Traveling through Oman deserts.

by Ahmed Ali Ahmed Ali (Egypt)

A leap into the unknown Oman

“A wise man travels to discover himself.” James Russell Lowell Travelling and discover the world remains one of my biggest concerns at all and I have traveled to two countries and I am still trying to travel more. Traveling through Oman deserts was one of the biggest challenges which I challenged myself where there were swirls of thinking about what is in those deserts of scorpions, snakes, and spiders, but it's okay, the adventure deserves more than that. It's 6:00 am, let's prepare the bag, well-done, and now to Cairo International Airport, check in, it's twelve-thirty, the boarding starting, good I am on my seat now, it's 13:35 the departure time, wow the journey will begin, let's go bye bye Egypt. Finally, the plane landed at Muscat International Airport, my first time in Oman. It is evening now, many hours to sleep in the hotel, I woke up early and met my friends in the journey and we ate breakfast, it's 8 am the bus is waiting us outside, we rode the bus and set off on the journey of adventure and challenge! After several hours we arrived Al-Mudhaibi, the largest city in Ash Sharqiyah region of Oman. It's the desert, the atmosphere is very quiet, clean air, no noise or traffic congestion, no interest in fashion and no internet or technology, there is too much room to think and discuss without obstacles, all we care about is discovery, challenge, and dialogue. It's the desert, very quiet atmosphere, clean air, no noise or traffic congestion, no interest in fashion and no internet or technology, all we care about is discovery, challenge, and dialogue. We walked for 4 kilometers in the fine sand and we stopped for lunch, then we walked another 8 kilometers in the soft sand as well, during the hiking, we were in groups and we discussed together on several topics and known more about each other. Hiking finished, it is time to tie up tents, the spirit of effective cooperation exists between us during the work, we finished and sat down together to share our views and ideas and discuss our future challenges, we saw the gradual sunset of the sun, It was wonderful because we aren't used to seeing it in this remarkable way. The night came and we watched the stars and saw them clearly and after all this exhaustion it was necessary to sleep, but, one of our friends said: "Be careful guys, there is a scorpion", Oh my God our fears begin to appear, we dealt with the situation with smart and caution, one friend suggested killing it, but, we stopped him in order to preserve wildlife and not to damage the ecosystem in general, we followed it closely and enjoyed seeing it and filming until it leaved away from our sleeping quarters. The second day began, and we ate breakfast and started hiking, but we doubled the distance today. As usual, we had coffee breaks during hiking and our lunch time, and during those breaks, we were discussing the values, stereotypes, our travel experiences and the experience in youth and volunteer work. The night came and we went to the people living in the area called "Badw", They showed us hospitality and gave us their tasty food called "Chicken Capps", they showed us their handicrafts and we bought a lot of them, they also gave us Omani sweets and Omani coffees and told us more about lifestyles, customs, and traditions in Oman. We continued to persevere and discover daily, and we rode the camels in the rest of the day and every day we set fire at night and played, danced and sang around it. Also, we enjoyed seeing foxes, cats, goats, sheep, chameleon, lizards and some spiders and climbed peaks of more than 30 meters. Our adventures continued in the deserts of Oman until the last day came, we had traveled many kilometers on our feet and gained a unique new experience through our dialogue in the desert. We returned to Muscat, welcome again to civilization, we visited the market and bought gifts and enjoyed the beach of Muttrah. Finally, I returned to Egypt waiting to travel in a new adventure!