After exploring the stunning canyon that is Wadi Shab we continued south to Sur, a port town that was basking in sunshine when we arrived…which was a rare sight after so many overcast days. We took a stroll along the corniche and along the beach where the tide was out and it created some cool channels of water and sandbanks. The town is famous for its traditional Dhow boats which you can see being built in the same technique that they’ve been doing for hundreds of years but neither of us are very interested in things like that so we enjoyed just strolling along the coast followed by a ramble through the white-washed houses. It was interesting walking through the neighbourhoods, lots of houses were absurdly large. Probably manors but built in square blocks with flat roofs. Some houses had castle-style turreted roofs or intricately carved wooden doors while others were crumbling away with a whole plethora of plants and trees growing from the roof.

After Sur we drove along the coast searching for a place to camp, luckily this area seemed much quieter than the coast further north which had locals pitched up in one long line that went on for miles down the beach. Here we managed to drive down a dirt track to the top of some cliffs where we had no neighbours in sight. It was an area that’s clearly popular with campers or at least picnickers because the ground was riddled with burn patches from fires, broken glass and rubbish. Sadly it was even worse when we got to the cliff-edge and peered down to the sea, the ledges around the cliff were covered in rubbish. There were so many plastic bottles and bags, all just on the edge or floating in the sea below. Absolutely disgusting. Where we were camping was close to a turtle sanctuary and we saw one swimming through the water, literally past plastic bags. I have no idea how turtles have managed to have successful breeding grounds in these conditions.

Anyway, I don’t know where the evening went but we didn’t have time to make dinner before the sun went down so we had a nice easy meal of hummus and dips with some fancy olives and we placed it all inside the briefcase style box that our stove normally lives in and moved that into our tent so we could get comfy and not worry about spilling food in the rental car. Craig heated up some pita breads on the open flame of our stove like he was some sort of chapati chef in India and it was an extremely frantic experience to watch as he burnt his hand and threw the pitas in the air.

We bought some fancy new bedding earlier in the day like a new blanket as I was really cold last night and two bath-matts…they’re really cushioned ones so we thought they’d be great to put on our sleep matts to help soften the ground for our poor hips. Good news is we felt much more comfortable last night so the investment paid off. After some breakfast we hit the road and headed for Ras Al Hadd, a town within the turtle sanctuary. It was a strange town, the streets were empty with the only sign of life being goats. In fact this seems to be quite a common thing in Oman, the villages feel like there’s been an apocalypse with empty restaurants and no hustle or bustle, maybe everyone comes out after dark. Anyway, first we tried to head to what was labeled ‘turtle watching beach’ on my map but as we arrived we were confronted by a huge sign with rules. I was under the impression that you could walk on the beaches from sunrise to sunset and no access was allowed during the night as that’s when the turtles come to the beach to lay their eggs, but the sign gave the impression that we needed a guide just to access the reserve beach. It seemed so strict that we didn’t want to risk getting in trouble so we chickened out and decided to head to the huge beach in-front of the town. It was empty of people which was nice so we took a stroll and spotted signs of turtles straight away. There were huge holes where a turtle had dug away the sand to create the perfect spot to lay her eggs and we think we spotted tracks from baby turtles running back to the sea too. There were also lots of dried up turtle eggs on the floor, who knows if it was from successful hatchlings or if they were gobbled up by a fox or bird as they seem to prey on the eggs. Sadly there was also lots of rubbish strewn throughout the sand but also laying on-top of the sand, people literally came down for coffee and a picnic and just walked away leaving absolutely everything behind.

It was the hottest day we’ve had in Oman so far, not only was the sun out but there wasn’t a farts wind and I was sweltering. We decided to spend a few hours relaxing at the beach and even though there wasn’t anyone around I still swam fully clothed just incase. Instead of wearing my swim-suit leggings though I wore a t-shirt and sarong as a skirt which was a terrible idea as the flowing fabric of the sarong kept touching my leg and making me feel like a fish was grabbing me. The sea was lovely though, a little chilly to start but crystal clear and a delight to just float in.

