AL KHALUF
At around 14.00 we leave the pink lakes of Al Ashkharah. We drive as fast as we can, trying to get to the village of Al Khaluf as soon as possible. Here, Omar is waiting for us. He is the driver who, for 45 OMR (56 Eu each) will take us to the Sugar Dunes . Unfortunately we arrive a little late, around 15.30, and we have very little time left.
In order to speed things up, we ate our lunch in the car, taking turns in driving.
We first visit a kind of cave, in my opinion nothing special. The prettiest thing about the place is the pink sand, made up of millions of micro-shells.
The white dunes reach arrive directly to the sea. They are not exactly perfectly white like sugar, but rather tend to light grey. It is better to visit them at dawn and dusk, when they are enlightened by the warm rays of the sun. It is not a place for 2WD saloon cars. Our driver with a huge 4WD Toyota Hilux still has to stop to deflate the tires to be able to climb from the beach to the dunes. Even simply driving along the shoreline is impossible with a normal vehicle, you will get stuck in the sand for sure, and in any case you need to check out tides times first, not to get isolated.
Our driver waits for us on the beach while we happily trot along the light sand, deeply breathing in the sea breeze.
Many people come here with tents and stay overnight. Camping is free, but there are no facilities or water, and you have to bring everything. A guide found on Facebook sent me a quotation of 250 OMR (125 each, that’s to say 313 Eu!!), for an excursion by car from Al Khaluf village, with tent, dinner and breakfast on the dunes. Honestly, it seemed like a rip off to me, and in fact I declined. For our trip, as already said, we paid 45 OMR for two (56 Eu each).
The village of Al Khaluf seemed very nice, small, and far from the tourist routes (everyone goes to the dunes bypassing it). On Booking and other search engines there are no accommodation options, but looking on Google Maps I spotted a couple of hotels, in case anyone without a tent wants to make a stop for the night.