27-04-2011
Djibouti,
Since the beginning of the journey 16597 km
The first obligatory attractiom in Djibouti – salt lake Lac Assal
Roadside scenary
Bay of Ghoubbet
This kind of road took over 150 metres below sea level to salt lake Lac Assali, which is also the lowest place on the African continent.The salt content here is a little bit higher than in the Dead Sea. According to Wikipedia here the salt content is 34,9 %, in the Dead Sea it is 33,7 %.
I managed to buy a decent map issued by IGN , scale 1:200 000. It is said there that the lake is 157 m below sea level.
The salt lake in the evening sun.
The salt crystals in the big plan.
The shore of the lake in the morning sun. In the morning at 7 it was already +39 C.
If you look very carefully you can see some trails taking to the hot water spring. And good that I didn`t go there on foot to measure the depth – the toes would have been burned.
And no need to drive very far.
The hot water spring itself.
On the way back , and again over the sea level.
Djibouti Grand Canyon
The diner of local truck drivers.
A macro-shooting of a camel.
As to everyday life in Djibouti the thieves managed to get my GPS and phone. So no sense calling the number 59937094 any more.
And this morning the second battery of the bus had come to an end. Now – a bit technical talk: the battery-case is solved this way that - there are two batteries in parallel, in addition they have separate mass switches. The purpose is that while not driving one battery could be switched out and at the same time the other could be used to have power for laptop and lighting. And when one battery is empty there is always a full battary to start the car. And this morning there was not any sign of life from the full battery. Fortunately there was something left in the other one and half a turn was enough to get it going again, otherwise, another interesting situation would have taken place. In this sense interesting, that the parking place was on the slope , but the car was facing the sea. Practically no room for pushing to start the car.
The overnight place was a deserted a restaurant a couple of kilometres from town by the bay. Fortunately the place is surrounded by a fence and there is a 24 hour guard present.
So the first task is to get a new battary for the car. It could even be possible to find one here. But a decent Garmini GPS is not probably to be found before Kenya.
While searching in internet I even founf that in Djibouti there is even a local reseller but having driven there it turned out that at the counter there is only one eTrex and nothing new would be ordered. No market. And not even resellers in Ethiopia.
And in general it is possible to manage without it, but in bigger towns moving around is more comfortable with GPS. PocketPC is also a kind of solution but the battery`s life is only 30 minutes. So not convenient to walk and orientate in town
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