I was going to title this post ‘peeing in the desert‘ but that would just be vulgar. Even though this post is indeed about deserts I have peed in and will also provide helpful tips on said activity should you find yourself with your pants down, so to speak, and no facilities to frequent.
I have 8 days to travel about 2500km and see as much of this beautiful country as possible.
One of the few roads in the desert
What I love most about Oman is its natural beauty. The culture and heritage is still very much alive today, yet they are ‘westernised’ enough to allow female tourists easy visiting with no head scarves except for when visiting holy places. I would, however, advise the girls to wear loose fitting clothing. You might be happy wandering about in a singlet top and shorts above your knees but these poor blokes have never seen anything like it. Their eyes will be very round and you will be stared at. But that’s ok if you want to be.
I love this pic so much it’s my screen saver. The perfect golden sand dune.
So we set out to cross the Empty Quarter (by 4WD not camel, thankfully) which is one of the largest sand deserts in the world. It is so huge it stretches into Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen and Oman covering 650,000 square kilometres (that’s nearly 3 times bigger than New Zealand!) Roads are a reasonably new addition and in most parts still either being tarsealed or not there at all causing our driver to “use his head as a GPS”. This is not the place to come without a very experienced guide and in some places you can only vaguely make out the tracks of vehicles from a few days earlier across the sand. There is literally nothing and no one for miles and miles. Then suddenly there is someone. We converged at a fork in the road with another 4WD on tour, dust and sand swirls, they gave right of way, and as quick as that they are in our rear view mirror.
I saw a mirage. An honest to goodness, it even looks blue like water and is shimmering across the road like a river, mirage. We all saw it. It wasn’t just my eyes. I didn’t stop (we might have been doing speeds in excess of 150kph in places) to take a pic, but did ask our driver whether it was the human eye that was decieved or whether a camera lens would also capture it. Human eye, apparently.
Trying to spell OMAN in the shadow – can you see it?
Here’s a tip: if you are planning on a desert crossing, do not use a nostril clipper for several days before hand. You will be grateful for your nasal hairs and I’m sure as alarmed as I was that my sunglasses kept “fogging” up with dust even though the air conditioning was on recycle. How much more of this stuff is in my lungs! I dare not think.
We drove across much of the desert yesterday to a patch of beach that our guides deemed suitable for erecting our tents. Tents! Pup tents, I’ll have you know!! We had 1 each and honestly, putting the bloody thing up was a test in human skill. The wind got up and Louise’s lifted off like a hot air balloon as the boys ran to help pull it back to earth and secure it with a tent peg the size of a bobby pin. Suffice to say, I don’t camp. And I certainly don’t camp where there are NO toilets, NO shower and indeed NO running water of any kind except the Arabian Sea.
Our campsite on the beach where our guide met a local fisherman, bought fish and barbecued it for dinner
Breakfast: I survived the night!
However, I took a large cup of Harden Up and had a great time. Once I got my head into the space that squatting in the privacy of my tent shadow was as luxurious as it was going to get and wrapped my scarf over my face to ward of blowing sand, I really did love the evening bbq of fresh fish caught by a local fisherman and cooked by our great guides, and the sing-along that invariably comes with such camping shenanigans. (I know all the words to Dolly and Kenny’s Island in the Stream and am happy to sing it acapella if requested. It doesn’t happen often.)
We climbed the sand dune behind our tents and took sunset photos, but I could only manage to open my eyes in my own tent after collapsing in a heap inside once I’d got the thing set up, when everyone squealed from about 10 metres above that they could see camels wandering in the distance like a Christmas card. Ahh well, I did manage to take about 173 camel photos regardless.
Heading south to Salalah and hello, another photo op!
Here’s another tip: stock up on Wet Ones and tissues for your humble desert bathroom facilities. Of course you could use the sea, but when I tried I was fully clothed trying to avoid the waves of the incoming tide.
The next morning we set off on our 671 km journey across the desert to the stunningly swank 5-star tented resort of Desert Nights Camp. Ahhhh. This place seriously rocks! If you only have a few days in Oman (it’s a 1 hour flight from Dubai and Abu Dhabi) I suggest you boot it down here and stay for 2 of them. This is the spot of the most amazing sand dune photos I took and to have the luxury of running water and a cosy bed just made it heaven.
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