While some group members took a much needed shower, others explored the area on foot or in cars. The evening camp and dinner was once again pleasant, only made a little uncomfortable by some strange scraping noises coming out of a huge, dense group of bushes 50 metres away from our camp. Although trees and bushes give you protection from the elements, they are also home to animals and insects, so we were vary of that and everybody wore their desert boots / trainers just in case.
Day 5 - Tuesday
After our usual early rise, breakfast and packing, we left the camp site just before 9am, popping immediately back up onto the escarpment, spending the better part of the morning searching for meteorites. The entire trip was unsuccessful on this front, although research claims, that Oman, with its expanse of flats, and harsh, dry climate, is the perfect place to go hunting for these extra-terrestrial objects.
Just before lunchtime we found the single empty oil drum, marking the descent down into the wadi and apparently only safe crossing of Wadi Tabaqah in west – east – west direction. The crossing turned out to be rather uneventful, with roughly 25km of easy tracks heading towards the ‘black hill’, a dark mount due east. From there we off-roaded along minor wadis and around small hills and escarpment towards what can be seen on Google Earth looking like a massive, near perfect conical stone structure. Seen up close, it looked like a perfect valley, encapsuled by low stone hills.
Unfortunately, by the time we reached this interesting structure, another wind had picked up, whipping up the sand and reducing visibility, making walking around near impossible. We had also been able to reach the rest of the groupon the Thuraya satellite telephone, due to the lack of regular reception, who were apparently making their way down to our beach camp from Dubai, stating they were more than on time.
We hit the coastal tarmac around 2pm, heading down south to the nearest petrol station, driving slowly as our tires were still deflated. We debated about adding pressure again, but knew that the upcoming beach drive could also be treacherous, so decided to just keep it slow and easy on the tarmac.
Refilling water tanks and refueling, we headed north and cut across to the beach at Mikhaybiyah, where we wound around the new shrimp farm along the beach to a distant outcrop, jutting directly into the sea, which gave us a varied amount of protection from the ongoing strong winds. There we set up camp and waited for the rest of the group to arrive.
Due to work commitments the remainder of the party (one Ford F150, two Nissan Patrols and one Toyota Prado) joined us at Al Khaluf in the evening. Having left home at about 5 am, they avoided the holiday border queues and made good time until breakfast at the rainbow restaurant in Ibri. At this point there was a battle of the GPS's with one indicating the northerly route to be the faster. Logic and the other (identical) GPS pointed south, but unfortunately all had expected the others to pack a decent map. Some new roads in the area, which are most likely not yet in the GPS's software, added to the debate. Anyway, the northerly route was chosen, with the rogue GPS soon changing its mind and adding over an hour to the estimated time of arrival.
After an otherwise uneventful drive, interspersed with an unusual number of army check points (have car registration, driving license and all passports ready to show), and lunch under a spiky tree, the group finally reached the coast near Al Khaluf. The dirt road leads down to the wide costal plain through a mixture of sand dunes and rocky outcrops, creating a welcome change from the flat desert plains which make up the final few hours of driving.
Tires need to be deflated as soon as you leave the gravel track, as the coastal area is a mixture of three types of sticky terrain: heavy, damp and coarse white sand at the sea shore; muddy, fine and damp red sand over the subkha; and very fine powdery white sand dunes behind. Telephone reception was intermittent, so the group had a GPS coordinate for the camp and a slightly misleading text message to go on. It was decided to head to the camp across the white dunes, rather than along the beach, and initially there was a choice of good tracks, and quite dense vegetation ensured the sand was firmer than expected. However, on progressing further from the sea shore, the bushes become more infrequent and eventually the sand is about as fine and soft as it gets. With the light failing, it was soon clear that it would be more prudent to head back towards the harder beach sand.
Once on the beach, as there were a number of other camps setup along the bay, it was necessary on a few occassions to drive down onto the sand below the high water mark to avoid coming too close to the camps. Unfortunately there was quite a large height difference in sand at the high water mark, resulting in the front right tire on the white Ford F150 popping off the rim when trying to get up from the beach across the high water mark.
Initially it looked as though the easiest would be to mount the spare tire and deal with it all properly in the morning, but once the high lift jack was out we decided it might be a good opportunity to try the "deodorant trick" to pop the tire back on.
