Deadliest Roads | Ethiopia | Free Documentary

Hey, this landscape looks like something straight out of a gimmicky sci-fi movie. A devilish beauty that masks one of the most inhospitable places on the planet. Sulfurous vapors. An acidic river. This is the Danakil Desert in Ethiopia. Here all signs of life have disappeared or almost hunger is the only one. motivation for these men who brave the open road in unbearable heat because there is a hidden treasure found in the danakil desert foreign white gold salt workers earn two euros a day barely enough to survive a few days the temperature reaches up to 50 degrees in the shade the only problem is that there is no shade everyone calls before starting the three day expedition home.

They will take around 100 camels on the trip. It is much slower than a truck but much more reliable and, above all, much safer. Ethiopian

roads

are among the most dangerous in the world the infrastructure is often outdated and worn out and car and truck drivers have a golden rule that sends shivers down the spine whatever the means of transport Ethiopians risk their lives these ancient 404 They barely have a set of working brakes and the trains are no safer Built in 1917 This is the oldest railway in Africa and inevitably there are frequent accidents This local train has some surprises in store for its passengers in the middle of the desert Ethiopia is said to be the birthplace of humanity in its forests man took his first steps and today these forests continue to be home to wild and dangerous creatures hear the station comes to life twice a week starting at five in the morning whenever the environment becomes tense no one knows if there will be enough space in the carriages there is no electricity inside the train victor the driver checks that everything is as it should be with the engine using a flashlight this is so that everything is not as disorganized as it might seem there is a certain method in its madness the train starts its journey with only half an hour late, an achievement, it takes an average of 10 hours on the local train to cross the 310 kilometers to the small town of gulali in these carriages it is an attitude of every one by oneself the most agile passengers tend to stay outside the carriages and the most daring ones play a dangerous game the reckless foreigners foreigners play an absurd game with their lives but that is their choice the passengers themselves do not demand the train has no type safety the carriages don't even have an emergency stop lever so you have to be careful with a return ticket that costs six euros but some people have the right to travel for

free

like this 15 year old teenager Abeda goes to school twice a year week to travel by train but she is not a normal traveler she is a sales cat almost all Ethiopians chew these small leaves with a bitter taste the cat is a drug that helps people stay awake the plant is prohibited in France the competition is tough for abeda Nowadays there are many cat sellers in the carriage at every stop the merchants spring into action the smell of fritters and spices fills the air disputes are inevitable apparently these people do not agree on the prices they wait at the window for their customers She does not want to give up her precious seat.

The money pays for her education and whenever there is some of what is left over, the teenager gives it to her parents. The local train is a lifeline that supports thousands of families who live along its tracks abroad. So with the heat of the midday sun the iron carriage becomes a red hot prison cell inside the passengers slowly bake it. almost 40 degrees even with its windows and doors the air flow is not enough to lower the temperature inside the carriages a torturous heat but preferable compared to traveling in the original wooden carriages from 1917 the windows are high the air does not circulate like that and there are more problems for the 300 passengers the train moves at an average of 30 kilometers per hour the old alstom locomotive from the 80s does what it can but the three million kilometers of mileage are beginning to catch up with it the winner is sure that the The engine sounds unhealthy even for a diesel engine.

This smoke is not normal. Something is wrong here, giving you the machine's presence at 50 percent until it cools down. All our mother parts are hot, so keep it until it cools down. Not likely, her son is no good. Passengers know very well that repairing the train could take days. Some decide to continue on foot. If the train starts again, it will catch up with them. Victor returns to the mechanics. the passengers resort to prayer, but each one to his own god, by Allah for some and for others, reggae oh, it is impossible to alert the train director at the station.

Cell phones don't work in the desert. Perhaps you will send the rescue services once you realize that the train has not returned. Ethiopia looks like an immense desert. It is no coincidence that the country is known as the roof of Africa. Forest-covered highlands rise in the center of the country up here the rains are abundant and water is not a problem however in other parts of the world country, it is another matter. 22 of the population do not have access to drinking water. He travels to and from this spring filling these containers to sell in his town.

By some miracle, his cart would hold even more weight while Nathanael makes this trip. 10 times a day in total it carries almost a ton of water the five kilometer downhill section is full of trucks the children have started making their own versions of the national cart and their sledding technique will make you shiver so um at 60 years old Each container is starting to weigh twice as much for Natalel but he has no other option if he wants to be able to eat further south each day is the region of Kafir and at 1714 meters of altitude is the great city of Bonga this morning Salomon the trucker has not yet arrived He has completely woken up.

We cannot say that he is the best judge of distances, just a few cases of beer are not the core of his work. In this part of the country public transportation is almost non-existent, which is why heavy trucks like Salomon are even highly coveted. If ticket prices are exorbitant two euros 50 per trip a fortune for these farmers who earn only one euro per day abroad they will travel 60 kilometers in almost 10 hours a seemingly endless trip some passengers will stand still while others precariously balance the passengers luckier Preferably sitting on the floor of the truck because with a light push of the brakes the standing passengers fly throughout the cabin but according to Salomon there is nothing to fear, he has an unsurpassed driving technique to avoid this type of incident at 10 kilometers from this side.

