
Herding goats #1
I am finally at home after a bit of a whirlwind month, traveling to 3 continents and the last destination was Djibouti, a country in East Africa which I’ve been wanting to visit for a long time.
Djibouti is an oasis of calm in a fairly troubled region, nestled between Eritrea to the North, Somalia to the South and Ethiopia to the West. Most of the military operations against the pirates active around the horn of Africa are based in Djibouti which makes the country really safe, but at the same time quite expensive. The main reason why we were there was to snorkel with the whale sharks who call the calm waters off Djibouti their home between October and January, feeding in the plankton-rich seas. But we also did take a few days to explore the countryside, in particular the two major salt lakes, Lake Abbe and Lake Assal. At 155m below sea-level, Lake Assal is Africa’s lowest point, while Lake Abbe’s volcanic landscape feels like you are visiting the Moon.
I made the photograph above while walking between Lake Abbe’s limestone chimneys, waiting for the goat herders to return to their villages for the night. The whole area comes alive just before sunset with hundreds of goats and donkeys being pushed towards home by mostly young kids who help out their families and are very protective of their animals.