The desert is silent, except for the low hum of a gentle breeze. The setting sun is melting slowly into the horizon, turning the sand beneath me from a fiery orange into a honeyed gold colour. It is smooth and still, except for the footprints I’ve just made, cascading down the dune like silk.
I’m sitting cross-legged on top of a large sand dune in Sharqiya Sands (known until recently as Wahiba Sands), a vast desert in eastern Oman, and I’m struck by how peaceful and untouched it is. In fact, throughout my time in Oman – a five day-long adventure zig-zagging through jagged mountains, trekking to ancient villages and swimming in bright blue waters – this feeling rarely leaves.
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It’s unsurprising, considering Oman is still relatively undiscovered as a tourist destination. British tourists flock en masse to its glitzy UAE neighbours, but this corner of the Arabian peninsula receives decidedly less airtime.
But Oman’s increasing hospitality offering signals this may be starting to change. In Sharqiya Sands, luxury tented camps are dotted along the sand, including Desert Nights Camp where I return to after watching the sunset. Here, evenings are spent gazing in wonder at the star-blanketed sky while enjoying a traditional Bedouin feast of shuwa (marinated meats slow-cooked in an underground fire pit), grilled vegetables and fragrant rice, before returning to a tent so plush that to call it ‘camping’ feels insincere. During the day, activities include camel riding, dune bashing, quad bike riding and sandboarding.
So vast and varied is the Omani landscape that the desert only forms a small chapter of my trip. In the north, the Jebel Akhdar mountains are home to the highest peaks in the Gulf, and the ancient villages carved into its steep limestone crags remain unchanged. The best way to see them is on the Three Village Hike, which takes my group and I on a three-hour loop through the remote settlements of Al Aqur, Al Ayn, and Al Sharega.
We tip-toe along the raised edges of long, narrow streams known as falaj, Oman’s ancient irrigation system used to distribute water to the surrounding villages and crops. Soon, the air is rich with the heady scent of damask rose, as the magenta pink bushes of Al Aqur bloom into sight. The verdant shrubs, punctuated along the rocky terrain, give Jebel Akhdar its nickname of ‘the green mountain’, and its delicate petals are plucked to make the country’s famous rose water, used in perfumery, cooking and medicine.