What do these three things have in common? Not a lot you would think but they did. Lined up on the quay were 9 gleaming white Toyota Land Cruisers with drivers dressed in long robes (Most of whom turned out to be ‘boy racers’! , but more of that later – and we were invited to split into groups of four for each vehicle. Since we were going to be together in this vehicle for over 10 hours I thought it would be a good idea to introduce myself to my co-adventurers and swapped names and home locations as you do. There was a gasp when I mentioned Pluckley to the couple sitting next to me who explained that they had spent much of their youth in the Blackhorse Pub, my local! Clearly this was some years before I moved to Pluckley but what a small world!
Chris and Barbie, who both originally lived in Maidstone, have become great friends since and we have shared some interesting and fun times on other tours.
We set off at great speed in convoy with a lead and backup experienced drivers – who constantly moved up and down the convoy urging the drivers to greater speed! At this time of course we had no idea how far we had to travel and on a tight time schedule! It also quickly became clear that our young driver had not driven a 4x4 before and was having some difficulty finding the gears. Having said that although he had a lot of trouble on the dunes he did get us there and back safely in some of the fastest traffic I have ever driven in!
Well it didn’t quite turn out to be a road to eternal damnation you will be pleased to hear. Instead it proved to be a 150-kilometre construction project named the Bid Bid “Dualization Scheme”. Bid Bid was he only major town (Possibly a city) about half-way to the Wahabi Sands and although it seemed like a perfectly good road it appeared that the Omani Government is building a 10 lane dual carriageway through the desert such were the extent of the roadworks!
The photo is our first sighting of the red and golden Wahabi Sands.
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