One of our three drivers to the Danakil was "Gebre Fano". Our guide, on the morning of leaving, had to call around at the last minute as our numbers rose. When he arrived, the only obvious difference from his 4x4 to the others was some bright, cheesy posters on the side clearly advertising a singer. It quickly transpired; he was that very same singer. Not only that, he is very famous in this region, particularly as rose to the rank of colonel in the TPLF. The Tigrinian People's Liberation Front were key in overthrowing the Derg communist regime in 1991. However, he did not become an instant hit with us, as he spent the morning trying to complete a deal selling a box of CDs and conspiring with the local fuel station to rip us off by getting us to pay for the people in front. Once underway, it appeared that he had only accepted the job purely as a promotional tour and seemed intent on stopping at every small village en route to improve his market share of cassettes. Although at first highly amusing; these delays, combined with his driving similarity to a Fulham Road Farmer, unfortunately meant our plans had to change, and our trip to an active volcano had to be postponed. Acting like a petulant, attention-seeking little boy: he infuriated our guards by showing off shooting his gun in a bandit area; insisting on showing the experienced Afar village elder how to skin a goat; vandalised the salt crystal formations by kicking off some for a souvenir; and then demanded more money for petrol (after pretending the dashboard was not working by removing a fuse). All in all, the moral of the story is: Singers have roadies for a reason. P.S. Fano is not his real name – he changed it. Fano means Hero!
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