We chose a
secluded location at the far end of the beach and took a
quick dip in the sea which reminded us that there was a thoughtless and
inconsiderate tanker who cleaned its tanks in the water off the beach and Barry, Neil and Nicky got black, sticky oil on the bottoms of their
feet. We had to change locations of the tents three times due to the
wind. After our tents were almost blown up the
mountain, we weighed them down with large rocks. Sitting around the fire in our
bathing suits we ate our
hot dinner, drank
cold beer and soon were bracing ourselves for walls of sand. What was supposed to be a cool and refreshing breeze coming off the water ended up being an
merciless, warm wind carrying beach sand along the side of the mountain and
pummelling us approximately once every 10 minutes. We would first
hear the sound of billions of grains of sand being carried along the side of the mountain and then looking up you could
see it coming our way. The sand was sticking to every inch of us and all we could do was hold our breath and
cover our faces until it passed. We decided to take cover in our tents. Between attacks I was brushing the sand off my feet before getting into the tent and Barry yelled “
Get in, get in! It’s coming!” I lunged into the tent and
quickly reached for the zipper which was supposed to stop any chance of sand getting in. I soon discovered the tent was not the
sand-free sanctuary I thought it was. The humidity was off the charts and because of the heat Barry and I laid on the
air mattress in such a way that no part of our skin was touching and as we laid there we wished to fall asleep before the
next wall of sand.
After not having much sleep the night before, we dragged ourselves out of the tent and into the sea to get the sand off of our bodies and cool off. After breakfast we packed up as quickly as possible before we lost the shade from the mountain. We made our way into a hotel bathroom where Nicky washed the oil off her feet and then headed to Wadi Bih. This trip was supposed to involve a hike called the Jungle Book Hike but we opted to continue to drive and sightsee from the inside of the cool Pajero. Who knew goats could climb trees? After successfully convincing the machine gun carrying Omani border guard that we should be allowed through the gate, we were turned away at the UAE gate which meant we had to go back where we came from. Having to make some last minute changes to our trip, we stopped to lunch on the beach under the largest palm tree we could find and consulted the off-road book which detailed many other options for the night. 
