The Omani Desert

Our Omani desert experience started with a ride into our desert camp by 4×4. Sand was all around us and all I wanted to do was to go up and play in the dunes. Over the two days we spent hours just playing in the Wahiba Sands of Oman. Here are the most fun things to do in the sand:

• just stepping on the downhill of a dune is cool, as the sand flows down, it looks like lava
• digging into the dunes with your hands you can make cool canyons, as the sand moves around, that looked a lot like the canyons of Goreme, Turkiye
• by moving said aside constantly, you get a long flow of sand up tot he summit of the dune, we have never got beyond the summit, but I think the dune would start eroding from the sides if you kep going
• there were thousands of lizards and snake tracks in the sand. On our first night our guide saw tracks that ended in the sand. He put his hands in the sand and eventually grabbed a small lizard that looked like a newt, that he said scorpions eat
• running down the dunes was really fun, cause it felt like you were on the moon. You take big giant steps and you make feel like you’ve gone very far.
• sledding down the dunes is slow, but we had to try it, and send you all a picture home … it didn’t make a rooster tail on the back, like I hoped it would. There is too much friction on the sled and the sand. It doesn’t go fast because it does on snow.
• the desert dunes is unique landscape that made for a beautiful sunset. Mom, Dad, and I also got up for sunrise twice in a row … “cause I’m like that… you know I’m cray cray”
• we played tag in the dunes at night under the full moon. It was fun, but so hard. We had a large “field of play” that we had to make smaller, cause we were all so gassed

But, the ultimate fun thing to do in the sand was dune bashing. Dune bashing is when you take e a 4×4 car over the dunes, fast up and down, around steep parts, doing donuts. Basically it’s a rollercoaster on wheels in the sand. It was also fun

• when you’re a part of a caravan, you can see where you’re headed and see the other cars spitting up sand when doing big donuts
• you’re always bouncing up and down, and there are no calm spots
• it is fun to watch the driver with the manual gear box, because he’s always working the stick shift

This was our fun adventure in the Omani desert. Hopefully we get to go to a desert in another part of the world.