The Plan
To go to the Petrified Forest in Oman, then onto the western part of Wahiba and time permitting check out Jebel Madar, in three days.
Thursday morning, 0700 hrs, second day of Eid al Adha, it was bucketing down and only 16C, bit chilly for us UAE ex-pats.
Above photo by Dave "Doring" Thorne
Dave (Doring) was staying at my place so we had arranged to meet Jason at the Hatta Road EPPCO, one of our usual meeting points for ME4x4, leaving the filling of tanks to another EPPCO near the border.
We drove down towards Hatta in the pouring rain, stopped into Hatta Fort for the exit formalities then on to the Omani Border. Bit chaotic, not only was there the usual plethora of Dubai ex-pats going to Oman for the Eid break but two busloads of Chinese tourists.
Patience is a virtue, some arrogant Englishman was insisting that his car insurance covered Oman but he did not have a copy of his papers to prove it, tough mate. We left the window with him still trying to argue out of buying third party insurance from the Omani insurance company.
That all done it was customs next, and the trench-coated police did not even bother to check anything, smiles and Eid Mubarak was all it took today. We carried on, handed in our bit of paper to the next guy except Jason, who had appeared to have lost this vital piece of bureaucracy, basically a piece of rubber stamped scrap paper. Eventually he found it in between the pages of his passport and we were on our way at a steady 100 kph in rather wet conditions.
Above photo by Dave "Doring" Thorne
Somewhere just south of Sohar, the rain abated, and although cloudy we had dry roads round the outskirts of SQUH at Rusayl (where we refueled) and on the road to Nizwa, before heading south on the Salalah Road. Progress was good at a steady 120 now and we had our last fuel stop at Ghaba, before heading into the boonies.
Above photo by Dave "Doring" Thorne
