Oman safari - Wahaybah Sands

After the Wadi we headed further inland to Ramlat Al Wahaybah or Wahaybah Sands. We enjoyed sand dune bashing in our 4WD in the afternoon, which was pretty hair-raising, especially when our guide went straight over the side of a 15m tall dune and slid down to the bottom! After this very thrilling experience we drove further into the sands (following what looked like a dry creek bed/informal road) to the camp where we were going to stay for the night.

At 5:30pm we went out into the dunes again with our guide to see the sun set from the top of a dune. It was an amazing sight to watch! It was also getting pretty windy by this time, and as a consequence very sandy! Here's a tip for any budding desert travellers: while it's important to have things like sun cream and lip balm - don't wear any lip balm when it's windy as you'll get an unattractive and annoying grainy gloss over your lips! We were glad to get back to the camp and have showers and change.

The desert evening was gorgeous...we enjoyed a cool, moonlight evening with a slight breeze and absolutely no noise, apart from the sounds made by other people at the camp. It was just such a peaceful experience. The camp had a huge communal tent set up where all visitors could relax on soft carpets, enjoying the evening, drinking tea and coffee and eating fruit and dates. Bliss! We liked it so much we've decided that when we return home from all our travels we'd like to style our own sort of outdoor evening rest area with carpets and cushions.

We saw lots of camels while at Wahaybah and also visited a Bedouin dwelling and tasted Kawah (Omani coffee - a mix of coffee, rosewater and cardamom - ours was so weak you couldn't distinguish any of the three ingredients!) and dates. Jo was also dressed up in a Bedouin woman's headdress (see photos below). It wasn't to her taste, though, as she could hardly see out of the face mask. We suppose it's different if you've grown up wearing one of these masks.

After Wahaybah Sands we headed home, back to Muscat. By this time we were pretty tired, however it was lots of fun seeing some very different parts of Oman!












It was hard work getting up here!