We're back from Africa! Just wanted to report back on our experience in Danakil for everyone's reference. In the end, we did go with Magma Flow Tours. Here's our itinerary:
Day 1: morning pickup from Axum airport; drive towards Tigray region with stops at rock hewn churches along the way; overnight at Gheralta Lodge
Day 2: continue touring churches in Tigray; end the day in Mekele to get ready for our Danakil trip
Day 3-6: 4 day Danakil tour (first night at Lake Afdera; second day head to Erta Ale base and overnight at the volcano; third day travel to Danakil salt lake with overnight in Hamad Ela; fourth day visit Dallol and salt mine/camel caravan)
When we got to Mekele, the tour agency sent a tuk tuk taxi to pick us up from the hotel and bring us to the Magma Flows Tour agency near the Axum Hotel. Bajaj at the agency told us that Israel was in the desert (in Danakil?) but that everything was arranged. We went through the itinerary, made our payment and signed the travel agreement. For the Danakil Tour, we paid $400 per person (there are 2 of us).
What we did not know was that the actual tour was operated by WorldSun Ethiopia run by Negasi. We had not heard of this agency nor had we met Negasi until they picked us up in the morning. It felt a bit unsettling that we were going to a potentially dangerous region with a company that I had not researched myself, but Bajaj from Magma Flows was also there in the morning to assure us everything would be fine. Fortunately, everything turned out to be more than fine. WorldSun Ethiopia had an awesome team with us (2 of us and another couple from Brazil), so we had two Toyota Land Cruisers total. It was nice to be part of a small group, since most others we met during the 4 days were with ETT. In Erta Ale, ETT showed up with a group of no less than 11 vehicles! Later at the salt lake we also met another ETT caravan of about 7 vehicles. Our guide Gere and our driver Abraham knew a lot about the region, the culture and the people, plus Abraham was fun to chat with while he drove us around the Afar region's newly paved roads as well as when we tumbled over the lava rock terrain. Our cook also made awesome soups, pastas and even had fried rice with tuna one day. My husband had a stomach flu for the first day, and the team really went out of their way to try to make him comfortable, constantly asking us whether we needed more water or different food or anything else. Many times, the team also made great efforts to get us to sights before the big groups arrived so that we were able to enjoy the locales in relative peace and quiet, and we were also able to get some good photographs without many people in the background.
In the end, when we got back to Mekele and hung around to drink some beers/coffee, Negasi was there chatting with us with a notepad in hand. He told us that he enjoyed bringing small groups to Danakil so that his team could take care of all of us with lots of personal attention. He brought his notepad to write down any suggestions for improvements that we had for his team. We were just sitting there giving praise to his team since we did enjoy the trip quite a lot, but he kept on pushing us to think of ways to help them improve. I guess in the end we felt lucky that it was WorldSun Ethiopia that took us to Danakil, although perhaps Magma Flow's team would have been just as nice.
Definitely can recommend WorldSun Ethiopia for Danakil! Hope this helps others who are trying to decide.
