Short Desert Trip 2013

In celebration of our wedding anniversary hubby booked our little family into the Desert Nights Camp in the Wahiba sands in the Bidyia, Al Wasil region in Oman. It took us two hours and a half to get to the camp from Muscat. The dual carriage way after the highway was a little bit scary as dare devils overtake without considering oncoming traffic half the time. We got to the camp without incident. As we parked our car trying to sort ourselves out, a hotel porter showed up in a small cart and welcomed us to the camp. We loaded the cart with our gear and went in to the reception. We were received warmly and offered cool wet flannels to freshen up, a welcome gesture after driving through the sand. The camp was easy to find following the instructions given on their Desert Nights Camp website. As the golden sand dunes came into sight I felt butterflies as I was so excited to go back to the desert since 4 and a half years ago. Master Five was even more excited as he pointed to camels and goats and asked questions about the desert as we drove through the dunes to get to the camp. The camp was situated between tall sand dunes. We immediately enquired about activities and booked what we wanted to do straight away to avoid missing out from overbooking. Master five and hubby booked a quad bike ride that same afternoon and we planned to go up the dunes to watch the sunset later in the afternoon. Master Five kept singing that he wanted to ride a camel and we were told the camels were brought in every morning for that purpose. I took baby to the room to relax and let him crawl around after being cooped up in the car while hubby and Master Five went off for their quad bike ride. Later we got a ride to the top of the dunes and I happily clicked away with my big camera to try capture baby on the dunes just like we did 5 years ago with our older son. The sunset was just magnificent once more. I always experience a sense of peace and graciousness in those moments, it's just gorgeous and the fact we're in a desert far from home really brings everything into perspective.
Big son took his rugby ball so he was having a great time kicking the ball on the dunes and running after it. then rolling down the dunes and trying to slide down. He really enjoyed it. We had a few drinks at the bar until dinner time. The food was yummy and a lot of local cuisine was served which was delicious. A two men local band was playing soft music during dinner which was quite relaxing. We sat by the bonfire for a few minutes before we called it a night. We all had a lovely sleep. The big bed was very comfortable and so were the pillows. The night was cool so we didn't need any AC. The rooms were clean and spacious and beautifully designed. There was hot water and tea making facilities which was awesome.

The next morning we were up early to enjoy the breakfast. There was a well equipped playground which my son had a good time playing on. The camels were brought in and master Five happily hopped on the camel lead by the camel herder and rode around the camp grounds before coming back to base. At 10 we were taken to a further steep dune to sand board. Local guide Issa was friendly and new his dunes and his toyota! So we drove to the top of the dune we took turns sand boarding down and then Issa would drive down in the car and take us up again! It was fun and the boys really had a good time. I went down once but enjoyed taking pictures and making sure no sand flies landed on baby who was happily crawling around on the fast warming sand. after half an hour we went back to camp. the boys went off for another quad bike ride while bubba and I relaxed and then we packed our gear and headed back home. We had such a beautiful night in the desert and I really want to do it more often once more!