth with the exception of Antarctica’s lakes. It is saltier than the Dead Sea and is the number one tourist attraction in the country.

The light at the lake is extremely bright and walking around without sunglasses would be devastating for the eyes. Also, the heat is extremely there. I didn’t go swimming but saw the other group pivoting on the big amount of salt in the water.

The lake here is 155m under the sea level. Not only is this the lowest point in Djibouti, but it is also the lowest point in the whole continent of Africa.

I spent time having lunch in the airconditioned car and waited until the group was gone and so had the whole lake for me to explore to pretend to have the maximum authenticity..haha. However, after an hour or so its been seen and after seeing the salt souvenirs on sale at tables from the local its all good time to drive back to Djibouti City.

The salt workers sell the salt as souvenirs. But all of them friendly and not aggressive or annoying.

Now all the way back to the city

The driving itself is easy. There were however some heavily damaged parts on the road which could require a 4wd when it's going to be even more damaged. Also a lot of potholes.

But when being careful, driving with a 2wd shouldn’t be a problem at all as most of the road is sealed perfectly.

All along the way, there is a heavy presence of police, especially when approaching back in Djibouti city the number of soldiers increased even more. I guess there was some kind of governmental activity going on, cause they distributed soldiers from trucks so that basically every part of the road is covered with eye-sight of soldiers.

The plane to Somalia 

Back in Djibouti City I only used the car to drive to the north of the city and explore the area. But there is nothing interesting, as only residential housed and blocks and expat area with embassies.

Due to the cold I got, I wasn’t in the mood to extend the sightseeing any longer and after dinner went back to the hotel to prepare for the departure in the early morning to Hargeisa in country Somalia (or some say Somaliland??).