Muscat to Wahiba
Feeling very dehydrated both Dave and myself managed to get ourselves together enough to set off. No sign of Steve and Liz who both were still sleeping, having unbeknown to us only gone to bed a few hours before. It had been some party.
After refuelling we visited a supermarket to pick up some more supplies, it was also Eid, and Ramadan had now finished, kids were coming to us with the greeting Eid Mubarak and expecting some cash in return. As I was not in the mood for this and could not remember the Arabic for not on your Nellie, I just returned the greeting.
Soon we were on our way out of Muscat, and bimbled along taking in the scenery on the Nizwa road cutting off at Bidbid for Mintirib arriving there around 2.00 pm, an hour early.
After refuelling we sat around and waited. We were joined just after 3.00 pm by another group of three vehicles who were to join us (Alex, Colin and Oggie), however Oggie had shredded a tyre earlier that day in a wadi and needed to replace it before going into Wahiba. Due to Eid of course all the tyre shops were closed.
Above, we all meet up at last
Just after 4.00 pm, Jon and co arrived and after greetings etc we hung around to see if Oggie could get a tyre. As sunset would be around 5.30, we really had to push on if we were to find a place to camp, so we left Alex, Colin and Iggy and headed off into the sands.
At around 5 ish we arrived very near where we had camped last year and decided to stop for the night. We were only five vehicles, Dave A and Jon in the Prado, Mike and Benny in the Land Cruiser, Kaye in her SWB Pajero, Sanjay, Seema, and Karen in the Blazer, and Dave T and myself in the Disco. After a sundowner of G & T we prepared our meals and had a pleasant evening socialising.
First camp in the Wahiba Sands
