A real holiday hotspot: Tourists brave blistering temperatures to watch volcanos and tour sulphuric lakes in most volatile region on Earth

MailOnline: A real holiday hotspot: Tourists brave blistering temperatures to watch volcanos and tour sulphuric lakes in most volatile region on Earth

Adventure tourists can chalk up a new destination on one of the world's most inhospitable places.

The surface of the Danakil Desert in Ethiopia looks out of this world - and is home to one of the most extreme environments

And holidaymakers are paying thousands to witness first hand the geological volatility of what has been labelled the 'cruellest place on Earth'.

Danakil features violent volcanoes, scorching air temperatures, toxic gases and land masses being ripped apart by enormous planetary forces.

Instead of palm trees, sun loungers and five star accommodation, they are greeted with a bizarre combination of sights that look like nowhere else on Earth.
The trip, organised by holiday firm VolcanoDiscovery, takes customers touring inside the Afar Triple Junction - one of the most active places found anywhere around the globe.

At this turbulent hotspot, the huge Arabian tectonic plate is pulling away from a new rift dividing the African Plate in two.
The colossal divide - which sees massive shelves under the surface of the Earth gradually separate - is causing two new 'incipient' plates to form, which scientists now call the Somali Plate and the Nubian Plate.

VolcanoDiscovery offers a three week tour for around £3,000 that begins from capital Addis Ababa.
Retired civil servant Kwama Ofori, 67, from London, holidayed with the firm and several other paying tourists in November.
He said: 'This is much more interesting than a week by the pool.
'But people who visit here should remember they are not getting a luxury beach-side hut.
'It's a harsh environment full of strange smells and sights. But its like nowhere else and an amazing and different thing to see.

'The whole place is made up of colours and views you get to see on a scale like nowhere else.
'This is one of the most geologically active places on Earth. And the result is active volcanoes like Erta Ale, earthquakes and odd looking lakes full of noxious gases.
'And the heat can be almost unbearable. One day it hit 45 degrees centigrade. But it was all worth it.
'I just wanted something different.'
VolcanoDiscovery founder Tom Pfeiffer, 40, a vulcanologist from Germany, said: 'People are happy to pay this money for a two week tour of one of the strangest places on Earth.
'We meet you in Addis Ababa and we take care of everything for the whole trip. All you have to do is sit back and take it in.'