Wahiba crossing

Ok, now I tell you everything in detail about my last weekend. This was quite a typical one, we do trips like this quite often. Trips that are only possible here.

I got Thursday off last weekend. Or I tried. To get that, I basically worked every day till 9-10pm, and I even worked a few hours Thursday morning... Anyway, the reason why I did it is that I wanted to join a trip to cross Wahiba desert in Oman. The plan was to start crossing it from North to South, and then drive slightly Eastward until we hit the coast, after which we would follow the coastline back South. The whole loop route in sand would be approx. 220km.

Other guys took Wednesday off as well and me and a guy from Al Ain were supposed to meet them in Al Mintirib, Oman on Thursday evening. Al Mintirib is approx 700km from Dubai... So I got up on Thursday, packed the car with all the offroad and camping stuff, rushed to work, rushed to a supermarket to fill my coolbox, bought a petrol can in Ace Hardware (it was on sale, only 99AED!), get it filled at a petrol station (I opened it and closed it myself this time) and fought my way out of Dubai through the Thursday midday traffic jam. I have to mention that I also bought at Ace a small screwdriver with 4 little baby screws, the whole thing comes a tiny box like 40mm by 20mm. I think it is to fix specs, but it is so cute I could not leave there. I show you a really bad picture on it, taken by my phone right now. I am not sure what will I do with the tiny screwdriver, especially considering the fact that I am wearing contacts, but it seems very useful and I am sure it was well worth the 5 dirhams.

Anyway, I made it to Al Ain, then we made it to Al Mintirib, where we met the others, deflated our tires and ventured towards the sand dunes. (You have to deflate the tires to get better traction on sand). We spent the night at Al Raha Desert Camp, which was quite basic, small cabins with a concrete (!) bed and small bathroom with steel door. It looked like this:After breakfast we got some GPS coordinates from the resort owner, named Ali. He showed us the tracks he is usually taking, and also a place where sand is so tricky he needs 8 hours to drive 20kms. (Guess what, we went right there later...) With all the new coordinates added to our already loaded GPSs, we left the camp. Which is not entirely true, I had no time during the week to input the coordinates to mine, so I used the excuse of Garmin not producing software for Mac. (Yeah, I am a Mac user). In the reality, I could have used my work PC, but I was too busy with working overtime on projects (that btw noone on Earth appreciates) and I knew that the other guys would have their GPSs loaded plus the tracks printed, so I figured I can just follow them, lazy me.

There is a track through a major portion of Wahiba desert, and you can drive at 60-70km/hours steadily on it. Moreover, you cannot drive anywhere else, the offtrack area has grassy bumps everywhere, which require you to drive slowly and possible change your wheels a few times as the grass bumps can tear the rubber off the rim. So it is not really a choice, isn't it. The scene is like this, all the 70-80 kms.

After all this we got bored with the track and the guys were disappointed on having no "actions" only easy track driving. So we looked for the place where Ali, the experienced local guy wanted us not to go... That area had no grass but white dunes. And we topped his record. We drove like 500 meters in an hour! The sand is tricky there, one spot is hard, the other 5 meters away is liquid like soft. It is difficult to find the right change of speed: liquid like sand requires more power. Multiple cars got stuck right after the other. Yeah, that includes me as well. The following picture shows two cars, both temporarily stuck, while one tried to tow the other.
Then we got enough of digging and went back to the grassy red sand area. Drove for an other hour, this time towards the coast, perpendicular to the dunes. It had no track. And then, unexpectedly, the small grassy dunes switched to big big white dunes with the ocean in the background. It was such a nice view, we had to stop to take pictures. Pictures on us, brave people who crossed Wahiba Desert.I really liked these big coastal dunes, they were gentle and tender and real fun. With those dunes with sharp ridges, I can never know what comes on the other side. It might be a 2 meter straight fall as well as a plane area. But these dunes here were huge and nicely curved. It was really just driving up and down and to play with them.

After the coastal dunes, eventually we reached the coast. I believe we were very lucky with the spot where we ended up, as the coast is mostly flat and sandy, but this area had these nice fringe like rocks.

It was around 4pm and we started to look for a place where we can camp. We drove by some really backward village-kinda places, with edifices put together with plastic boards and wire mesh. I am not sure how can someone live a whole life in such a remote isolated place. One of the guys made a joke, saying the Event of the Year in this village should be when Abdullah arrives from town with a mobile top up card. And the Event of the Following Year is when Abdullah brings the phone for it... Not to mention that they will have a signal in five years after that...
Yeah, you wonder what these sheep can eat. Me too. Sand? Fish? Order pizza?

We put up our tents right at the seaside and started our barbeque. I checked out the sea as well, but it seemed too cold. Not long after that, an old Landcruiser truck drove by, the driver waved. We waved back, which made him stop and come to see us. He hardly spoke English and we hardly spoke Arabic. He had two packs of brand new fishing nets with him, that he ordered from Dubai, and also some plant that he collected, those small bushes we saw on our way. He explained the tiny flowers of that plant are edible, he made us to try. It is sour and I was not really keen on it. We made him taste some of the home made cookies we had with us, he liked it. Then he asked us if we had enough money, and (!!) offered us some money! Again, this is something that can only happen here... Six people, with five cars, packed with stuff, and some local guy offers us money... terrific. I actually really like the people of Oman. They are not artificial like Dubai locals. They are genuine. They work hard and they are realistic about expectations from life. I really regret that I have not taken a picture with him.

Nor did I take a picture on our self-made camp, so I have to skip that one as well. I went to sleep early, as I was tired from the whole week's stuff. Other guys went on drinking and chatting much longer.

In the morning it was calm, sunny and unrealistic. Waking up by the sea, in the middle of nowhere. We had breakfast and started packing when we noticed one of my wheels was flat. Great. We changed it, it went quickly. Finished packing and drove approx 5 kms on the coast. It was low tide and the flat wet sand makes an excellent highway. It is a great experience to drive along the coastline, makes you smile, like running down on a blossoming hillside field at summer, same deep happiness.
There was a coastal village nearby, with a few basic workshops, like a wheel fixing place. It was a great place, with good reputation from clients with high end fashionable cars, like this ancient Landcruiser truck... And this truck was not the only one around, we saw a few others, and then some more in other villages.They pumped air into my flat tire and put saliva on the valve. Then they decided it was fixed. Probably we did not seem convinced, because he put even more saliva, fresh out of his mouth. Then he looked at us and offered to "put water". We cherished the idea, that was a big mistake. 'Aha, water!' -they said, and pulled the wooden cover from a pit filled with some really stinky liquid. One of them stirred it with his hand. I expected his hand to dissolve, but I guess he is immune. My best guess is that the liquid contained 30% urine, 30% used engine oil and 10% water, with the remaining 30% being some mysterious secret ingredient that boosts the smell. He submerged my wheel before I could thank his efforts. Whatever this 'test' should have shown, it totally convinced me that my wheel was fixed and I felt ready to continue our trip.

We drove through some more villages, these are some random pictures.



After a while we reached the tarmac road and drove slowly back home to Dubai, arriving at 11pm. On my way home I stopped at the petrol station bakery and bought some Maple Pecan Danishes. I picked it because there were three pieces displayed. I made the guy's day...

That was my weekend. I love these offroad trips.