The desert                                                                                                           This page is revised on the 10 June 1999

The desert is the epitome of the Arabic peninsula. Is there anything else, at all? Yes, indeed (see: Landscape). But the desert is the dominating scenery, and it is a most fascinating world.

Normally one would think of the Arabic peninsula as sand, sand, sand and sand. There is plenty of sand. The famous or notorious Empty Quarter is a huge sand desert of the size of Germany. The greater part of The Empty Quarter is located in Saudi-Arabia, but a small part has sneaked over the border into Oman. It is the most stunning and remarkable landscape I have ever seen. The dunes are orange-red coloured and up to 150 metres high (above ground).

Here are we checking out a border pillar between Saudi-Arabia and Oman:

Fortunately there is a road passing all this 'horrible', inaccessible nature. Otherwise it is not possible by normal means to get there. This road is not made for touristic purposes but for the oil business. At the top of the picture above Umm As Samim is left behind us. Umm As Samim is one of the biggest salt plains in the world. Is has to be crossed to get to the big dunes.

Peter walks on the salt. It looks grey or brown. The salt is mixed with sand and silt when it rains.

There are also big areas where the salt has build a kind of 'plate ice':

Funny tracks to follow:

But desert is much more than sand and salt. It is mainly gravel desert. Less charming, but still fascinating.

Navigation in such areas is difficult. Of course it is not a problem if you drive 1 km to the right or to the left - or 20 metres - or 5 km. Only I you must hit a petrol station (there are not many of them in the desert) or the only point where it's possible to cross a 300 km long escarpment, then it is necessary to be precise. The problem is, as it can be seen on the photo, that there are no features to navigate after. Normally we do navigate like: Follow the river, follow the edge of the mountain. In the desert there is nothing to follow or navigate after! And the sun is in zenith. The best mean for navigation is the modern GPS or the stars in the night.

(photo: Malik Suleiman)

You can also find yourself in such awful terrain that even the best navigation equipment doesn't help. In the picture below we drive between small hills of sand and rock (sharp as razorblades). Winding and twisting to find the way.

We went into this horrible area because it is the only way to get to the Rudists.

Or even these small sand dunes. It can actually be good fun to drive on them, if the sand is hard.

(photo: Malik Suleiman)

Over the salt desert in high speed because the clouds look like rain. It did in heavy streams, but at that time we were on safe ground on the hard top road.

If the sand starts flying around the visibility is reduced:

But normally there are tracks to follow:

(photo: Malik Suleiman)

There live actually people out here in the desert. Not big concentrations. But here and there. They live from camels and goats, and fishing (from the coast).

(photo: Said Mohamed Al Harthy)
This particular place was abandoned.

(photo: Said Mohamed Al Harthy)
Remember to close the door after you!

A lonely tree. Strange. There were more than 100 km to the next tree.

A small modest oasis. It is actually water which is being seen in the photo.

Mirages is seen (fata morgana). I have seen with my own eyes loud and clearly houses not so far away. But they disappeared as we approached them. Strange phenomena.

But nothing is so empty that it can not be used for something. Oman's oilfields are in the desert. There they do not disturb anybody. On this picture is shown an oil well. The pump is below the surface and the only thing to be seen is this stop cock and the pipeline leading to the junction main-pipeline.