Dec 8 - Do some walking around in the morning, and the camp is packed up again for our departure from the White Desert.
Another trip to the old acacia tree at dawn.
A last view of the Old White Desert.
Head out to the paved highway, which is only about 40 minutes west. From here we go north to Al Heiz Oasis again, where there is a spring for bathing. We made sure there was time to go here, since Odette hasn’t had many chances to go in a pool lately.
The water from the spring is tepid, and channeled into local crop lands.
Last official stop in our visit is the Black Desert. It is a region of cone-shaped hills like the one in this photo, dominated by black rocks. Naturally, people get the idea that they are volcanos, and that the scattering of black rocks are from eruptions. The hills, however, are horizontal sedimentary beds, but capped by basalt flows. I do not know where the actual volcano is that caused the flows.
A closeup of an outcrop.
A lonely service station on the road back to Cairo. After a great lunch in Bawiti, it was a long five hours back to Talaat Harb Square.
