The only stop we made on the way to the Turtle reserve was to a small, local supermarket, to pick up supplies. We stayed at the official Ras Al Jinz Turtle Reserve Hotel. With a stay at this hotel, you get to go for an evening and early morning tour to see turtles. Reviews online were mixed. Some said that it was a wonderful experience, while some said that people crowded the turtles and were inappropriate. I warned Miles of this, just in case.
We showered, to rid our bodies of the endless sands. One aspect of the desert that I may have forgotten to mention, was that everything is covered with at least a thin layer of sand within seconds. Put your phone onto the table? Covered with sand. Open bag on the floor? Sand.
We left for the 8:30 PM tour, and were directed to sit outside, behind the hotel, in the dark. We sat there for about thirty minutes. I assumed that someone was out looking for turtles, but no one gave us an official heads up about what was happening until at least forty five minutes in. They had park rangers out, looking for turtles, and would not walk us out there until someone found one. This is turtle off season, so there was no guarantee that one would be found. Eventually we got the message that a single turtle was found.
We were in group number one, since we were staying at the hotel, and our group of about fifteen was clearly explained that there should be no cell phone flashlight use and we should be respectful of the wildlife. We then walked one kilometer along a sand road to the beach. The four or so other groups followed behind us, and once we were able to hear the water, we stopped. Our guide awaited notification from the ranger that it was time to go on over to the exact spot. Our guide gave us some more information about green turtles and said that they were waiting for the turtle to be done digging. Apparently, this was an adult turtle, and not a baby hatching, which is what I had expected.
It turned into a good thirty minute wait, and so we were instructed that we could sit down while we waited in the darkness. There were people that should not have come on the tour, with small children that ran all over and carried on. One burst out screaming and had to be taken away. This isn't a zoo, and children under a certain age should have been restricted, in my opinion.
Eventually it was time to see the turtle. We were guided the rest of the way, to find a massive turtle digging in the sand. The scene quickly devolved into chaos, with people crowding the turtle, and of course, using their phone's flash anyway. On the plus side, we saw bioluminescent plankton, which illuminated where the waves were, it lit up peoples' footprints. Miles was angry about the turtle situation, and so we decided to walk back, unguided.
Despite the disappointment, we were clean and comfortable in the hotel. At first I didn't want to do the morning tour, but then I figured that since I am here already, maybe there will be less people willing to wake up for a 5:00 AM tour. It helped that I told someone that night that I was planning to wake up in the morning, because, when the alarm woke me up at 4:40 AM, the temptation to skip it and go back to bed was STRONG!
It turns out that it was the right decision to go. Only four of us showed up, two from outside the hotel. The guide brought us to his truck and drove us down the dirt path to the beach. He used a flashlight to walk us along the water. He did not mention whether there was a turtle or not, but we followed him. One of our group took off their sandals, and the guide told them to put the sandals back on because of the dead spiked fish that littered the path.
We came upon a sea turtle nest, where a fox had dug up and eaten the eggs.
We approached a wall of rocks, and I still did not know if a turtle had been spotted. Luckily, it had. After briefly using a flashlight to show us the turtle, our guide sat off to the side and we all hung out, giving the turtle plenty of space, and observed until sunrise, when the turtle climbed out of the hole and walked back to the sea. A wave came and the turtle was swept up in it. I once caught it swimming on the top of the water, but it disappeared before I could catch a photo of it.
These are some sunrise pictures that are oversaturated because they were taken with my phone.
These are the rocks and spikey fish.
Our guide stopped to help these people push their boat to the water with a vehicle.
The next day, we stopped again at a supermarket, just a few minutes away from the supermarket we stopped at a day before. This one, however, was part of a giant store, not too unlike a Walmart. It had everything from pots and pans to toys and food. Our only other stop was to the Bimmah Sinkhole. What was surprising was that there were no signs for it on the highway. It was tucked away within the Hawiyat Najm Park. It was free to enter, and after a short walk, we came upon the circular sinkhole, with a staircase down to a beautiful swimming area.
Just ten minutes away was the exit to head towards our hotel, inside the Alarbeieen Wadi. The paved road eventually turned into a mountainous dirt road. The resort sent me directions with pictures via Whatsapp. It was fairly easy to get to. We had to take a final small descent to the bottom of the wadi area.
About an hour after we had checked in, we received a knock on the door. The weather promised rain, and they worried about flooding as the water would run down the mountains. We drove back up the hill and parked in a dirt parking lot at the top. After I had walked back to the hotel, the owner walked over and introduced himself and pled with me to sit and drink coffee under a small covering. An elderly couple from Austria sat down and we ended up chatting for two hours. It ended up pouring, so after the cover was no longer working well, we moved to a community room just inside.
