Day three, up early before sunrise to be greeted with the curious quadrupeds whose sleeping zone we must have been occupying. Kettle on and coffee and tea brewed before having breakfast and packing up.
We check out location on the TPC map and GPS and figured we would carry in a SE direction until we hit one of the main north-south routes then drive north to Mintirib.
Communications courtesy of Zartec, photo by Dave “Doring Thorne”
With the pallets removed from my roof rack, the weird noises I had heard yesterday had gone, and with some fantastic duning ahead I was really looking forward to this. Dave took point with Jason in the middle and southeastwards we drove.
Ridge after ridge, and with fantastic light throwing incredible shadows on parts of the dunes, we enjoyed some of nature’s spectacular scenery, however we were soon at one of the main tracks after about two hours of driving. From this point we headed north to Mintirib, where we aired up and refueled before heading back west towards Jebel Madar via tracks.
Jebel Madar was a bit of a disappointment due to the number of rubbish dumps around its base and is best viewed from a distance to appreciate its grandeur.
Back on hard top again and appreciating the smoothness of tarmac compared to corrugations we stopped for a late lunch at a tourist restaurant just outside Sinaw around 1600 hrs, then the long road back to Dubai with the final leg north from Muscat in darkness, although the road is well lit with only the odd patch of lights not working.
We arrived back in Dubai at 2315, after having clocked 1,897 Km on the round trip.
Thanks to Dave and Jason for great company and of course to our reliable Land Rovers that never missed a beat, and never got stuck on this trip.
