In Oman in the Wahiba Sands, stars and sand
I did not think so little time would have passed since the first night in the desert. In Jordan it was nice to spend the night in a tent for the first time , here in Oman I spent my second night. The Safari Desert Camp , where I was this time, was less Spartan, with a bathroom for every room and a mosquito net on each bed. A well-appointed room, even if with the essentials, but unlike the first time without electricity and without a minimum of field for mobile phone, not that I was sorry too much, once a year can also be done.
It did not happen to me for a long time to laugh like that, really sickly . The bathroom of our room, mine and my travel companion in this adventure was completely open (as well as all the other bathrooms). Closed yes, but above it had no roof. On a Tuesday night evening, when the light goes down at 7pm and you feel like it's down by 11pm for the dark, we started our evening.
You can hear a few noises here in the desert if you think about it. You have to concentrate because you have to separate the noise of the few cars in the camp with those of the wind that caresses the dunes, the voices of those who work from those of animals, which are everywhere.
Who says that in the desert there is silence, perhaps there has never been , or did not listen well. The desert is an emotion with a voice. Walking barefoot on the dunes, yes I know it's not done, it has enchanted me. Incredible to understand how such a banal gesture can convey all those feelings, a caress for the foot, as they have defined it, and it is true. The colors of this desert are very different from those of Wadi Rum that I saw in July. Here the sand seems much more red, sometimes orange, not to mention the consistency, at Wadi Rum the desert was rocky, here is soft and the Bedouins jump on it and chase and make the fight even if it were a mattress. The stars seen from a mattress thrown on the ground are very bright, it seems that you spend your life in front of you while you look at the stars and no wind, everyone laughs and smiles, no one screams, everything is so intense.
I saw bedouins walking at six in the morning on the sand, a red dot in the distance approaching me until I was able to distinguish his mask, put to protect himself from the sun. It did not even occur to me for a moment to photograph it, not to violate its culture, but because out of our world made of images there is this world that has only the present to live and often beauty can not be captured up to this point. We might as well admire it and let it go.
In the desert I saw the traces of the snakes. Do you know how the traces of snakes are? Have you ever seen them? Have you ever walked on it? I had my face full of sand for a whole day and the more I washed and more came back. Sand is everywhere here and it's impossible not to have it on. The night in the desert flows quickly . There is no alarm except the natural one, if not the one we give ourselves to see the dawn, but at the first light of day it is natural to stand up, it is incredible and I noticed it even in the most sleepy days, it is nature that who loves.
Outside the Camp the dromedaries await the Bedouins, they let themselves be approached, they are all females, they let themselves be watched and photographed, they are strong animals. Leaving the campsite you realize that you are 30km from the last city , the last gas station and the last coffee, but you do not care. Anything here could be fatal, a snake or a scorpion would not get you alive in the city, but you know it, your body knows it and your spirit of survival. Here the animals are not tamed, they do not reach where there is a man and you do not defy nature, you observe it, you follow it and you appreciate it.
The desert left me for the second time in a few months life, beautiful conversations, magic and energy. We reconnect with the desert world , it's a bit 'when you put something in charge after buying it for the first use, here it is, it is a complete recharge.
I write from my bungalow , I put a chair outside my little house, I started writing looking at the sand and everything came very easy. I set myself up here at half past five in the morning because the sunrise had already risen and it was too beautiful this view to stay in bed. This is the desert, but not only this. This is the desert and even this time I appreciated things and understood moments that I had not taken before, but I'm ready to try again, to dare even more, once again, in the desert.
