A Campsite in the Desert

As promised yesterday here is our trip from the temple ruins back to the highway. Our new friends wanted to show us where they were going to camp that night and asked us to join them for lunch

Riding back across the desert to the highway, we passed Sudanese on donkeys, donkeys grazing and camels

The Nile is visible from the highway at certain points. If there were not powerlines in the photo, the mudbrick houses along the Nile could be out of a Children's Bible

We followed Robyn, Izzy and Getenet along the highway. Robin wanted to show us their campsite about 40 minutes drive down the road.

Back on the highway, Grant stopped at the motel with a pink plastic palm (last week's post) I popped indoors for a pit-stop and of course, took photos of the restaurant. There was nothing going on as it is still Ramadan

Buying Cokes/sodas from the roadside shop/dukani just before we turned into the desert again

 Africa in one of her best guises: land stretching as far as the eye can see, thorn trees, rocks and desert

Approaching the "campsite" where we had lunch

As we arrived at the campsite I noticed a rock balancing precariously on another in the gap between the mountains

A close-up of one rock balancing on another

I love the paperbark thorns so prolific in the desert. They provide good shade with the umbrella- shaped crown

I  imagined I could hear the ocean beyond these dunes

The friends, Robyn, Izzy and Getenet,  we made in the desert camped here on Sunday evening. We had lunch with them and then travelled home. Now we are also plannning a night sleeping out in the desert

Entering the outskirts of Khartoum we passed agricultural lands. And of course I had to snap the donkeys!

On the way home again. I can't wait for our next trip into the desert!

The Arabic word for mountain is Jbl (pronounced Jebel)