The Rub al Khali desert (the Empty Quarter) is the biggest desert of this Omani and Saudi part of the Middle East.
We drive 7 days in and along this enormous desert. Sometimes boring straight kilometers, but mostly interesting and diverse landscapes of colors, dunes, mountains and plains.
More details of our travels, a day by day report, on Sonja’s Polarsteps.
We start in the eastern Omani desert.
During our earlier visit to the Rub al Khali in April, we got a first impression of this impressive desert.
Now we start from Ibri in Oman and enter the vast desert from the east.
Our route through the Empty Quarter.
The desert indeed is large and the tarmac road is boring. Although this side of the border we get a little distraction from the oil fields.
We find a nice and quiet place to camp, some distance from the highway.
The next morning we wake up in a small world. This is one of the rare mornings when the desert is covered in fog.
Border crossing Oman-Saudi Arabia
The border crossing is reasonably smooth. Exiting Oman takes us only 30 minutes, check and exit-stamp our passports, stamp the Carnet de Passages document and that’s it.
The Saudi Arabia border takes a bit longer. We already have our e-visa, online via www.visitsaudi.com. The visa includes the mandatory health insurance. That part is easy. Once we cross the first barrier we have to open our car, a lot of our belongings are taken out.
Then we have to drive Milady to the X-ray. Nothing is found, of course, but this takes time.
The last stop is the insurance boot. We have to take a compulsory road insurance for Milady, 3 months for 420 SAR.
Finally, after 1.5 hours, we can continue our journey.
The Empty Quarter of Saudi Arabia
During our travels we are warned by different road signs. Luckily, in this part of Saudi, most signs are translated.
The road is sometimes boring, but we are distracted by the landscapes, the colors of the dunes and the occasional camel.
We progress steadily towards the northern border of the desert and find nice camping spots with some shade near the main road.
We are happy we filled up our fuel tank and both 20 liter canisters prior to entering the desert. The fuel stations we find aren’t always operational.
The Ibex Natural Reserve
Little known to the traveler is the Ibex Natural Reserve. This gem along Route 10 from Riyadh to the south is really worth a visit. Sonja found it on Google as one of the Green List parks of Saudi Arabia.
After hours of driving through the desert we arrive and are welcomed by Mushari, one of the rangers of the reserve. We are told that we can only visit the reserve with a ‘permit’, which can be obtained online. Unfortunately, the English version leaves much to be desired, but fortunately Mushari arranges the permit in Arabic. Because it is already almost five o’clock, we decide to spend the night at the ranger post and visit the reserve early tomorrow morning.
Together with Hussein we go in search of gazelles, ibexes and other game. After 2 hours of searching, we finally see 2 gazelles and a water scorpion. Well, in nature you always have to wait and see which animals show up. Today they clearly don’t feel like it. Still, the reserve is worth it just for the nature!
Mount al Makhrooq
Mushari advised us not to skip Mount al Makhrooq, the Natural Arch of Riyadh, at the north-western edge of the Ibex Reserve.
A very unique and quiet spot to camp. The pictures tell the story.
Uruq Bani Ma’arid National Park
At the very south-western border of the Rub al Khali, we find the Uruq Bani Ma’arid National Park.
We wanted to camp here and visit the Natural Park. We were received by the ranger manager who advised us to send an email (cpet@ncw.gov.sa, m.alrajhi@ncw.gov.sa, f.aldosari@ncw.gov.sa) for permission to camp and to book a tour.
Ranger Mohammed brought us with his Toyota FJ Cruiser to the camping spot in the middle of the desert. Then he took us on a tour of over 2 hours through the Rub Al Khali (the empty quarter) desert. We saw 2 gazelles and countless tracks of other animals. Mohammed also took us deep into the desert over steep dunes and vast plains, a real adventure.
The night was wonderfully quiet with moonlight and millions of stars.