Feeling sufficiently cooled down we continued south to Ras Al Jinz Turtle Reserve research centre. This is where people pay for tours on the beach to see the turtles laying. We asked the worker if they see the turtles hatching on the tours as that would be all we were interested in seeing as we’ve seen the laying in Australia before. He was quite blunt actually and said it’s the wrong time for hatchlings which is strange as the turtles are laying year round due to a few different breeds visiting, they take between 45-75 days to hatch so surely they’d be hatching all year too? Anyway, he wasn’t very helpful with walks and had sass which kind of grated on me so we decided to skip the paid entry for a day time walk on the beach as it would be the same turtle evidence as on Ras Al Hadd’s which we saw for free, minus the rubbish of course but in the end we decided to skip it and drove to a little village nearby where we could walk a couple of kilometres to a little beach. As soon as we drove through the village a mob of kids began running after our car. We managed to park under the shade of a mosque so we could make some tea before the walk but it was a challenge for Craig with 15 kids surrounding him. They were little shits though, continuously trying to touch things inside the car and generally being very annoying. What can I say, I’ve never been good with kids but this was sending me back to the days in India where the kids would chase us, throw rocks, beg for money and poke me. For little people they’re terrifying. A local happened to drive by and shouted something in Arabic to them which was probably ‘leave them alone’ so they all ran back to their house and as soon as the man drove off they came running back to us like a group of zombies. As soon as the tea was made and put in the flask Craig joined me in the front and we both agreed we didn’t want to do the walk anymore, there was no chance we were leaving our rental car near these kids as I’d fear they’d scratch the car or something. Luckily they started leaving us alone so we took our opportunity to drive off but one little fucker thought it would be funny to chase us which is not funny when you’re driving and trying desperately not to run over a kid and have a village of elders condemning us to life in jail.

So, they won. We left with our tails between our legs, scared of a group of kids and feeling rather deflated at the disappointing afternoon. Luckily nature always has the answer and as we got to a road junction I asked Craig what that was ahead of us. It seemed to be a strange rock formation which looked really unusual and stripy so we decided to grab our flask and enjoy the tea whilst walking towards the wall. Some sections had white sand dunes beneath the red stripes, it was really interesting so we continued walking into the unknown, ending up on more dunes and discovering camel tracks and lone desert flowers.

Once we were back on the road Craig spotted our first wild camel so of course we pulled over to take lots of photos! As we were about to crest a hill a couple of locals gave us a few honks and we realised it was a warning…there were about 5 camels in the road ahead of us. We pulled over again to enjoy the sight – camels were all around us, some were confidently walking towards our car, while others were laying down on the gravel with mountain backdrops or walking far away in the distance so just their silhouettes were visible on the heat-hazed horizon. It wasn’t just the camels which were impressive, the landscape in this area was really stunning with interesting shaped hills and mountains ranging from a deep red colour to volcanic black. So we decided we should pitch up our tent in the area and enjoy the scenery for longer. As soon as we parked up two camels confidently came up to our car, spread their rear legs and projected brown liquid out…for a whole minute.

We found a nice flat spot to pitch up for the night and had a pleasant night sleep without any camel drama in the night. The following morning a big herd of goats came by and poked their heads into the tent, searching for any food. Our next destination was Wadi Bani Khalid which we could access via two different routes, back the way we’d come or along a longer coastal route. We opted for the latter to get a change of scenery but it was a bit of a shit drive. It passed through so many villages so the road was riddled with unnecessary speed bumps that were driving Craig mad. They just love speed bumps in Oman and will have them at totally pointless places on fast roads with no warning signs and faded paint stripes on the bump so we’ve had a few close calls, slamming on the breaks to avoid going airborne.

The villages continued to be bizarrely quiet and the scenery turned totally flat. We stopped at some ‘rainbow lakes’ which were supposed to be a shade of pink but they were just grey and the shores were covered in litter. The heat didn’t help today, it was maybe 30° and totally unbearable being outside the car, even the aircon didn’t feel cold anymore. We did find a wetland area with a lot of birds including flamingoes but they were white, it’s almost like colour is banned in Oman…black or white clothing only, brown hills, beige sand and white flamingoes. When we stopped for lunch a camel kept approaching us, clearly having been fed by people in the past. So there’s me, with two metal lids as plates resting on our backpacks in the boot, trying to make a sandwich while Craig was in charge of shooing the camel away.