A trip to see the Arabian Oryx
Whenever friends or family come to visit me while living abroad, if possible I always try to do something special while they are with me. When my mum told me that she was coming to see me in Oman, I immediately starting thinking about what the options would be for a memorable holiday. It was while chatting with one of my Omani friends in the bar of the Intercon Hotel, that a rather original idea came up. He told me about The Oryx Project, situated in the middle of the desert in Southern Oman. I was told that in the 1970s and 80s, a beautiful antelope whose natural habitat was the Arabian desert, stretching across at least three countries (Oman, the Emirates and Saudi Arabia) had been hunted by local tribesmen virtually to extinction: the only remaining oryx were living in zoos in various parts of the world. Someone had the excellent idea of bringing the last remaining animals together in a safe place in an attempt to save the species from being totally wiped out*2. This was done in the desert in California, and the endeavour was a success. The animals started breeding and a new herd was established. After several years the project had been so successful that the decision was made to try to reintroduce the oryx back into its natural habitat, and the place chosen for this was an area roughly*3 between Salalah in the south of Oman and Nizwa in the mountains in the north. But how was the government going to stop the local tribesmen from returning to their old habits of hunting down these docile creatures for either sport or food? The idea they came up with was genial*4. The tribal leaders were brought together and a representative of the Sultan put forward the following proposal: From now on, you aren't allowed to hunt the oryx.... BUT.... if you find any human being attempting to hunt this animal in your territorial areas, you have government permission to hunt down and kill the hunters!!!! Of course, it's much more fun hunting armed humans, than boring animals, so within a very short time the Arabian Oryx was one of best protected wild animals in the world.
Before making the trip I needed to get the appropiate documents from the Ministry of the Environment, and invite a group of friends to make up a convoy which would make the trip both safer and more worthwhile to those running the project. Our group consisted of eight people (Viv & his mum, Carol with her partner and a friend of theirs, John, his wife* and Edward and Sally) in three cars (a Range Rover, Mitsibushi Pajero & Viv's Lada Niva).
The plan was the following: Convoy meets and a prearranged location outside Muscat, then covers just over three quarters of the distance to our destination (about 500km - it would be a round trip of around 1,200km in all). One night spent in one of the government run motels on the daunting Salalah Road (according to an internet entry: average of 200 accidents per week, with 200 fatal road accidents per month in 2005. One reason for so many deaths is that when driving at high speed at night, it's easy to run into a camel, and if one of these flies through your windscreen at 120mph, you can forget about hospital bills). Arrive at the Oryx Project at midday. Camp that night in the desert. Return to Muscat the following day in one go.
Everything went like clockwork. We all arrived at the rendezous within 15 minutes of each other and the drive to our first watering hole went without incident.It was dark when we arrived at the motel which, from my two previous solo trips to Salalah, I had come to look on in the same way a desert traveller sees an oasis. I always found these little outposts (I think there are four of them) clean, comfortable and very welcome, sometimes after a 10 hour drive alone on an unlit road which goes for hours in a straight line. We were all pretty tired by the time we got there, so after a bite to eat and a quick beer, everyone retired to their rooms to get some sleep.
The next morning we were all up bright and early for breakfast. Just before hitting the road again, a local Omani family with their kids were in the motel car park. Mum and I went over to ask the parents if it was ok if we took a photo of them, and the mother put her hand out, I'd imagine that she was expecting to receive some financial compensation. She directed her hand in mum's direction and was rewarded by an apple which mum had left over after breakfast (you can see the apple in the boy's hand in the photo)!
Photo op. over, it was time to complete the last stage of our outward bound journey. This involved heading further down the Salalaha Road, then taking a left on a track*5 across the desert. Reforced by directions from petrol stations en route, we located the turning and after a while met Roddy, the Oryx Project Warden in his desert brown Land Cruiser at the prearranged meeting point.
Roddy, a very intelligent and interesting character, took an immediate shine to my mum, probably because I'd imagine that it had been many a year since a woman of his own age and nationality had visited the project
After introductions had been made, Roddy decided that we only needed two cars for our peaceful oryx hunt, "Let's take my car and the little one", he said, pointing at my Lada! As a result, we redistrubuted ourselves between both cars and set off in search of our objective. We stopped a couple of times for Roddy to get out, clamber up onto his Land Cruiser and search the horizon for the oryx.
The first sign of life in the immense plain was a small group of gazelle, and then, soon after we found the herd of oryx and very slowly were able to get close enough to observe them in their full beauty.
After we had seen as much as we wanted of the oryx, Roddie took us to one of the few vantage points in the area, offering a view across the desert - and also a nice spot to take photos.
It was late afternoon when we drove back to the other cars, and then to the Project Centre (Roddie's house). It was time to pitch*6 our tents, cook the evening meal (see the photos of the expedition members in the second paragraph), and enjoy a cool beer before bedding down for the night.
The next morning, after breaking camp, we were all invited to Roddie's house for Arabic coffee before the long haul back to Muscat. On the way back, we decided to take a short cut across the desert instead of following the road we'd taken to get to the project. During this rush across the desert we had to stop once when the Range Rover got a flat tyre. After returning to the blacktop again, we passed what I was later told was possibly Sultan Quaboos' camp. Although the Sultan of Oman, like the Queen of England, is not democratically elected, every year he leaves the Royal Palace in Muscat to tour the country, meeting local leaders and hearing their views.
We all arrived home safely late on the last day; tired, but certain that it had been a long weekend very well spent.
* Sorry but I can't remember everyone's names.
*2 Phrasal verb
*3 = approximately
*4 Adj - entry 3
*5 Noun - entry 1 (second group)
*6 Transitive verb (v.tr2) - entry 3