There are quite a few detailed descriptions in the various off road forums and on YouTube, but essentially, once you have the car jacked up, and the tire is free of debris, make sure that the tire is lined up inside the rim. Spray deodorant into the interior of the tire and then light it, and the resultant fire will heat the air inside the tire and should pop it back into place.
Even if you are confident that you can control the numerous safety issues involved, it's still not an ideal method, as the tire was then full of sand, to the extent that we had to go to the tire repair shop to get the inside cleaned out, before driving at any real speed.
Day 6 - Wednesday
We woke up to a gorgeous sunny day, with very little wind in comparison to the stormy weather of the night before. The plan had been to move away from the coast and get onto a rocky plain, where there would be less flying sand, but it looked like the weather would hold, and everyone was very happy to have a day in situ.
Note: be careful on the beach, as you may encounter some stingrays sunning themselves in the shallow water. They will usually scatter as soon as you get too close.
Day 7 - Thursday
After a leisurely breakfast and a swim we headed back inland, leaving some of the party at the beach for a further night.
The priority was to sort out the white F150's sand filled tire, as well as a puncture in one of the Nissan Patrol's tires. We found a typical Omani puncture shop who were extremely fast and capable, albeit somewhat confused as to the cloud of deodorant which puffed out when they released the tire's valve.
Our aim was to reach Jebel Akhdar for a nice cool camp. We progressed pretty well, with one blow out on one of the Land Cruiser's Cooper STT tires, which wasn't wholly unexpected as we had noticed some damage already.
Nevertheless, we only reached the base of the mountain late in the afternoon, and reached camp after dark. As we climbed the temperature dropped from a very comfortable 27 degrees celcius in Birkat Al Mawz, to about 11 degress celcius when we arrived at camp, giving us a rare opportunity to try out our car heating!
Day 8 - Friday
Nighttime temperatures must have dropped close to zero, as the morning was still very fresh.
The majority of the Jebel Akhdar group spent a few hours enjoying the mountain scenery, whilst the silver F150 headed back to the UAE to meet up with another group in Al Ain.
Temperatures were perfect and we entered the wildlife reserve between Al Ain and the Liwa in the mid-afternoon. Security personnel took down our vehicle details and we were then free to enter the reserve.
Although there had been reports of recent rains in the Liwa area it was clear that there hadn't been any rain since the summer in our little spot. Some areas sucked the cars in like quicksand, and, although soon extricated with a bit of pushing and low ratio, we were happy to set up camp early and have a bit of time before sunset.
Day 9 - Saturday
The reserve is home to about two hundred released oryx and countless sand gazelle, who are left to roam free, but nevertheless have access to food and water at a number of feeding stations. Camels have only recently been prevented from grazing freely in the area, so the flora is still in a state of recovery and extremely sparse in most areas. A lack of rain has also not helped with regeneration of the vegetation cover.
The trees shown above at the feeding center are artificially irrigated.
We exited the reserve soon after the feeding station and headed across into the larger Liwa dunes within the crescent to find a picnic spot for lunch. We soon found ourselves heading towards one of our old camping sites, where we knew the view was pretty good. We whipped out the rear awning for a bit of shade over the tailgate, and it would have been an ideal temperature for a bit of a snooze if we had had the time.
Cars on the trip: Two Ford F150s, Two Toyota Land Cruisers, One Toyota Prado, Three Nissan Patrols.
Team mascots: Zawadi and Safa
If you want to take your dogs to Oman remember to get the export / import paperwork done. Your vet can help you with the process, but basically: 1. Make sure all vaccinations are up-to-date and logged in the dog's vaccination book. 2. Your dog needs to have been microchipped. 3. You need a health certificate from a ministry vet, which you can get at the Dubai airport freight center (middle building). Take the dog with you in the car but don't take it into the building, as they usually rely on your vaccination book, rather than examining the dog. You can also get a health certificate from your vet and present this at the border, but that means you may need further approval from the vet stationed at the border, who will issue the ministry certificate. This is a slow process and they are often not available.
Note: On a recent trip to Oman we were told that you cannot take animals across the border between 6pm and 6am, and we were also charged OMR 40 (AED 400) as an import fee for the dog by the vet on duty.