Today there are only a few salt caravans on left in the north of Mali. The salt is transported to Mopti Airport, then the famous caravans of Bilma take it from a remote oasis to Agades in the Republic of Niger, and then there are the yak and goat caravans which transport salt from the salt lakes of Tibet across five thousand metre high passes to Nepal in order to exchange it for barley. But the largest of all caravans are to be found in the Danakil Desert, in northern Ethiopia.

The Assalé Salt Works have been mined for thousands of years. In addition to gold, slaves, ivory and incense, the ancient Egyptians also obtained salt from Kush, which they then named, Ethiopia. The kings of Axum had good trade relations with the Pharaohs. Today, salt from the Danakil Desert still covers the country's needs, with eighty five million inhabitants, even if the mining and transport is done by primitive means, as in the time of the Pharaohs. Each day around five thousand dromedaries and just as many donkeys and mules transport salt to the highlands of Ethiopia where it is sold in the markets of towns and villages.

Our hotel has no rooms and therefore we sleep in the courtyard. There are also no toilets or showers. For washing, a canister may be purchased at a well, and then, when it is completely dark, one can have a discreet wash in the dry river bed. At the well we meet Fatima, an Afar girl who, like many Afars, has her incisors filed to a point. She speaks some English, and when she learns of our age, she is very surprised, as if we had been Afars we would have died long ago.

The old caravan routes will soon be forgotten. But the Afar realize that their precious source of income has been dwindling and until now they have been able to retain their monopoly on mining and transport - at least to Berhale – but for how long, always in the name of apparent ‘progress’ - the central government in Addis Ababa can deflect future intervention by the Chinese, is unknown, but it would undoubtedly bring an end to the salt caravans. A thousand year old tradition, but today more of a relic from the past!