A night under the stars in the desert ……..

Whilst in Oman a night in the desert is simply a must do !

So we set off mid morning for an exclusive Excelsior Tour in two 4x4 vehicles with the crews of Miss Tippy, Sol Maria and Jackamy.

The five hour trip took us across miles and miles of grey, flat desert punctuated occasionally with a small farm or some roaming camels.

At one point we were surprised to see a couple of lush green fields surrounded by desert, apparently these are irrigated from drilling out wells that can be up to 200 metres deep ! The grass is grown and harvested for camel food and is, understandably, very expensive.

The boys all bought head dresses and looked like locals !

We had a chuckle when we saw the road signs below.

Mid afternoon we turned off the road and began our drive across the sand and into the desert. At first the landscape continued to be flat, grey and boring but it soon began to change. The sand dunes and hills became larger and more dramatic, forming geometric shapes with perfect flat surfaces and ridges contrasting with a sea of waves and ripples formed by the wind blowing across the sand.

The colours became rich and warm gold, oranges and yellows and the sun shadowed and highlighted the whole landscape. It was beautiful, dramatic, silent and empty.

Another hour or two heading deeper into the desert and we parked up at our ‘camp’ for the night….

There was absolutely nothing there, just desert, fantastic !

The drivers laid down a couple of mats, unloaded the cars and proceeded to peel the vegetables for dinner.

Our men collected some bush roots for a camp fire and then we all climbed to the top of the adjacent sand hill to watch the sunset.

The climb was hard !

The deep sand buried your feet and slid them backwards so that every step was a huge effort without much progress.

But – it was worth it as we all sat on the ridge and enjoyed the sunset with sundowners of secretly spiked orange juice.

Dinner was camel byriani with vegetables, delicious local dates and hot ginger tea.

The wind had picked up during dinner and we all huddled into our sleeping bags to escape the sand blowing into our eyes, mouths, hair, in fact everywhere.

It was very dark and we slept under the night sky, bright with twinkling stars.

In the morning Gavin relit the fire and Sheila turned into a local Bedouin women overnight !

You may well be wondering about our en suite bathrooms, well they were just another room in the desert – a short walk over the hill !

After a fantastic breakfast of eggs, boiled over the fire, local bread and honey, cream cheese and more ginger tea, we set off to see a local Bedouin camp.

After a few fun and games when one of the vehicles got stuck in the sand, we joined the local Bedouin in their elaborate tent and sampled some fresh camel milk.

It was surprisingly cool and tasted like skimmed milk.

And so the long ride home.