When I went there to check a minute later, I could only catch two eye-stalks

Despite my unpleasant encounter with sand yesterday, our camp spot turned out to be beautiful at sunrise. I even had a little stroll to the beach where lots of crabs were running on the still wet sand. Luckily, the bike was already “safe” on gravel from our “adventure” so we packed up and left the camp spot of doom without further issues.

Driving in the early morning is amazing as it’s still cool and you get to enjoy riding the bike again. The landscape kept changing again and while I still get excited by the sight of wild camels, I don’t take a picture of all of them anymore. There are just too many. I still like how they are scattered throughout the landscape though.

Conquered!

After about two hours on the road, we came into real sand dunes territory. First, ramshackle houses were dotted across them as beduines made semi-permanent homes at the edge of the desert. Then, we found some empty dunes to go play in. 🙂 Flo was especially keen which you might notice when you see the pictures but he still decline my challenge of making a sand angel. One of us covered in sand seems to suffice for the other. 😉

Just after 10.30am, we had a very early lunch in Mahoot (Muhut). It was the logical point to go for lunch as the map didn’t show a lot more on the way to Duqm, our destination for today. And since we were up before sunrise, we could already eat again. So we found a nice looking coffee shop and had a massive lunch. It wasn’t intended as such, however, most of these eateries are run by Indian people so your meal includes: A plate of vegetables with lime, a plate of your dish (mutton stew or dhal respectively) and a basket with four flatbreads each. We rolled out of there and back onto the bike.

Break time is over, the boss is coming back

The landscape changed back to a more mountainous terrain. The sun was scorching hot now so we took the chance to stop in the shade in one of the valleys. It was also incredibly pretty around here. Once, we even passed the first real oasis I have ever seen. I only manage to snatch one picture but basically, it is an abundance of green in a sea of brown and ochre. The scintillating heat on the road and on the horizon keeps appearing as water or a wet surface until you get there. Thus, we are also experiencing mirages.

By 1pm already we arrived at Duqm, the city we wanted to stay in for the night. I was desperate for a real shower though I had tried to get rid of the worst sand in the sea yesterday. Also, we are slowly running out of power on our electronic devices. Hoping to find an affordable bed, we spent two hours in the giant construction site that is Duqm, only to find that the cheapest bed was 55 rial. Of course, we still could have asked at the Crown Plaza or the Radisson hotel but somehow I doubt that they would have given us a cheaper deal. The guest house that we had seen online was on the other side of the road construction and we simply couldn’t get there. In the end, Flo crossed the site on foot only to find that the guest house was closed due to the roadworks.

Walking across the work site back from the closed guesthouse

To explain the title: When we travelled through Australia at the beginning of our trip, all travel blogs we read told us how to do Australia on a tiny budget and mostly wild camping. We were slightly bewildered as we liked the campgrounds a lot; most of them even came with a pool in which we spent much time. Now, 8 months and 30.000km into our trip, Oman is the first country we encounter (again) that has nearly Western prices. To make the small rest of our money last, we simply have to do it on the cheap. Thus, we are only eating out once per day for about NZ$15 and we simply cannot afford the hotels here.

With the guest house closed, our next best option was to wild camp one more night. At least we knew we could sleep somewhere but I had dreamt of a shower and it wasn’t going to happen. We left Duqm, which has a six-lane motorway already built and will have a port to rival anything in Asia except for Singapore when it is finished, to find a secluded spot.

Then we got lucky in our hobo lifestyle. Flo found a prayer room and toilets at the side of the highway. We had seen these buildings before without realizing they had public toilets. As they are adjacent to a prayer room, they are also equipped for washing! Triumphant, we washed in a public toilet, complete with hair and everything. It felt good.

Just us here …

The last thing to do for today was find a camping spot. At the moment, we were on a flat expanse with nothing to hide behind for miles so we rode until the road got closer to the coast again. Then, we saw some hills which would hide us perfectly from the road and stopped there. Rocinante’s tracks shared the space with imprints of camel feet but nothing else. Once we were set up, one car with two young Omani men drove by and stopped for a brief chat, otherwise we had this space for ourselves.