sandstorms and relays

Last weekend, along with 20 four wheel drives and 30-40 people, I crossed the Wahiba/Sharqiyah desert. Our goal? To reach the coast by sunset on Thursday. Usually, the group (it crosses the desert once a month) reaches the beach by Friday lunchtime, but we were quite ambitious.

Sounds easy, yeah? The Sharqiyah sands are about 180 km long and 80 km wide, and we had to travel around 120-130k to our coastal destination. The first 100 km of deserts are easy as pie, it seemed, with only a few bumps and baby dunes to cover. After lunch, however, started the adventure. The southern part of the desert is covered with dunes at least 50m tall, and with no road, a wrong turn of the steering wheel could mean your tires getting stuck. Thankfully, the first rule of thumb for the weekend was safety and then fun, which meant that when someone was stuck, we stopped and helped. And when you're in the part of the desert with dunes so high that at least one or two vehicles get caught in every single large stretch of dune, we all stopped to help.

We were all determined. I was in the lead car with Mohamed, Julia's husband, who led the way. Who needs super crazy rollercoasters in Oman when you've got the desert sand dunes! Rushes of adrenaline defined that Thursday, and while I feared for my life and hung on as tight as I could, other thoughts occupying my head were, "OMG THIS IS SO COOL," and "when am I ever going to have a chance to do this again??"

And to be quite un-Omani of us, we were on schedule and reached the coast by sunset. It was beautiful.

Sunset in the desert, as you turned away from the coast ...

We camped a few kilometers inland; it was my first time! What a great first time, too. Our group was quite diverse, with the majority being Omanis (especially those who were from the area and were our recovery team ... just in case). And the evening was spent listening to live music, and trying not to be scared out of our wits with sometimes overinflated tales of djinn (spirits) and creepy crawlies like camel spiders (larger than your average tarantula), scorpions and desert vipers. Fortunately, I didn't encounter any of those during my deep slumber, but let's say I didn't sleep like a hard rock that evening. The best part though was the slight sea breeze and seeing a blanket of the brightest sparkling stars through the tent ceiling as I fell asleep.

The next morning, we drove through some crazy high dunes, supposedly to wake everyone up from their morning tiredness (despite it being the weekend, there were definitely no chances for lie-ins!). We drove along the coast to Ras al-Hadd (otherwise known as Turtle Beach, where hundreds of sea turtles come to nest), where we all enjoyed a nice swim and lunch. We traveled to the eastern coastal city of Sur, historically known for its maritime importance and dhow (traditional boat) yard. We took the coastal road (read: not all tarmac!) back to Muscat, which was preferable, as the views of the mountains and the seas from either side of the car windows was absolutely breathtaking.

And now for something completely different ...

Yesterday evening, the famed Olympic torch passed through Muscat. I almost missed it! Caught the last bit before it was whisked away into Qurum Natural Park for a private ceremony. But it was pretty awesome catching a glimpse of the bright orange flame (it was held in the evening because of the heat during the day ... you don't want to jog the crazy hills of old Muscat in that heat) and seeing everyone (Omanis and expats alike) cheering it on. No riots. No protests (other than those without invitation who wanted to get in the Park). Just the wholesome fun that Oman is known for! (Ok, that was cheesy. Sorry.) But seriously, it seemed to go off without a hitch.

Some news stories about it (probably one of the very few times you'll see Oman in the international headlines):

BBC: Olympic torch relay reaches Oman

Xinhua: Olympic torch relay in Muscat concludes

China Daily: Muscat pumps up the music, lights up the sky

AFP: Relaxed Omanis welcome the Olympic torch

I like AFP's headline ... so true! And I especially like the photos of His Highness the Sultan's cousin (the first relayer) in his shades when clearly the sun was going down ...

Afterwards, we went to Marah Land, a small amusement park next to the Nature Park to see if we could catch a glimpse of festivities after the fireworks. Alas, no dice. But we did get a nice view of the area while riding the ferris wheel.

Seven months here already?? Craziness. Six more months here. I'm trying to figure out what to do after October. My plan currently is to jet over to the UK with all my baggage and use my cousins' as a home base as I putz around (southern) Europe on a Eurail pass for a couple of weeks before going home for Thanksgiving. We'll see if that happens.