By the time the conversation was over, it was too late to walk into the wadi before it would get dark. The next morning, I woke up before 7:00, and went for a walk. Unfortunately, like is often the case, there was a lot of pollution in the area. The typical empty water bottles were strewn about the landscape, but a garbage bag hung in a tall bush highlighted the problem even further.
After about fifteen minutes of walking, the path ended up flooded, with no way around. I begrudgingly turned around. On the way back, I looked down and saw a long, thin snake neck poking out of the water. I took a few steps back, took out my camera, and tip toed back, but it was gone. I crouched down and waited, hoping that it would reappear. It never stuck its head out of the water again. A tiny, tiny piece of debris floated near the snake, and it ducked back down. Shortly after, it quickly swam away.
We waited until the 11 AM checkout time before leaving. Our flight is at 2:45 AM, the next morning. Our only agenda was to have the car washed and then drive to the airport. Luckily, for some reason one of the hotel workers was using a hose to clean all of the hotel guests' cars. He was going to do mine anyway, but I told him I'd pay him to do it. I gave him a nice tip, which he seemed unhappy to accept.
We began driving, passing some local donkeys, and it was easy at first. The landscape became slightly unfamiliar. The gps, however, said we were on the right path. We went over a rocky bump and down a very, very rocky decline. At the bottom, things did not look right, so I got out of the car and looked around. I decided to turn around. I turned on the four wheel drive, but the steep climb and abundance of rocks stalled out the car multiple times. Miles offered to go out of the car and guide me, which proved to be the solution. Despite a very bouncy and unsteady climb, we got out. We decided that perhaps the right way was to the right, which was along a more paved dirt road. This, was wrong. After a while, we were unsure again, and the roads looked poor. Just to our side was a very tiny village of maybe five buildings. I decided to stop and ask for directions.
I got out of the car and spotted an elderly woman and young child. I approached her and said, "Najda!" in arabic. She shooed the small boy beyond the gate to her house and closed the gate behind her. Then, she took a few steps up on the staircase that went above the wall, and spoke downwards at me. She did not know English, and simply pointed back in the direction we came. I thanked her and returned to my car.
I began driving back where we came and quickly passed another car. I stopped and rolled down my window. There was a young family that did not speak English, and the best they could do, when I showed them a map and where I needed to go, was again to point back in the direction I was already going. Shortly after, a truck approached us. This was miraculous, because in our drive to the hotel we encountered noone on the road, and after we departed we saw no one either. This person spoke English very well and offered for us to follow him. He turned around and we followed him. It turned out that we passed a sign that was perpendicular to us, and so I did not catch it. I had missed the turn here. After that, the path was effortless.
Once back on the main highway, we eventually encountered this radar installation.
The rest of the drive was uneventful. We returned the rental car without issue. It was about 1:30. The website for Oman Air stated that you could drop off your bags within twelve hours of your flight. The bag drop line was empty, so I decided to see what I could do. The woman made a quick phone call and approved us. We walked toward security, but when we tried to scan our boarding pass, it said that we were too early. The woman there directed us back to the Oman Air desk.
There is a hotel inside Muscat Airport, past immigration and security. One booking is good for either six or twelve hours, with two different costs. I had planned to book it right as we arrived at it. The Oman Air desk told me that if I showed proof of booking, they could let me in early. I booked it on my phone and they bypassed the machines to let us in.
Immigration was a breeze with no line and so was security. What was interesting about security was that they allowed us to bring two massive bottles of water and didn't require us to take out any electronics, including laptops. The hotel room is absolutely luxurious with a desk, couch, and bed. The best part about it was that it includes two meals, which for us was lunch and dinner. An amazing buffet with a ton of variety was available for both meals, with a different selection each time. Also, there was only a single other person dining when we went to them. We now await our flight.
After breakfast the next morning, I pushed Miles to join the others to go milk the goats. I had him go on his own because I felt that he would just cling to me and be grumpy if I came along. Twenty minutes later, he came running back, having raced the camp owner from the goats. One of the couples took pictures of Miles, and took my info down, but I have yet to receive anything from them. He tried milking a goat and learned to write his name in Arabic, in the sand.
I spent the day doing yoga in the community room, playing handheld games, and just relaxing. An hour before sunset, we spent an hour being driven around the dunes in a vehicle by the owner's son who had run the campfire chat the night before.
At one point, he let me out of the car so I could film him driving Miles around in the front seat.
