okay, here's one: how did they manage to get, in the desert, oil of the needed specifications for the menorah (only the first few drops from each batch of olives), if they didn't know in advance (when they left Egypt) that they were going to need such oil?
or was that maybe a common enough process for really high-quality oil, such that they could have found some in Egypt or bought some from traders?
Come to think of it, I wonder whether olives can grow in desert oases - if so, they might have been able to manufacture their own en route. (In Num. 20:5 they complain that the desert is "not a place of... figs, grapevines or pomegranates" - nothing about olives - though maybe that's because they're focusing on fruits that are primarily eaten.)
@HodofHod yep - googling "olives desert oasis" yields this Wikipedia article about an Egyptian oasis that indeed produces olives, though it's in the wrong direction. Still, though, I guess that establishes the possibility.
