Sand storm.

Sand storm starting.
From my files.

When one of these storms arrive, it means everything gets covered in a fine dust, which takes days to clear..

Rub al Khali desert.

Rub al Khali desert. From my files.
Where I would like to be at this time, not much chance of meeting anyone else.
The Rubʿal Khali is the largest area of continuous sand in the world.

Sand storm coming.

A follow-on from my earlier post of ‘Early morning light’ this greeted me one morning ! not a pleasant sight, it means everything gets a coating of sand, so no breakfast until it passes.

Sandstorms can last for a few minutes or several hours; the only way to deal with them if caught outside is either stay in your tent/vehicle or cover yourself and stay low hoping it passes quickly.
I’ve been caught by a few over the years, luckily I was either in my vehicle or tent so just waited them out. But on the odd occasion I was pleased that I carried a Masar or Shemagh as the Bedu traditionally use; it is not a fashion item when it comes to these storms, it protect eyes, ears & mouth.

Early morning light.

Just as the sun comes up: from my colour files.

Camping in the desert is always special, particularly when popping out of a nice warm sleeping bag into a cold dawn and seeing images like this.

Unusual sand dune.

Sand with a muddy consistency that has been rapidly dried by the sun, giving a potsherd appearance to the cracked and broken surface layer.

Rock & Sand.

Nikon F4 with Tokina 35-70 f2.8 AIS AT-X manual focus lens.
I have another version of this in B&W done with the Nikon D200.

Wind blown litter.

Wind blown plastic litter gets everywhere unfortunately; now that Duqm is expanding its port and developing tourism, there will be more.

Setting sun – Duqm.

Another from my files – this one made a couple of years ago while camping near Duqm. Unfortunately I seem to remember being plagued with flies, never a good thing when they try stealing ones Guinness.