On the return journey to Addis the route takes you through Mekele, 783 kilometers from the capital with a number of new tourist class hotels, and with daily flights by Ethiopia Airlines. The town is famous for its 120 rock hewn churches of Tigray – which are beautifully decorated and of which a few house important religious artefact. Mekele is also a good place to watch the camel caravans arriving from the forbidding Danakil Depression with their tablet of salt a route to Dalol.