After breakfast, You will drive to the small chimney’s area for sunrise and then visit Hot Springs and Pink Flamingos at the lake. Lac Abbe, also called “the rotten lake” in Afar (the inhabitants of the region) due to the awful odours discharged by the boiling and sulphuric water sources (80 ̊-100 ̊C), is situated at the junction of 3 rifts – East Africa, the Red Sea, and the Gulf of Aden – but it is also particularly situated at the meeting of the Rift Valley and the Assal Rift. The chimneys, formed from chalk concentrations and covered with a bacteria (called “Cyanobacteria” in scientific terms), have also appeared with the progressive regression of the lake. In fact, the chimneys were formed in the lake at the time of various seism and earthquakes that took place when the water level was still higher several million years ago. And if you observe carefully, you will notice that the chimneys are well aligned along bends, that’s because they are formed along the fault lines. The first movie of the “Planet of the Apes” filmed took place at Lac Abbe in the 1960s. Then you drive back to Dikhil for lunch, on the way you stop in Kouta Bouya to visit the village. Dikhil sightseeing after lunch at La Palmeraie and at 2pm, you will drive to La Foret du Day in Goda Mountain, which is part of the North Circuit. On the way, you will have a stop to visit the scenic views of a Canyon and faults; part of the Danakil depression. Around 5pm, you will reach the tourist camp of Day forest. Dinner will be around 7pm and after dinner is your own time.
