Desert Sunset Trip to Rub'Al Khali

I’ve been living in Oman for so long and I went on my first desert trip last November! It was amazing! I came across this tour group on Instagram — Salalah Adventure tours. I’ve been following them for months now and I decided to join their trip to the desert on the occasion of the 50th National Day Holidays. I booked my slot on the trip and was looking forward for the trip. I was a bit uneasy going alone but luckily at the last minute, my bestie was able to join me on this trip.

This is a detailed review and experience of that trip (or you can just scroll down to the end and watch the video blog).

11.45am: Meet point at Al Saada Petrol Station. We get allotted to our designated tour guides. Each Jeep have 3 guests with a tour guide. Our tour guide’s name is Salim. He’s very polite, friendly and made us welcomed right away. Before starting the journey, they gave us sandwiches and water for the road.

12 pm: We started the journey to Thumrait. The last time I went to Thumrait was back in 2015 when we went on road trip from Salalah to Muscat. I’ve always traveled through this area either at night or when its really foggy. It was the first time in a long time since I traveled during a sunny day. It was nice to see the surrounding.

1 pm: We reached Thumrait petrol station where they gave us Omani coffee with dates. We’re suppose to eat the dates and then drink the coffee. This method complements each other. The sweetness of the dates with the bitterness of the coffee. It was great.

1.30 - 2.45pm: We left from Thumrait and traveled towards our destination. I don’t really recall the place’s name but its around an hour from Thumrait. When we reached the end of the asphalt road, we stopped and prepared the Jeeps for the off road. Basically, they had to reduce the tyre pressure. Once everyone was done, we started the off road journey. Also, this would be the last spot where we could get any phone reception.

2.45 - 3:45pm: We started the journey off road to base camp. It was such a bumpy and FUN ride! Two of the tour guides literally were on a race to the destination! (They are experienced off road drivers and they were very safe). There’s an off road path the cars can use where at the end of that track, we waited for the other Jeeps to catch up. We took this opportunity to take pictures. It took another 30 minutes more to reach the base camp but from where we were, we could already see the sand dunes.

3:45pm: Finally! Base camp. It was beautiful! Never have I seen this much sand dunes in my life. It was still a bit warm but under the shade it was cool. We arrived and took in the scenery where we were surrounded by mountain of sand dunes. We took pictures and had some snacks.

4 - 5pm: Quad ride! The designated tour guide took four of us about 1 kilometer away from the base camp to a leveled even ground to ride the quads. I didn’t expect it to be a manual one. Funny story, I toppled the last buggy ride I was on and that was a four seater ride and so I was a bit scared that the same might happen on this one. Anyway, it took a few tries to get the quad working because I don’t drive manual. Once we got the hang of it, it was amazing! The engine though was so hot that it burnt through the pants (ankle part of the pants) of the girl who was with us.

5-6pm: Sunset time. We went back to camp and of course watched the sunset and took more photos. Even used the sled to slay through the sand dunes. It was fun!

6-8pm: Chill time and getting to know people. After the sunset, there was nothing to do but chill in front of the camp fire. This was a good opportunity to get to know the other guests who joined the trip. It was amazing, we met people from different countries - Tunisia, Jordan, India, Czech Republic, UK, Vietnam if I remember correctly. It was really nice to get to know everyone and know what they do for a living.

8pm-12am: Dinner Time and party time. It was a buffet styled dinner. I was really impressed in the way they set it up. We had barbecue, salad, rice and several more dishes. After dinner, we danced a bit, talked more and continued chilling in front of the camp fire. The weather was getting chillier into the night. We even celebrated someone’s birthday where we sang and dance for the birthday celebrant. Not only was it a fun trip but it felt like a family trip.

12am-2am: We left base camp by 12am. Got phone reception only by 12.30 am and we reached Salalah past 2am.

P.S: Hey guys, so I actually wrote this blog last year but I never published it because I never finished writing it. Since I have been publishing a blog every Sunday for the past 3 weeks and today would be the 4th week, I wanted to continue the momentum and share this even though it might feel like it’s an incomplete post, because why not.