#2: [28-Oct-08]

27-Feb-2008 -- This Confluence was visited in the evening of 27 February 2008. We left the asphalt road leading from Ajdābiyā to al-Kufra about 150 km south of the small city of Jālū.

In this area the ground is heavily perforated by drilling companies in search for oil and recently also for water. Findings of huge water resources led in the last decade to numerous plantations set up in the middle of the desert. The circular structures of these plantations can easily be spotted on Google Earth satellite pictures. Also visible from space are the fires and smoke plumes produced at the oil fields, same as thousands of heavy-vehicle tracks engraved in the flat desert surface.

We were happy when we left all these traces of 'civilisation' behind, as soon as we entered the gentle undulated dunes of the Kalansho Sand Sea (Sarīr Kalanšiyū al-Ramliyy al-Kabīr) on our path eastwards. About 250 km from the asphalt road, we arrived at the confluence spot which was comfortably but unspectacularly accessible in a vast plain. The only place of interest in the vicinity is the crash site of the WW II bomber "Lady Be Good" 32 km to the South. The story of this dramatic accident can be viewed here.

Continued at 23N 25E.