Hi All,
after beiing already to Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, UAE there was one "easy" country left in that area to go to. We prefer freedom; so a 10 day drive through Oman by ourselves would be great. We visited from Jemen border, to empty quarter to Oman (we did not visit the places close to UAE border as we did that before from UAE).
So what is spectacular in Oman? Lots of things but most spectacular for us was:
- A 5km white sand beach close to Duqm with thousdans of crabs. and the thing was: NOBODY THERE! (GPS coordinates and driving directs in the blog post).
- Driving through the hawar mountains, with Cliffs one side down 500 meters other side up 500 meters or more up to the highest point. (make sure you are confident about driving this and know your 4x4) its possible to do with not that much knowledge BUT safety first! Do not cross and speed take it easy.
- Watching sea turtles lay eggs at ras al jinz turtle reserve. SO BEAUTIFULL.
- Driving trough the desert on roads where you do not see anyone for hours; skulls in the desert and other things.
One tip: make sure you have a spare tire, make sure you put your gas tank full each time it's down to 50% (or even if it's 75% full fill it up).
Always carry your passport; MANY controls. do not speed; it's expensive, i know. In the rural area's, you can wear your western clothes; but, put on the arabic clothes. It will get you in easy contact with locals.
Read our full experience here, we did this with family, kids were 8 and 10 years old. they loved it. As roads are sometimes difficult; find also GPS coordinates and googlemaps GPX files for download. feel free to use and comment.
Read the full story and many great photos here:
Oman from Salalah to Muscat full story
safe travels!
Chris