Accommodation and Meals:
On this trip we stay in hotels, traditional Afar huts and spend 4 nights wild camping. Accommodation will be locally staffed as per law in Ethiopia, which is a benefit to local communities. Spending part of the trip in environmentally friendly, low energy consuming accommodation like the traditional Afar huts and wild camps reduces our overall carbon footprint. Hotels provide plentiful, locally sourced breakfasts and where meals are not provided, our local guide will be able to recommend the best restaurants and cafes, making it a wonderful opportunity to support businesses in the area and explore Ethiopia’s cuisine. At the marketplaces, clients can buy fresh produce and even see the local specialty ‘enjera’ being made. This is sour dough made from a grain called ‘teff’ and is used as a scoop to eat from warm, and often spicy, casserole dishes known as ‘wat.’

Local craft and Culture:
As this trip is primarily focused on natural landscapes, there are limited opportunities to support local craft. Nonetheless, our local guides will advise clients not to buy items of antiquity value (heritages or ancient relics) and items that are made from endangered species such as lion’s skin, leopard’s skin and Walia ibex’s skin. Throughout the trip, we may encounter local people and tribes especially when we are traveling through the remote Danakil depression. The Afar have traditionally been wary of outsiders. Hence, it is important that we respect their traditions and behave appropriately and not treat these tribes as exotic exhibits to be photographed.

Activity:
The wilderness adventure of this trip begins when we embark into the Danakil depression. There, we will visit Dallol, one of the hottest inhabited places on earth, with a bizarre landscape of dyed orange and yellow from the sulphur and iron oxide. We will also climb Erta Ale, one of the few places in the world that provides a chance to look down into a bubbling lava lake. One rare example of a forest in the region is the Foret du Day national park where its arid land is home to several locally rare and endangered species. In places like this, we are careful to use tracks that are already there to prevent causing any disruption of flora and fauna in the region. Our visits to remote areas thereby provides financial benefits and support local communities to preserve their environment and provide more job opportunities.

One key highlight of the trip is the whale shark safari, which is the world’s largest fish species. Djibouti is one of the best places in the world to see whale sharks especially when the waters off the country are pristine and home to one of the healthiest reefs in the world. We are aware of the vulnerability of these creatures and are always committed to treat them with respect. Clients will be briefed about the swimming guidelines to ensure that they do not disrupt the sharks in any way. Being able to swim alongside these beautiful marine creatures will allow clients to learn more about their behaviour in their natural habitat and appreciate these mammals better.

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Charity:
Since 2013, we have been supporting various projects in Ethiopia, specifically the Simien Mountains. One of our past involvements was to sponsor a remote village school in Debre Chiwa in the Simien Mountains where we supplied financial donations and manpower allowing 2 new, furnished classrooms to be built. With the improvements, the number of pupils and teachers has doubled and the school now receives some state funding. In the recent years, we supported the Simien Mountains Mobile Medical Service, a small charity dedicated to provide medical care in the area. We donated money to allow them to run a first aid course for the national park scouts and guides and also provided a number of first aid kits to be used throughout the park. In 2018, we donated US$1000 towards building a rest house next to a maternity clinic.

A Fair Deal:
We work closely with our local operator and ensure that all of our guides are local and that in exchange for their expertise that they are paid and treated fairly. The leaders will give a briefing on Responsible Tourism issues to help clients understand how they can help reduce their impact and maximise the benefits to the local community from our visit.

Group Size:
This is a small group tour, meaning that we have a low impact on the environments and communities we visit and are able to ensure that we do not disrupt or lead to the displacement of local people. The small number also allows us to stay in unique, family-run hotels that cannot benefit from coach tours and other mass tourism due to their limited sizes.

UK Office:
It all starts at home where we work towards reducing our carbon footprint in our offices through energy conservation measures, recycling policies and the promotion of cycling and walking as a means for our staff to commute. Our head office has become a plastic-free zone with the use of plastic bottles being banned in our head office and we distributed reusable water bottles and tote bags to every staff member. We also support a large number of community and environmental projects in different parts of the world and try to give something back to the places we visit.