Two for the road

We had the ultimate Dubai lifestyle. Martin and I lived five minutes from the sea, we both earned good salaries, had great friends, family and jobs. But that was last week.

This week we are driving in a Nissan Xterra from Dubai through Oman and all the way to Cape Town, down the east coast of Africa. We have a pop-up tent on the roof and every technical piece of equipment imaginable: JVC and Canon cameras, Apple Macbooks and Sennheiser radio mikes. We decided life was getting too comfortable, so we're driving back to our home continent and filming the whole thing as a kind of reality TV series we are calling "Arabia to Africa". We're also filming orphanages throughout East Africa and Aids orphans in Zimbabwe.

 Day 1

We headed to Oman first. The only problem is that because we are travelling through multiple countries, we had to get a yellow booklet full of tear-off pieces called a triptique. This every customs post in each country must stamp as we enter and exit, so we don't have to pay duty on the Xterra. Sounds easy enough. So we arrived at Oman customs and they had no idea what a triptique was and refused to stamp it. After much-broken English and confused looks, we found an Omani official who knew his stuff, stamped our triptique and waved us on our way. We had arrived in Oman!

After driving for what seemed like eternity, we pulled into Muscat and headed to the Oman dive centre, where our guidebook had told us we could park our car and camp. No such luck. The Omani guard pointed us off into the distance, with the promise of a campsite on the beach. But he neglected to tell us there had been a recent rock fall and all temporary roads were gravel and that there were no signposts and no campsite. So after a couple of hours of driving around in the dark, we found a dirty beach and set up camp.

Our first night was shambolic, we had packed the Xterra all wrong and everything we needed for cooking, sleeping and our toiletries were at the bottom. Hot and bothered, we fell into a restless, sweaty half-sleep to the sound of waves lapping and fishermen chatting nearby.

 Day 2

We woke up at 6am and set off to explore the area. The Omani people are the friendliest we've encountered — they are helpful, polite and curious and want nothing in return. As we were searching for a prettier beach to set up camp for our second night, we saw four local boys wearing sunglasses and scarves wrapped around their mouths and noses, driving a black 4x4 through the dunes near Muscat. We decided to follow. What we had neglected to think about was the fact that our car was heavy. Five minutes into the sand, we had three fourths of one side of the car stuck in a dune. Then the black 4x4 came over the dune and like knights in Omani armour, attached a tow rope to our car and hoisted us out. Then they offered to show us around the area. They became our guides for four hours and led us through quaint little townships and villages, full of goats, camels and barefoot Omani children smiling and waving us on our way. As the boys left, they pointed out spots on the map we should check out on the way to Salalah.

After a much-better second night, we set off towards Ras Al Jinz, the best place to see turtles come to the beach to lay eggs.

 Day 3

The turtle sanctuary in Ras Al Jinz is a protected site, as decreed by Sultan Qaboos. It is a temporary home to hundreds of green turtles which travel from as far as Somalia and the Maldives to lay eggs on this beach every three years. Each green turtle will drag itself on to this shore because the monsoons in Sri Lanka and India push the larger waves to this shoreline, creating a massive amount of wet sand, which the mothers find easier to dig their nests into without the sand falling back into the hole. Each turtle will lay about 100 eggs per nest but out of 1,000 hatchlings, only one or two will escape predators to survive till adulthood. It's a beautiful but depressing site.

We booked a tour and woke up at 3am and followed our guide, Nasser, to the sands to scout out which turtles were nesting. Only the guide is allowed a flashlight and no photography is allowed, as it can blind the mothers. It is imperative to not disturb the turtles because if they are frightened they return to the sea and die if unable to lay eggs within two nights. We sat on the sand and waited till our guide called us towards a mother covering up her eggs with her front flippers. After this amazing sight, we were hurried to another point, where hatchlings were emerging from the sand beneath our feet. As we watched, they begin to clumsily flap their way towards the waves, looking more like tiny black crabs than turtles. We stayed there till the Sun rose. For Dh30 per person, it is a life-changing experience.

DAY 4

The next day, armed with stunning sunrise shots and film footage for the show, we drove through terrain that changed from a beach with massive waves to yellow, untouched sand dunes and past white salt plains where workers raked the condiment into large mounds for harvest, as we continued on the 800km drive to Salalah.

The terrain on the way to Salalah is hypnotic. Once you have reached the Empty Quarter the roads become flat. Be careful, though, as every now and then a huge lorry rushes past you, threatening to drive you off the road. Then as you enter the Salalah area the topography changes from dull, flat sand to lush green tropics in the space of five minutes.

Crowning glory

Salalah is beautiful. Palm trees, pristine white beaches and lots of waves! We arrived at 8am and made our way to the Crowne Plaza for a refreshment.

We got chatting with a friendly Omani waiter, who suggested we speak to the manager and see if we could stay at the hotel for the night. So I am writing this from our sea-facing free hotel room at the Crown Plaza Salalah.

Our journey has officially begun. After a shambolic start, we are getting better at setting up camp. Day 1 took us over an hour and now on Day 5, it's taking us all of ten minutes. By the end of this trip I reckon we'll be experts!

If you want to follow our adventures check out our blog coming soon to Gulf News online...