Into the desert

After getting up and getting everything ready I headed south along the coastal road and had breakfast at a little coffee shop (they call these little fast food places that make hot dogs, wraps and hamburgers "coffee shops" over here) in a little village. There was a guy from Tunisia who thought music in this little place and he told me that apparently there has never been a western foreigner in this village (aside from him) since he has been there.

The drive along the coast was stunning, I saw a few more camels and long sand beaches with fishermen in their boats.

After about 60 km drive it was time turn inland and head towards the Wahiba Sand Dunes. I followed the road until I realzied that I left my pants that I washed yesterday and left them out for drying at the Camp near the Turtle place (about 90km back).

Since petrol is so cheap here and I needed these pants, I drove all the way back and was happy to see that the guy at the camp kept them for me. And surely they were dry by now. Well, it was the same coast road down again (the third time now) and I only arrived at 4 pm at Wahiba Sands.

There is a small village (basically just a road with a few houses to each side that leads towards the dunes). While I got my bearings on where to go I was already approached by two separate guys in their separate SUVs. They offered a bit of Dune bashing (driving around in your car in the sand dunes) and a night in the Sand (in a tend if wanted).

None of them wanted to talk money and told me I should just follow them to the one guys Bedouin tent. This was a bit strange but I did follow him and after a kilometre or so we already hit the sand. He in front in is 90s Cherokee and me behind him in the Pathfinder. He drove up a bit of a dune and I already thought, ths is going to be challenging but it actually was ok and I also made it up and parked next to him.

He invited me into his Bedouin tent and offered me dates and tea. I insisted on a price before going any further and after a bit of haggling we came to 25 OMR for an hour of dune bashing and a night in the tent.

Since it was getting late we headed off in my Pathfinder and he told me to drive into the dunes, up the dunes, down the dunes. He really didn't give me any instructions, just slow... or fast sometimes... but it worked fine. He was there in case I got stuck, which of course I did eventually. He unstuck me and drove on a bit and then I saw how you can really do it... He really bashed down and up the dunes. Very exciting everything. After some time we switched again and I drove around a bit. He told me "Nissan no good!... Land Cruiser good!... Cherokee good! Nissan no good in Sand....!" After some time we had to let the "No good Nissan" cool down a bit and just sat in the dunes... and looked into the valley.

These Wahiba Sand dunes are about 180 km long and 80 km wide and the dunes each about 100m in height. So we sat there at the top of one of the dunes and looked in the valley where other cars and drivers were enjoying themselves. A little more driving around and we met up with one of his mates whom we dropped of at home and then we went to get food and coffee which we brought back to the top of dune. Set up camp and ate.

I was going to give him 30 since he paid for all the food but he didn't have change. In the end I gave him the 50 OMR bill and he said he was going to come back in the morning. It was dark anyway by now. I wasn't too sure if this was going to happen or not. So he wandered off and I tried to sleep.
But when the desert started cooling out the wind increased and go stronger and stronger. Although the tent was tied down at the wheels of the car and weighted down with loads of water bottles and my backpack it was still too windy... and too loud in the tent. So I moved to the car and slept there.