Contrails from UAE Desert

It was good experience to watch multiple contrails up in the evening desert sky. But I couldn’t capture many pictures due lack of time. The desert ride was one of the memorable experiences of my 9 months stay in Dubai.

Memories of a Desert Safari

Desert Safari is one of the most interesting tour programs in Dubai, as well as entire U.A.E. Dune bashing, Camel riding, Henna Painting, Belly Dancing, Arabic coffee, Barbeque dinner etc gives the true feeling of the Desert life. The program is an excellent opportunity for photography. The pick up and drop facility for the entire tour program makes it very easy for people to take part in it.

The above picture is my own shadow in the desert sand, taken whiles the drivers where having a short break for gathering together for the dune bashing.

Muscat after GONU - the cyclone

During the weekend when I stayed with my cousin and family in Muscat, Cibi Chettan, took me around Muscat in his car, and we visited many of the important land marks of Muscat. He took me to those places where the beach was washed away during the heavy rain fall along with GONU, the cyclone.

GONU destroyed the capital of Oman – Muscat, to a large extend. The death toll is many times more than what is actually officially reported, says the locals. I saw many car showrooms, completely covered with mud up to 3 or 4 meters high, and earth movers, being used to pull out those new cars destroyed. Thousands of vehicles are lost.

When compared to Dubai, the density of buildings and height of buildings in Muscat is very much less. The cost of living is also very less. Free lands of sands (desert) are visible through out the city, where in Dubai, only buildings can be seen where ever we look.

One side of Muscat is protected by the sea, and the other side by the rock hills. We went to the valley of those hills. Big excavation work is done over those hills, to cut open a way over it, and to construct a high way connecting some other city.

Birds, especially doves are seen through out UAE as well as Muscat, where there are a sufficient population density of humans.

Apart from the buildings, and the artificial gardens built here and there, Muscat is rather dry. The soil is almost sand, but I heard that the place Salalah, another city in Oman is completely different from other places. There it rains frequently and people do a lot of cultivation.

The beach nearby Muscat was very beautiful, said Cibi Chettan. The nice beach was no more there. The beauty got completely washed away by the Cyclone and the heavy rainfall. Since heavy rains were not expected in a desert, the construction or roads were not at all withstanding. They got washed away very easily.

The above picture shows the personal ship of the Sultan of Oman – Qaboos Bin Said Al-said. Cibi chettan described that, where country Sultan visits, if the country is reachable through sea, then the ship will reach the country before the Sultan, to provide all the facilities required.

A trip to Muscat (Oman) from Dubai (UAE)

These pictures published in this article are taken during my trip to Oman (Muscat) from Dubai by bus. I wanted to spend the weekend with my cousin and family, who live in Mucat. Almost all of these pictures are taken while the vehicle was on move, and through the window glass pane of the vehicle. The movement of vehicle and the obstruction of the glass reduced the quality of these photographs. I started from EGHQ the DNATA building in Dubai around 4:00 pm. The journey was tiresome; I reached Muscat by 11:30pm.

When the bus reached the outskirts of Dubai, I saw true desert covered with red hot brown and golden sand for the first time in my life. The wavy lines produced by wind, and sand hills which forms only by the force of wind!!! I have sent them only in pictures and films till then. In some of the above pictures, you can see the wavy lines, and sand hills. If you watch the picture closely you can see the wind drifting near the top edge of the sand heaps to reshape the whole land. These sand only hills are favorite destinations for enthusiasts for desert safari in Toyota land cruisers.

In the above picture, you can see a landscape of desert where only sand in golden color is visible, no soil, no water, no trees, not even a spot of hard rock. I would better call it an ocean of sand.

When the bus reached further towards the border of UAE and Oman, the land structure changed from that of completely sand covered. Hard rocks and small hills start appearing. Half dead trees or trees in sleeping stage ready to sprout again during a small shower at any time of year were visible.

After traveled through the sand desert for a while, I spotted some camels and cows, goats and sheep in the desert. Small green bushes and shrubs were uniformly spread over the land where these animals appeared.

When I closely inspected the Rock Mountains visible towards the border of UAE and Oman, I spotted strange holes or dens in the rock hills. I enquired about it with the fellow passengers, some of them claimed that those were formed by the rains that appeared in the form of GONU – the cyclone that killed many in Oman and caused wide natural destruction. But some one else claimed that those are made by various kinds of animals. I could not take the second one, since the dens were of widely varying sizes, and shapes, and numerous in numbers. But I could not spot a single creature out there.

When the bus reached almost the border around 6:00pm the geography completely changed. Sand deserts totally disappeared; there are no more rock hills, but Rock Mountains, dry mountains without a single spot of chlorophyll.

It took almost 2 and half hours to complete the procedures in the border to get the exit stamped from UAE officials, to get the luggage checked for safety and security and smuggling, and for getting the visit Visa to Oman. After a manual checking of the bags by officials, we were asked to arrange the entire bags in our vehicle in a line on the road, and keep away from it. Then a trained dog came and sniffed all the bags. Extra security!!! But these procedures were not repeated when I traveled back after two days back to UAE – Dubai.

When we crossed the UAE-Oman border it was twilight. The landscape and mountains were amazing, and when we were out of the vehicle for the exit/entry procedures of the two nations, could not photograph the beautiful scenes since photography was prohibited in those areas due to security reasons.

In the above picture, you can see a vehicle abandoned in the desert; probably due to a break down, during a desert ride.

Above pictured is a small typical kind of town near Hatta. These kinds of towns were seen occasionally during the journey.