Bye bye Dubai – or „buy buy, do-buy“? We are in the middle of the Dubai Shopping Festival, 
and it’s a good time to leave, otherwise our travel budget is finished even before starting the trip. One last photo at the black palace beach, with a marvellous view of the Burj al Arab, and here we go.
During our trip to the Omani border, we are very quiet. Being a little sad is not the only reason. We are shocked! Shocked about our car which is hopelessly overloaded…
packed up to the ceiling, not one single centimetre space left. And HEAVY!! If we don’t get rid of many things soon, we don’t know how to continue the trip. However, our depressed mood is blown away as soon as we reach the Omani border where once more we make the experience that Omani people are extremely friendly. We get our visa in no time and are treated in a very nice and friendly way. About 40 km after the border we find a nice place for our tent between the sand dunes. As soon as we settle down, the wind is getting stronger, and having the sand in the coffee, the mouth and everywhere makes our appetite “growing” for what is lying ahead of us. We eat only dry bread, not only because of the sandstorm, but also because we don’t know how to find anything in our chaotic car… The night is stormy and the tent doesn’t stop to make a rattling sound the whole night, but in the morning the storm is over and we are going ahead to the mountainous region in a good mood.
We are very happy to reach the Jebel Shams plateau, with a view to Oman’s highest
mountain with 3.000 m. After a cold night (- 6 degrees) we start climbing it at sunrise, a real challenge, but it’s worth it. A beautiful view from the summit, walking in the snow, simply marvellous. We come back to our tent the moment the sun sets, after hiking 10 hours, 1.300 metres altitude and a distance of 23 km. Never in our life we were more exhausted, even too tired to eat (and that really never happened to us before). Just a hot soup, and at 7 pm we are in our sleeping bag, completely exhausted and freezing,
even too tired to sleep. The next morning, it’s quite difficult to leave the tent due to our sore muscles, but we are very happy and proud of ourselves.
The Omani mountains are the cold-coffee-lovers’ country. As soon as the coffee is poured into the cup, it’s already cold, but it’s always a nice experience to see how to be happy with just a few things. Not having enough food on our yesterday’s hike, we were happy to eat just some spoons of honey…
From the mountainous region, we continue our trip, visit the very interesting Hotta caves, very huge caves with nice stalagtites and stalagmites, even a lake with a lot of blind fishes, before we continue to the desert. Ramlat al Wahiba (Wahiba sands) is an enormous desert with incredibly nice sand dunes. We find a campsite in the middle of the dunes. Amazing!!
and it’s a good time to leave, otherwise our travel budget is finished even before starting the trip. One last photo at the black palace beach, with a marvellous view of the Burj al Arab, and here we go.During our trip to the Omani border, we are very quiet. Being a little sad is not the only reason. We are shocked! Shocked about our car which is hopelessly overloaded…
packed up to the ceiling, not one single centimetre space left. And HEAVY!! If we don’t get rid of many things soon, we don’t know how to continue the trip. However, our depressed mood is blown away as soon as we reach the Omani border where once more we make the experience that Omani people are extremely friendly. We get our visa in no time and are treated in a very nice and friendly way. About 40 km after the border we find a nice place for our tent between the sand dunes. As soon as we settle down, the wind is getting stronger, and having the sand in the coffee, the mouth and everywhere makes our appetite “growing” for what is lying ahead of us. We eat only dry bread, not only because of the sandstorm, but also because we don’t know how to find anything in our chaotic car… The night is stormy and the tent doesn’t stop to make a rattling sound the whole night, but in the morning the storm is over and we are going ahead to the mountainous region in a good mood.
We are very happy to reach the Jebel Shams plateau, with a view to Oman’s highest
mountain with 3.000 m. After a cold night (- 6 degrees) we start climbing it at sunrise, a real challenge, but it’s worth it. A beautiful view from the summit, walking in the snow, simply marvellous. We come back to our tent the moment the sun sets, after hiking 10 hours, 1.300 metres altitude and a distance of 23 km. Never in our life we were more exhausted, even too tired to eat (and that really never happened to us before). Just a hot soup, and at 7 pm we are in our sleeping bag, completely exhausted and freezing,
even too tired to sleep. The next morning, it’s quite difficult to leave the tent due to our sore muscles, but we are very happy and proud of ourselves.
The Omani mountains are the cold-coffee-lovers’ country. As soon as the coffee is poured into the cup, it’s already cold, but it’s always a nice experience to see how to be happy with just a few things. Not having enough food on our yesterday’s hike, we were happy to eat just some spoons of honey…
From the mountainous region, we continue our trip, visit the very interesting Hotta caves, very huge caves with nice stalagtites and stalagmites, even a lake with a lot of blind fishes, before we continue to the desert. Ramlat al Wahiba (Wahiba sands) is an enormous desert with incredibly nice sand dunes. We find a campsite in the middle of the dunes. Amazing!!
