Desert Safari Camp

Here’s a factoid. The Omani people love camping in the desert. Every Wednesday, hordes of people drive into the desert. Some haul their own gear and set up camp under the stars while others head to places like the one we were off to. They all seem to have but one credo, maintain peace and quiet, mind your own business, don’t litter and enjoy the countryside.

So, we drove down from Muscat on 1st March, on a bright and sunny as hell Thursday morning. We left the city behind us in minutes and soon we had crossed the rocky cliffs around Muscat. Quick geography lesson here, Oman may be one of the tiniest GCCs, but it sure has variety packed into its 309,501km2. They’ve got amazing white sandy beaches, sheer sandy dunes, rocky cliffs that make you want to clamber over, lush green wadis or valleys where rainwater flows to and even a 3000 meter high mountain where it snows in winter. Our drive took us across the spectrum minus the mountain.

A few hours drive later, intermittent by many a halt for photos and such like, we arrived at the Bidiyah region.

From here we drove on to a tiny town called Al Mintirib where we were supposed to check into the Desert Safari Camp‘s town office opposite the Shell Petrol Pump. The camp is 25 kms out into the desert from here and only accessible by 4WD. But it was lunch time so we hopped into a quaint local eatery called the Eastern Sands Restaurant for an Omani feast fit for a starving platoon. The Eastern Sands Restaurant turned out to be a great decision and we got a complete Omani meal here, even though none of the attendants were remotely Omani (except the proprietor). We were guided to an airconditioned carpeted coop – all to ourselves, where we feasted on the most tender and juicy Omani style beef and mutton cooked with dried lemons and other local flavours.

Note to anyone who’s heading this way, traditional Omani meals are eaten sitting lotus style on the floor, with your fingers from one heck of a huge plate. Food is dirt cheap in Oman and quantities are huge, so watch how you order. We really couldn’t finish our meal and it was a shame to waste so much beautiful rice.

Once lunch was dealt with, we met up with our trusty guide from the Desert Safari Camp, Sultan and clambered onto his steed, a 90’s 4 WD Land Cruiser.

Our Driver and Guide

We drove into the desert, off the road, and voila! We’d arrived at the Al Sharqiya Sands (aka the Wahiba Sands). The desert spread out all around us. Vast expanses of golden hued sands with dunes that rose and fell around us like wave after wave on a dry sea.

We drove past a date garden and over dunes big and small, defying physics for 45 exhilarating minutes. On the way we met a bunch of stranded expats who’d driven all the way from Muscat in their own car. They were attempting to manoeuvre a particularly lofty dune and kept drifting back downwards and getting jammed into the shifty sands. So our amazing guide and driver, Mr. Sultan parked us for a photo shoot atop a picturesque dune and we stood around watching the fun for ten minutes or more. Then he jogged down the dune to play good Samaritan and drove the car up in under a minute. Many a thankful hug later, we were once again on our way.

Just when our churning stomachs’ got the hang of bashing head-long into oversized sand dunes, we arrived at the Safari Desert Camp nestled in a calm valley between two steep dunes. You can see it in the distance, beyond the dunes in the pic below.

We were welcomed with a traditional brew of shockingly strong coffee and Omani dates in a quaint reception area before being lead to our traditional Bedouin huts and tents.

The Safari Desert Camp has no power supply, no mobile network (except atop tall dunes) and is very basic but completely luxuriously. There are other larger and much more expensive camps closer to civilisation that have mobile networks, electricity, swimming pools and other luxuries, but the Safari Desert Camp is way more authentic and captures the real Omani spirit completely. I highly recommend it to anyone who wonders how people lived in the desert. All the rooms look sparse from the outside but the interiors are decorated with lush carpets and are furnished with cushy wooden double beds and heavy antique chests with an open air attached bathroom and sit-out. Each accommodation is very private, placed rather far apart from each other and set in a semi-circle around the reception and lounging/dining area. Every guest can enjoy their privacy here and I guess that’s why the camp is equally popular with foreign tourists as well as Omanis.

The charming old-school lounging/dining area better known as the majlis looks like a scene from a movie. It’s enclosed within low sand walls to keep the sand out and is a lovely place to relax with bright carpets and floor level seating.

I passed some time clicking away at an assortment of local handicrafts and antiques.

After exploring the camp and it’s numerous camels, we stepped out for a sunset up in the dunes. Even though I grew up in Libya, I’ve never had the luxury of witnessing a sunset over majestic dunes, so this was a first for me.

As night fell, we raced down an 80 degree slope with our hearts in our throats to freshen up for a traditional Omani meal. Dinner was eaten at low tables on seats that resemble camel saddles while we gazed at the zillion stars that shone even brighter in the absolute desert darkness. After dinner, we gathered around a bonfire with sheeshas at hand where some young Omani guides sat chatting. They sang us a few Arabic songs and drummed softly on their local drums and soon we were chatting like long lost friends.

The next day we ventured into the desert for a 5 hour long drive to visit some Bedouins in their traditional homes and bumped into a few of Sultan’s generous friends who were camping under some trees in the middle of nowhere but that’s a story for another day.