Saturday, December 9, 2023

Day 4: The Real Desert At Last

It is always nice to wake up with a great view of the ocean … in a far far away land … having breakfast sitting outside with fresh juices, pastries, omelets, cappuccinos and all kinds of stuff from around the world … I can definitely get used to this.

We left Duqm and headed north toward the real desert … where hills and cliffs slowly melt into into sand dunes.

The roads in Oman do not stop to amaze me … just perfect everywhere … flawless … smooth … going at 120mph and still feels like flying an airplane … wow.

Oman is a huge country but it only has a population of 2 million Omanis … and 2 million immigrants mostly from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh … their presence and culture is palpable everywhere … food, customs, language.

It also interesting that there is no public transportation anywhere … no buses, no trains, and only a few taxis in big towns for tourists usually.

There are also very few restaurants through the villages we have been going through so far … the few that we have been in try to accommodate the eating habits of a number of cultures … small private rooms with a rug on the floor for Arab customers that like to sit on the floors with cushions around and eat from a large plate in the center … long tables for Asian immigrants … western set up with hamburgers and fries for outside visitors.

As we approached Bidiyah … the gateway to the sand dunes … the landscape turned from rocky flatlands, to mountains, to sand dunes. We were lucky that our road today was clear of sand … locals had warned us that it may have been an issue.

In Bidiyah, we had a quick lunch … amazingly delicious vegetarian masala … before going to park our bikes inside our tent camp host’s house for the night while we boarded our 4x4 Toyota Land Cruiser for a 27 km ride through the dunes to our desert campsite for the night.

Our camp is a small 4 tent camp deep in the sand dunes … we passed a few other camps on the way here. Once at the camp, we were greeted by Forhad who will take care of use for our stay.

Before dinner, we went on a ride up and down the dunes … incredible what this Toyota 4x4 can do … steep climbs, steep drops, deep sand crawling … very cool ... almost got stuck a few times. We saw the sunset at the top of a very tall dune … nature at its best. 

Forhad prepared a great dinner for us ... dining under the bright stars ... so quiet ... no distractions ... just wonder.

Tomorrow, we are heading to the mountains around Nizwa.

A great painting in our hotel in Duqm

Our first view of sand dunes in Oman

A quick stop to recharge

Mango juice ... mangos are from Egypt

Terrain begins to change as we approach the vast sand dunes in the SE of Oman

Great roads everywhere

The typical houses in Oman ... all away from each other with walls all around

Waiting for our 4x4 to take us to our camp site in the sand dunes

A quick lunch before our trip into the sand

Oh yeah ... delicious Indian food

In our 4x4 with Humaid our sand dune savant

Leaving town ... the gateway to the dune world

Our first hill ... this car is amazing

Made it to camp ... some tea and dates to relax

A view of our dining room at our campsite

Sunset is coming

A look at our camp

Relaxing at the top of dune

The three musketeers


A view of our car and Humaid

A baby camel nursing

Our dining room is ready

The feel of nice cool fine and dry sand ... peaceful

Having feast after a long day

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