March 26, Friday.

From Our Campsite to Qasr in the Dakhla Oasis

Once again, we follow the usual routine at camp. I'm awake by 5.30, but lounge in my tent till 6; then it's out, break camp, have breakfast, and head off for a walk while Amgad and Hamada pack the car. This time we are passing through a bizarre landscape of sculpted white rock, looking like eagles or trees, all leaning west into the prevailing wind which shaped them from the chalky, Cretaceous (?) formation from which they rise. They must be very temporary features, in geological time, pounded by sand and wind; in a few thousand years surely many of them will be gone, so it is a special privilege (again from a geological point of view) to be allowed to see them.

On the drive out of the desert we stopped for a swim at Bir Saba' ("Well Seven"), another example of tapping the aquifer beneath the desert, and no doubt with plans of agricultural development. The water is highly sulfurous, and one wonders how exactly it will nourish plants.

For the previous day, click March 25; for the next day, March 27;

and to return to the main page, click here.