Safah, so good.

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We've got some work over in Oman and I needed to see the client on site as well as our agent in Muscat so I had a bit of a road trip on my hands.

It's only about 210km from Abu Dhabi to the Oman border just past Al Ain, and then head south east another 130 to the town of Ibri. Once there you have to head West for another 130km to the Safah Oil Field.

Due to security reasons you are not allowed to take any photos, in fact I'm not even supposed to describe the scenery, so I'm sticking my neck out putting this in writing. As you look out across to the Safa Oil Field you can see sand, rocks, a few scabby little bushes that have been chewed at by wild goats, more sand, some more rocks and even more sand and sand. Technically it is in the Empty Quarter, a name imaginative yet accurate. A place so barren and bereft of life it makes Norfolk seem interesting.

The last 90km of the way to the field is on dirt road, or "Gatch" as they call it here, gatch being the Arabic word for "shaking your fillings out". The surface varies from compacted hard sand which is like bumpy concrete, a corrugated surface that shakes your fillings out through to just sand and rocks where the has desert has reclaimed it. There are strict yet sensible rules to be adhered to before you are allowed to go up there. You need to file a travel plan so that if you don't turn up after a set period of time they come and look for you and so on.

While the image of a big 4X4 thrashing across the desert, dust plume 50 feet high billowing behind it a la Paris/Dakar Rally style into the seeming infinity of the tundra seems like a romantic and exciting image (well, to me) the reality is somewhat different. It's a bit like having a wank over the lingerie section of a Freemans catalogue. It seems like a good idea and the first couple of minutes is OK, but an hour later you really have had enough.

Arriving at the plant is a bit like pulling into Mos Eisley, a few sand troopers on dewbacks would not look out of place. The Camp Boss (job description, I am not saying he was even a bit camp) cheerily warned me to check my room for scorpions and snakes, seriously, although he said no body had died from a bite "for a long time".

The food in the canteen was good, but due to fighting the bar was closed about eight years ago, so apart from bugger all, there's nothing to do at night, you can only spend so much time checking your room for scorpions and snakes.

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Photos

Empty Quarter
I had about a hundred miles of this, then the road ran out.

This is how big books were...
...when they first came out.