Another desert adventure in Oman. This time to the Wahiba Sands area in Oman's northeastern region, about 2.5-hour drive from Muscat. Our friends DJ and Kristina were visiting Oman, so we decided to trek out to the desert for a night of glamping. This involved expertly driving through the desert sands to get to our destination (after deflating the tires of course!), a sunset camel ride up into the dunes, and an evening spent in one of the more popular remote desert camps in the area - the Arabian Oryx Camp.
The Wahiba Sands (رِمَال وَهِيْبَة or رَمْلَة آل وَهِيْبَة) (known officially as Sharqiya Sands or ٱلرِّمَال ٱلشَّرْقِيَّة) is a sand desert formed during the Pleistocene period by the convergence of monsoons blowing southwest across the Indian Ocean and shamal trade winds, coming in from the east. We visited the upper (or high) area of Wahiba Sands, which consists of massive sand ridges that run north-south for miles and are lined-up in parallel lines across the region. These ridges can measure up to 100 meters (330 feet) high. The desert camp where we stayed is located in the valley between two of these ridges.
Wahibi Sands is named for the Bani Wahiba tribe, who traditionally are the region's most predominate population. The Al-Amr, Al-Bu-Isa, Hikman, Hishm and Janaba are a few other Bedouin tribes known to also live in the area. Most locals reside near Al Huyawah, a natural oasis near the desert's northern border, where tribesmen gather during late summer to pluck ripe yellow dates from the oasis' palm trees.
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