Rub al-Khali Desert

The drive to the start of our desert route passes through a monotonous landscape. The desert crossing begins in Al Jubal. However, Al Jubal is not a village, but the center of a huge oil field. We are not allowed to take photos here. The journey from Al Jubal to the main road in Al Haima is about 400 kilometers long and we don’t know the current condition of the road. All we know is that the border police regularly patrol this stretch. That gives us some security. In the end, however, the track turns out to be more of a road with a natural surface and varying conditions.

First day – Umm al Samime Salt Lake

In addition to the drive to Al-Jibal, the whole afternoon consists of crossing the Umm al Samime salt lake, the remains of a once huge inland lake. Just don’t stray from the track here. But don’t worry, there is little danger in dry weather, but we wouldn’t want to drive through here in the rain.
It takes us three hours to cross the lake, and that’s for a distance of “only” 60 kilometers. We happily leave the salt lake behind us and look for a suitable place to spend the night.

At the dunes

Once we reach the first dune crest, we find a suitable place to spend the night on solid ground. We are happy and once again can only marvel at this gigantic landscape and the sublime wind-sculpted dunes. It is totally quiet and we feel far removed from the hustle and bustle of civilization. This seclusion is addictive and we soak it up accordingly.

Second day

The drive through the dunes turns out to be trouble-free. At the same time, we are so excited and can’t get enough of the scenery that we decide to cover only about 50 kilometers today, which we manage without any problems in the morning. We drive out into the countryside at a beautiful spot and take our time to enjoy the scenery around us.
The Rub al-Khali Desert is the largest sand desert in the world. It covers large parts of Saudi Arabia and extends into Oman. This almost deserted desert consists mainly of sand dunes that can reach heights of up to 300 meters.

Third day

We set off in the beautiful morning light and enjoy the colors and shapes once again. We chug along slowly, savoring every moment, not encountering any other vehicles apart from the border patrols. After enjoying driving in the morning light so much yesterday, we want to do it again today. After about 70 kilometers we see a beautiful dune with soft curves, in front of which we place ourselves. Traveling like this is extremely relaxing. No stress, no restlessness, no internet – just the desert, the wind and the omnipresent flies. Even on our very first desert experience in Tunisia over forty years ago, we wondered where the flies in the desert come from and how they can survive here. It’s the same here in Oman.
After sunset, we sit outside for a long time under the clear starry sky and gaze up in wonder. The Milky Way runs directly above us and the stars twinkle brightly on these moonless nights. We feel like little worms, like grains of sand, in the face of the unspeakable grandeur and majesty of this creation.

Fourth day

The dunes gradually become smaller and we pass through a first, somewhat smaller oil field. After the last sand dunes with camels, we head out onto a large plain, which is again full of oil pipelines. Vehicles belonging to the oil field employees overtake us and we drive through without stopping. We are a little disappointed by this change of scenery, but it is what it is. Surprised, we cross another section of sand dunes after the huge oil field and find another nice spot in a “white” dune valley. At home there is snow and here we are driving over white sand, presumably from chalk cliffs (yes, I tasted it with my tongue to make sure it wasn’t salt).

Haima

Haima is the only major supply station on the main road from Muscat to Salalah. Here we fill up with diesel, buy fruit and the food we need and fill up with water. We then drive on in a south-westerly direction, as we want to see more sand dunes.