In northern Ethiopia, in the depression created by tectonic plate spread millions of years ago, a salt desert found itself trapped inland. Since the dawn of time, the Afars extract salt plates that caravaneers carry on camels.

The glowing sun sets out on the horizon the silhouettes of seven camels. Preceded by two donkeys, they advance with their slow pace, in the infinite plain of whiteness still blinding despite the falling evening. Each dromedary carries about thirty amoles , rectangular blocks of salt of about ten kilos each. At the end of the day, the heat is more bearable. The march is still grueling .

At the head of this caravan, Haduush Haftu advances, carrying a stick behind the neck on which he rests his arms. Aided by two men, he will guide his dromedaries to Berahile, about fifty kilometers away, at the entrance of the Danakil depression, where the cargo will be sold to wholesalers. This exhausting journey of four days return will bring him less than a hundred euros.

Beasts and men will sleep tonight in Ahmedela, near a volcano called Dallol, renowned throughout the world for its amazing concretions of salt, sulfur, solidified soda, its acid basins, its small gas geysers and its astonishing white, yellow and red colors. Haduush Haftu and his animals will stop there because there is a military post there.