29.11. Manizifat, Sharqiya sands

First stop today is the abandoned village of Manizifat near the town of Ibra, we are here early so we have it to ourselves. The inhabitants left the village after 1990, when they received a better opportunity to live from Sultan Qaboos, the old mud houses are falling apart due to the rains, and it was easier to build new dwellings next to it than to repair the old ones. Until today, only a few old people remained here who did not want to move anymore, new people are not allowed to move here anymore. There are crumbling mud houses in the village, which we could climb at will, there were still stairs left, but most of the floors had already fallen. In one repaired house there is a museum, where we could see how such a traditional Omani house was furnished. The guide told us about the history of Oman and this village. 18 families lived here, the whole village was surrounded by walls, in which there were 7 gates, which were closed every evening. At each gate there was a mosque and a school to which children from the surrounding villages commuted. After the tour, we drive through narrow streets to the next, also defunct village, where there is a functioning mosque and an old marketplace.

Before the trip, we continue to replenish supplies and water, we enter the desert according to the map near the town of Al Mintirib. Guides who want to accompany us cling to us. It took a lot of work to shake off the other, he convinced us how difficult it was, but we prefer to discover on our own and at our own pace. We are going according to mapy.cz to the place where the 1000 nights camp is and we will see each other then. In this desert, there are longitudinal dunes from north to south, between which you can easily drive on hard sand. We pass several tourist camps surrounded by a high wall and suddenly we see other cars crossing the dune to the next valley, we watch where they are going for a while and then we follow them, there is even a sign for 1000 nights. Yes, and then we can't do it! The road is clear, paved, the car handles it well. At one point we take a wrong turn and go to a Bedouin's house, but in a moment we are back on the right track. We pass the 1000 nights camp and in front of us the road climbs to the dune again, we also go up, a Bedouin lives here again, but a little further on there is a nice place, there are several blown-out bonfires, tourists are obviously also brought here, but today there is no one, not even here not much trash either.

So we choose a flat place for tents. The children are going to play in the dunes, Ota is setting up the tents himself today and I am running to take advantage of the last bit of sunshine to take pictures. When we have everything done and almost cooked, at six o'clock with dusk, a strong wind comes up and destroys nothing. We hardly even have time to set up our tents. We quickly pack everything and anchor the tents alternatively. We still have sand in everything. The children crawl into the tent and have dinner inside. The wind died down almost by midnight, so we got some sleep. The only thing that disturbed me was the lizards, which were looking at the tents according to the tracks, but when I looked out of the tent, I never saw any. (And in the morning I had a slipper bitten by small teeth).