Allana Potash fka AAA

[FlatEarthSoc]

Here's a fascinating first hand account (w/pictures) of a man who traveled to the Danakhil over the summer. He even 'climbed' Mt Dallol on the Sainik concessions right smack in the middle of Allana's concessions. My guess is he was working for BHP and stayed at Allana's camp. Great Read!

http://www.4x4community.co.za/forum/showthread.php?t=60140&page=1

Allana's Camp ??


"Day two: An early start was the right thing to do to try and avoid some of the heat, however it was already 32°C at 6am, so no luck there. We departed the camp and went to visit a drill site on the salt flats. We had to park about a kilometre from the rig as the ground was just too soft and we would have got really stuck in the sticky mud. The drill rig and its support truck were both tracked vehicles, running on rubber tracks, so they were able to operate on the mud. From there we stopped off and visited the local military base. The Ethiopian Government is very supportive of the international companies doing exploration in the area. They know that if the international companies do find what they are looking for and decide to mine it, then the Ethiopian Government will benefit financially, and the locals will get employment. So the Ethiopian army has been tasked to ensure the safety of all foreigners in the area. We arrived back at the camp at about 11am, drenched in sweat, and retreat to the cool cabins to recover. After a light lunch we headed out again for Dollol Mountain. It’s not really a mountain, just an outcrop in the desert, but it has some of the most incredible geological features. We parked at the base of Dollol, at an altitude of -111 meters (below sea level!) and hiked up to the top. "

Mt Dallol


"At the top of Dollol there are salt and sulphur springs, bubbling up from the ground. The heat, and the stench from the sulphur, made it really difficult going. There are salt ponds, and the water is so contaminated with naturally occurring chemicals that it feels like caustic soda when I dipped my hand into it. It burned so much that I had to rinse my hand with bottled water, and the water temperature up there was really, really hot. The ground is a really hard and brittle volcanic type of rock, it was cracking and snapping underfoot, and it was so hot that the glue on the soles of my shoes started melting, causing the shoes to start coming apart. The colours up there were very vivid, it was like something out of a science fiction movie! I almost felt like I had landed on a strange planet. And the temperature recorded was 50°C!!!"





thanks sdomae!

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