It doesn't look good, some passengers push while others must continue on foot. Of the 36,000 kilometers of

roads

in Ethiopia, only six thousand kilometers are paved abroad. The hours pass and Salomon begins to get tired. A cat bites the plant. It stops, preventing him from sleeping, but It has another side effect that hinders your reflexes and in this mud the consequences of this could quickly become dramatic. I never miss here, they have reached their destination according to Salomon. 10 hours of smooth travel is relatively rare in Ethiopia while the roads. They are difficult and extremely dangerous they transport 90 percent of the goods shipped within the country and for good reason the Ethiopian railway network is in complete chaos and not a day goes by without technical problems the train between deradawa and gulilli is still broken down in the middle from the desert the 300 passengers have been waiting for four hours under a scorching sun but something is about to come to their aid victor the driver and his two assistants try to make repairs with the available equipment with which they have worked for four hours their tools the passengers who They got off the train to walk They are their main hope They have been able to sound the alarm at the train station and they will send a new train but still no one is seen The tracks remain silent This fun device is It is used for track inspections, but this It is not what will rescue the train.

It is too light to be able to tow a train weighing several tons. The only hope is the Diradawa train station, but the place looks abandoned. The station is a relic of France. presence in the country practically nothing has changed since its construction in 1917. these men do what they can to keep the old machinery alive here is the emergency rescue train she is in no better condition than the one trapped in the desert all these spare parts the parts were taken from decommissioned trains the mechanics must be extremely resourceful because no new parts are produced here nothing is thrown away abroad this replacement is definitely not ready to come to the rescue of the train stuck in the desert to return let's move victor the driver will show some ingenuity this is a balloon it's covering the evil of the turbo now this is wonderful here it's just the rings there's no sky party here yet so we try to repeat it just to test this one it may be like this Maybe there is something in this desert forest with this piece of wood.

Victor hopes to keep the train's turbo in his place and a miracle occurs, but this lucky makeshift repair may not last long for now, it seems to be a problem after the other victor worries. about the state of the tracks, it's really not good to eat guys, victor sends an unvigi in front of the train who is attentive to whether there are bent or detached tracks, victor reduces the speed of the train from 30 to 20 kilometers per hour and things are going better, these fallen ones. carriages show the negligence of the previous drivers in changing the journey, which still holds many surprises for them.

The construction of this railway line in 1907 marks the beginning of French cooperation. The French language entered Ethiopian schools in 1960. During this period, France also helped the country draft its own civil code. These are not the only traces they left in the country. One of them lives in the city of plowing. It is so terrible in terms of pollution the car dates back to the 60's-70's but it is very robust, there are now hundreds of them driving the streets of Harrah City. Most of these old cars are used as taxis. The bodies creak and the brakes are worn, but the solid car still runs well.

If I asked for more. very few people could pay taxes it is still the most popular means of transportation your taxi is the best dating agency in the city you know the secret of rejuvenation of the 404 it is located here in a remote section of the city oh foreigner the same way that train parts are becoming rarer and rarer in a few years the 404 will have disappeared from the streets of Harrah there was a time when it was not safe to walk the streets of the city at night the danger did not come from suspicious people but something much worse to this day on the outskirts of the city the night is full of fear the danger is always hidden in the darkness only mulogetta and her children can control this force that so terrifies the locals is hello, they are the only ones accepted by the creatures of the nocturnal hyenas thanks is that since the 19th century there has been a pact between the hyenas and the residents of plowing the residents allow the scavengers to invade the city at night to feast on their waste and garbage so that they stop attacking to their flocks today the hyenas no longer serve as garbage dumps but the city continues to feed them just as their father Malugetta has brought them food every night for the last 26 years there is complete trust eh sometimes he makes a little money by selling these babies to zoos and the engine repair with a piece of wood seems to hold but while the train moves smoothly at 20 kilometers per hour and there are 20 kilometers left to travel, this means that there is one more hour left under the suffocating heat from which the passengers protect themselves from the sun's rays. as much as they can a young saleswoman has sold all her cat but she is worried about her vegetables and the girl's problems do not end there the engine suddenly shows a great sign of fatigue she shudders and stops as if hit by the heat then when she sees the magnitude of the damage this time the mechanics don't even take out their tools but the passengers do set off a group of 300 travelers decide to finish their trip on foot victor the driver suffers imagine how long for how many days victor no I don't know there is no limit waiting to reach their destination the town of trained castaways has another 20 kilometers to walk one thing is certain certain goods will not arrive very fresh unless they use the camels that make fun of them along the way. be very useful in fact certain passengers have a special technique to capture these beasts but after a little reflection they let them go here they do not joke with the camel thieves of the region some passengers will take more than 10 hours to reach their destination others are exhausted They wait for the emergency train on the side of the tracks.

It did not arrive until the next morning. 500 kilometers away, the salt slaves are also preparing to set off. Their journey is difficult, but unlike the trained passengers, they will have nothing to carry. Behind this oven a legend is born: the legend that the sun travels across the sky thanks to a car.drawn by fiery horses one of these itiop horses gave its name to

ethiopia

who knows there may be truth in this legend with the immense heat that radiates over the country that