While we drove back, I asked him if the men in Oman played videogames. He answered that it did, and so do women. He explained that his sister was much, much better than him at Fortnite. As we neared the camp, he asked if we would be interested in having him drift. He swerved the car harshly back and forth. I took out my camera, and he did some much lesser ones as we pulled up to the site.
That night was the busiest, with 2 couples and an extended family attending. The owner himself hosted the campfire chat. When he opened it up to questions, I took the opportunity to ask a few.
I asked him how he felt about the younger generation moving to the city and leaving the Bedouin life. He responded that he is happy that he was of the generation that was able to experience the old ways and the old life as well as modern life. He does not believe that the Bedouin life will last much longer.
I asked him about how call to prayers used to be handled before the loudspeakers and I also asked him what he thought of the loudspeakers. I do not believe he fully understand the second part of the question. To answer the first, he explained that they would use people with powerful voices to literally yell out calls to prayer.
He talked at length about how laws are needed to protect the desert from people driving in on quads, making a racket, and leaving pollution everywhere. He told a story about such an incident, where loud music and quads had scared his pregnant camel so much that it lost its pregnancy. He tried calling the police but the said that as long as no one was trying to literally run down the camel, there was nothing they would do. He explained that government bureaucrats are out of touch with how the people in the desert live, and they do not care.
Finally, I asked about the rabbits in the camp, and he said that he brought in the rabbits for one of his daughters, and now they live in the camp.
The next day at breakfast, after Miles had returned to the room, the owner approached me. He mentioned that since I was staying for three nights, perhaps I would like to drive out with him in the desert to look for his pregnant camel, for two to three hours. Most visitors only stay one night, so I think he was trying to do a bit extra, in order to show his appreciation. I asked when he had in mind, and he said immediately. I jumped at the chance. I returned to the room to ask Miles to join me but I could not get him to gain any enthusiasm for the idea.
We jumped into his vehicle and took off, deeper in the desert. I brought two cameras, but did not want to ask him to stop for me to take photos, so many of my photos were taken with my phone, through the open window. We were on the lookout for his pregnant white camel, as well as his second camel, who was also white. He told me that he received notice from friends deeper in the desert that his camel had been seen nearby, so we were going to scout around that area.
Along the way, he pointed out different projects being built, such as other camps, and showed me a well that was constructed, to give the wandering animals a place to drink.
We came across a camel and its young, still partially stuck in a post birth sack. He declared that the camel was one year old. I asked permission to take out my camera and took a bunch of pictures, along with one video.
We drove over the dunes into the valley adjacent. I asked him if the entire Empty Quarter(name for the entire desert area) was structured in alternating valleys and dunes. He said it was. I also learned that each set of Dunes had its own name, and if a car were to break down, this would help identify to a rescuing party where to go.
I shared the story of Miles and I, and in return, he shared that he was twice divorced, but once was only for an hour.
Eventually, we found his pregnant camel, who was no longer pregnant. The baby was two weeks old and walking confidently. We stepped out of the vehicle. He examined both camels and fed dates to the mother. I asked him at what age the baby could be given dates. I didn't write down the answer, but I believe it to be after a few months. I took the opportunity to take photos and a video.
Feeding dates.
We continued in search of the second camel, driving towards the camp, but in this neighboring valley. There was much more vegetation in this valley, with some small trees that were growing along the ground. He said that if it had rained more, they would have grown into proper trees.
That afternoon I returned to my routine of stretching/yoga, following by gaming. There were portions of extreme winds, when the sand was being whipped around outside.
That evening we scheduled a camel ride just before sunset. We were picked up by a local man who had walked over his camels. I guess I never quite realized just how tall camels actually are. When they get up, you get quite a jolt upward. Camels can hold about half of their weight, which can be 300kg(660 pounds). We walked down the valley and then up into the dunes. The wind was so strong that we quickly turned and went back to the calmness of the valley.
That night there was only two other guests in the camp, a mother and her University aged daughter. The son narrated the campfire talk. I asked him whether coffee or tea came first/was more important to Oman. His answer was that if you have guests over and don't have tea, it isn't a great thing, but if you don't have coffee, it is a much, much worse offense. I asked if Omani coffee was ever had with milk or sugar. He said that milk is never used but that dates are often eaten with coffee, which would be a sugary equivalent. I asked him where Arabian horses could be found and if any were in the wild. He said that mostly only rich people and the Sultan had access to the horses, and that none were in the wild. He went on to explain that the much beloved old sultan had died of disease and the people are still getting a handle on the new one.
The next morning I wanted to visit the goats with Miles. He reluctantly came. Neither of us wanted to milk the goats, but Miles agreed to feed a baby by bottle for a short time.
We left late in the morning, for the Ras Al Jinz Turtle Reserve.