The next day we go to Wadi Bin Khalid, beautiful freshwater pools where we enjoy some refreshing walks in the water before driving to the coast of the Arabian Gulf. In a very remote
area we sleep behind the dunes with a beautiful view of the sea. Just some lonely fishermen cross our way. From there, we head 200 km to the South, following the coastline, a wonderful trip where the sand dunes of Ramlat al Wahiba reach into the Sea. At some places there is not even a track, and we have to decrease the pressure of our tires not to get stuck in the sometimes 100 metres high dunes. Some discussions if we should continue or not… almost the beginning of our first crisis…
But at the end, we arrive at our destination, a nice place in the desert, where our friend “sandstorm” is already waiting for us… Camels are surrounding our tent, not understanding what these strange creatures are doing exactly under their tree…
When we leave the next morning, we have one of the most boring parts of our trip ahead of us. Endless kilometres of straight road, no tree, no dunes, no hills. We
are very happy to see the first mountains in the distance, and even more happy when a breathtaking road takes us from 600 m to over 2000 m at the wonderful Sayq plateau. Another beautiful campsite at 2.300 metres, but while having our dinner, the temperature is already falling below 0 degrees. The following night turns out to be a nightmare. Storm of its best and terribly cold. We are happy when the night is over and we can quickly pack our things to go to the much warmer Muscat. High over the roofs of Muscat we find a nice campsite with a spectacular view over Muscat. It’s a wonderful moment when all the Muezzins of Muscat’s very beautiful mosques are calling for prayer at the same time. It makes us feel very comfortable to finally arrive in the real Arabic world…The next morning we make a nice trip with a small motorboat along the shoreline of Muscat. Ahmed, the owner of the boat, is laughing to se
e us holding tight to the boat, since the sea is very rough and we are about to fall overboard. However, we enjoy the beautiful view of the new hotels and bays along the shore… The rest of the day we spend in downtown, make a nice walk through the government quarter, the souk, and finally Carrefour. It’s nice, after almost 2 weeks, to be in another mall, enjoy junk food and free internet at Costa Café… but at the end of the day we are even happier to return to our quiet place above Muscat.
Muscat is one of the most beautiful Arabic cities we have ever seen. Very clean, very organized, a lot of very beautiful mosques and buildings, nothing compared to crazy Dubai… so we are sad to leave this nice place after another day and to continue our trip north along the sea. A last nice campsite in the mountains before we reach the UAE border at Al Ain, where we spend another day and another night close to Hatta before finally reaching Dubai.
Our lovely friends Connie and Hanspeter offered us warm beds with hot shower (obviously not knowing how packed and dirty we are). We spend 2 lovely days with them and really feel at home. Thanks a lot for your warm hospitality, Connie and Hanspeter, our dear friends. You really don’t make it easy for us to leave…
After the 14 wonderful days and 2700 km in Oman, we hope we are now well prepared to enter the Rub al-Khali, the Empty Quarter, the biggest desert in the world and from there on to Saudi Arabia.
area we sleep behind the dunes with a beautiful view of the sea. Just some lonely fishermen cross our way. From there, we head 200 km to the South, following the coastline, a wonderful trip where the sand dunes of Ramlat al Wahiba reach into the Sea. At some places there is not even a track, and we have to decrease the pressure of our tires not to get stuck in the sometimes 100 metres high dunes. Some discussions if we should continue or not… almost the beginning of our first crisis…
But at the end, we arrive at our destination, a nice place in the desert, where our friend “sandstorm” is already waiting for us… Camels are surrounding our tent, not understanding what these strange creatures are doing exactly under their tree…
When we leave the next morning, we have one of the most boring parts of our trip ahead of us. Endless kilometres of straight road, no tree, no dunes, no hills. We
are very happy to see the first mountains in the distance, and even more happy when a breathtaking road takes us from 600 m to over 2000 m at the wonderful Sayq plateau. Another beautiful campsite at 2.300 metres, but while having our dinner, the temperature is already falling below 0 degrees. The following night turns out to be a nightmare. Storm of its best and terribly cold. We are happy when the night is over and we can quickly pack our things to go to the much warmer Muscat. High over the roofs of Muscat we find a nice campsite with a spectacular view over Muscat. It’s a wonderful moment when all the Muezzins of Muscat’s very beautiful mosques are calling for prayer at the same time. It makes us feel very comfortable to finally arrive in the real Arabic world…The next morning we make a nice trip with a small motorboat along the shoreline of Muscat. Ahmed, the owner of the boat, is laughing to se
e us holding tight to the boat, since the sea is very rough and we are about to fall overboard. However, we enjoy the beautiful view of the new hotels and bays along the shore… The rest of the day we spend in downtown, make a nice walk through the government quarter, the souk, and finally Carrefour. It’s nice, after almost 2 weeks, to be in another mall, enjoy junk food and free internet at Costa Café… but at the end of the day we are even happier to return to our quiet place above Muscat.Muscat is one of the most beautiful Arabic cities we have ever seen. Very clean, very organized, a lot of very beautiful mosques and buildings, nothing compared to crazy Dubai… so we are sad to leave this nice place after another day and to continue our trip north along the sea. A last nice campsite in the mountains before we reach the UAE border at Al Ain, where we spend another day and another night close to Hatta before finally reaching Dubai.
Our lovely friends Connie and Hanspeter offered us warm beds with hot shower (obviously not knowing how packed and dirty we are). We spend 2 lovely days with them and really feel at home. Thanks a lot for your warm hospitality, Connie and Hanspeter, our dear friends. You really don’t make it easy for us to leave…
After the 14 wonderful days and 2700 km in Oman, we hope we are now well prepared to enter the Rub al-Khali, the Empty Quarter, the biggest desert in the world and from there on to Saudi Arabia.
Wow,
ReplyDeletehow exciting. Recently we also were in Al Ain but did not see any border. Only sand and water obstacles, a lot of greens and a nice club house. We are talking about this new golf course after the Carrefour toll station, arent we?
But one question; wasn´t there an excel file or something like that to find all your belongings? May be in one of your numerous coolly moments you can check this.
Did you just arrived in Saudi Arabia? Some offers? You know camels for .... . :-)
We will follow your sandy tracks and wish you a good time. We keep our fingers crossed for you. Klaus and Sylvia