From 3000 old stock this wadi has been upgraded to 10000 plants in total

Two days in Salalah were over. The only thing we hadn’t really seen are frankincense trees as the ones in the wadi yesterday seemed quite sad. However, a plantation of frankincense trees was marked for a location between Salalah and Thumrayt. Since it was on the way, we went to see it. Given it doesn’t look like much at all, the smell of the sap was incredibly incense-like right there.

From here, our gaze went northwards again, towards the mountains of Jebel Akhdar and Jebel Shams. The first city at the foot of the mountain ranges is Nizwa…about 900km from here. And the road leading there directly is straight through the desert, with the Empty Quarter (2000km of desert separating Oman and Saudi-Arabia) to the west.

First glimpse of what was to come …

The Lonely Planet states that you can do the journey in one go. In a car. There is no way we can do it but we still wanted to get as much done today as we could so that we’ll arrive in Nizwa tomorrow.

The first couple of hours were fine since we started early enough to have a fresh breeze from moving. Landscape-wise it is rather unremarkable because it’s simply lacking in any features. After a while, it becomes a drag. I took a photo every hour or so to show “yep, still flat and empty over here”. We made incredible progress though with the kilometers just flying by.

Three hours later, no change

There are a couple of roadside rest houses, usually attached to an oasis, with a gas station and a tiny restaurant. When we hit the third one, we had Indian food once more, which is still really nice and filling. When we got back on the road after lunch, the heat became harder to bear. Flo thought that I started to be stupid but I just couldn’t think straight (or fast) anymore. I was already good for a siesta at 1pm but Flo pushed it out to 2pm and a 100 kilometers further down the road.

At this point we reached Hayma, a bigger town along the road. Here, Flo put me in another shaded pagoda where I just sat while he organised juice and water before I took a one hour nap. That was sorely needed and quite comfy especially because I took my shoes off.

This field of sand dunes after 650 km was a small hint of the empty quarter behind

We kept going again at 3pm for as long as we could. Starting to look for a camping spot turned out to be a bit tricky in a vast, flat area. When we came past some sand dunes, Flo took the chance. It was probably still too close to the road for a perfect spot but it gave us some privacy nonetheless.

Dinner was had on top of a sand dune while watching the sunset. A tiny lizard hung around to pose for our pictures which we were thankful for. The night turned out to be rather hot with an approximate 30 degrees until dawn.