We retrace our route down the steep mountain road without incident and get back on the highway headed to Muscat. The drive is uneventful other than the sharp increase in temperature. We’ve hit a new high of 45 degrees.
In a suburb of Muscat, I see a uniquely shaped mosque and make a detour. The Jamea Al Islam mosque is round-shaped with flat sides; a design I’ve never seen before for a mosque. I’d love to see what the interior looks like but it’s the call to prayer and swarms of men are arriving so I won’t be welcome.
We continue on to Seeb, a high-end suburb of Muscat, to our accommodation for the evening and make plans to meet Juma for dinner. He picks us up and takes us to a castle-like structure called Rozna Restaurant. We opt for a private room with no table or chairs so we can recline on cushions and thick carpets while eating our dinner in Omani style. We order a meat platter with lamb, chicken and beef and a fish dinner for us all to share. I am stuffed!
After dinner Juma takes us on an evening driving tour of the city to see the mosques and palace all lit up. We drive through an area known as Little India and the narrow streets are packed with Indian men walking and sitting in open-air cafes. We climb high into the mountains on the outskirts and see the city lights twinkling in the distance. Up here you can’t hear the traffic and it’s very peaceful. Juma says he often comes into these mountains to camp when he’s home to escape the hustle and bustle. He drops us off at our hotel and we say our goodbyes. Hopefully I will see him again, Inshallah.
We’re up at the crack of dawn to catch our flight to Salalah. Only one problem…in my menopause brain fog I’ve booked my flights for the wrong days and the ticket agent informs me my flight was yesterday! Good grief. What, an, idiot. Becca is booked on the correct flights so clearly I gave her the right information and then disregarded it for myself. Luckily, I’m able to make the changes after paying a fee and I stand in line to check in again. Ahhh, the joys of travel. The key is not to panic when shit goes sideways and know that things will work out in the end.
We arrive in Salalah to cooler temperatures but a significant increase in humidity. Our hotel is on a white sand beach and because our pick-up guy was late, we get early check-in and an upgrade to our room. I lay by the pool to nap until our tour to the Empty Quarter begins.
Abo Salim is our guide for this afternoon. He has a big smile and jovial demeanour. I ask him about his family and he tells me he has 7 children, with the oldest being 15. He lives in a Bedouin camp up in the mountains with his extended family. They have 70 camels that are used for milk and meat. He asks me if I’m married and I tell him I’ve never been married and have no children. The look of horror on his face😀.
“But you are not single?” Abo Salim asks.
“Yes I am.”
“Ah, but you are beautiful so you still have time” he remarks. Time for what I’m thinking. Children? I’m definitely long past that. Marriage? Probably not happening at this point but I appreciate his optimism.
“How many people are in your extended family that you live with?” I ask him.
“There are 30” he says.
“Wow! That’s a lot of people! I live in a home with just me.”
A look of shock and he says, “But you don’t want to live in a group?!”
“I can’t think of anything I’d rather do less” I tell him.
Two other travellers are joining us and we pick up T and Juma. They’re a young couple from the UK who are content creators whom we immediately connect with and chat nonstop the entire trip. They share their travel stories, how they started out and where they’re at now with their social media presence and sponsorship from tour companies and hotels. Becca tells them about my blog and my photography and when T checks it out online she encourages me to expand my social media presence to document my travels leading up to retirement and afterwards.
Abo Salim suggests that him and I should start a tour company together. He will be the guide and I’ll do the promotion and bring in the customers. “We’ll make much money” he says as he rubs his fingers together.
“I’ll tell work that I quit and I’m not coming home” I say laughing.
We drive towards the Empty Quarter and make a stop at a frankincense tree grove. The trees only grow in this part of Oman and are protected by the government. Their lifespan can be over 100 years. The frankincense comes from the sap when small lesions are cut into the bark. Abo Salim gives me a small sticky ball of white sap and it smells so fragrant!
The landscape since leaving the city of Salalah varies from hills covered with greenery to flat rocky, empty plains. The Dhofar region is the only one in Oman that has a rainy season which occurs at the end of June through August, so it’s more lush than other areas that I’ve visited. At the end of August for a brief spell, all the wadis will be full of water with large waterfalls.
As we head to the Empty Quarter, vegetation completely disappears except for the odd farm growing animal crops, watermelon and date palm trees. Irrigation systems are in place as water is just 50 metres below the surface. The government provides the land and the farmers pay a small yearly stipend. Some of the farms have solar panels set up, the first I’ve seen since being in Oman, and Abo Salim says it’s very expensive but the government is starting to implement them. Considering how much sunlight this country gets in a year, I would say it’s a waste of a natural resource if they don’t use solar power.
We stop to visit a herd of black camels, which are the prize possession of a local herder. Black camels are rare and these ones are used for racing. They’re curious of us and stretch their long necks to put their noses within inches of ours.
We continue on and the horizon stretches for hundreds of miles and it’s just, well, empty! Hence the name I guess. Despite it looking so desolate, there are numerous wild animals in the region including scorpions, lizards, snakes (Cobras), desert foxes, wolves (in the mountains), leopards and Arabian Oryx.
We arrive at Rub’ al Khali, part of the Arabian desert that covers 650,000 square kilometres and is in 4 different countries: Oman, Yemen, United Emirates, and Saudi Arabia. It’s the largest continuous sand desert on earth. Abo Salim deflates the truck’s tires to prepare for our drive into the dunes. He gains speed as we climb upwards. The truck starts to slide into a deep well of sand on the right and I give a little squeal, but there’s no need to panic as Abo Salim is a pro at navigating the dunes. We crest a large dune and stop for photos. The sand is a bright yellow colour in the late afternoon sunlight with the consistency of flour. I take my sandals off and the granules are soft and warm on the soles of my feet.
Abo Salim gives us plenty of time to explore the dunes and take photos during sunset. I swap cameras with T and Juma so we can get photos of ourselves and I climb a large dune three times to get the optimal shot. By the end of the afternoon my face is beet red and I’m exhausted from my physical exertions in the intense heat.
Time to head back to Salalah. The full, orange moon hangs low in the sky as the illuminated centre line of the road flashes past, black emptiness on either side of the truck. We’re well and truly in the middle of nowhere.
Abo Salim drops us off at the hotel and he still has an hour’s drive up into the mountains to home before his day ends and then he’ll be back to pick us up again tomorrow morning to visit the East Salalah region. We haven’t eaten since this morning so despite it being 10pm, we stumble to the hotel restaurant for sustenance before heading to bed. It’s been a full day.
