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Even a Bedu likes his road
Coming soon to the Sharqiya Sands: a desert corniche. Written and photographed by Pinaki Chakravarty

As desert sands blow across freshly sprayed bitumen, Oman's newest road is inching its way where no sedan has previously ventured. This is virgin territory, where the Sharqiya desert meets the sea, a stretch of blank coastline where soft dunes subside into strips of flat beach, occasionally exposed at low tide.

A land without roads is where the romance of lonely places reaches its peak. If you stand on a coast with endless desert on one side and ocean on the other, it is tough not getting carried away. Think clear skies and stars, sand whipped over soft waves – this is absolute escape. But such weekend escapades quickly give way to a reality not so pleasant on a weekday. Imagine you had to live here, eking out a living by fishing. Once off the boat, you would have to load your pickup with fish and ice. Then, you'd have to get it to a market: either by driving up or down the coast on the hard beach when the low tide exposes it, or across the desert, through sandy trails. You would have to buy a 4WD, of course, and choose between sand and road going tyres. Sand tyres are hopeless on the road, when you get there, and road tyres are prone to sink into sand. You will not have mechanics, garages, filling stations, air compressors, fresh water, restaurants or the AAA if you break down. A fiercely independent spirit might overcome such necessities, but even a Bedu knows which side his bread is buttered.

A new road would benefit thousands. The fishermen would use less fuel, pay less for maintaining their trucks and get to their markets faster. They would have easy access to medical care, fresh water and everything we take for granted. Such connectivity would also mean that more tourist development could take place – so far the only option is a lone youth hostel that has just reopened after months spent in oblivion between Al Ashkharah and the point where the existing road dead-ends.

At the other, southern extreme of the desert coast, a lone wooden hut is your other point of reference, where the road caves into sand. Haji Amir has been sitting here for years, in a painstakingly tidy room, between a few pots and pans and a bed. Next door is his one room workshop, and a compressor to fill tyres deflated for the sand. His most frequent customers are the Bedu fishermen who stop when coming out of the desert. They're usually from isolated settlements like Ras ar Ruways, their pickups loaded with fish. They'd race over desert beach, get Haji to fill their tyres, and then continue over the tarmac. Some might go over to Masirah Island, where 'fish factories' would sort their catch according to type, size and weight, before carrying on to markets hundreds of kilometres away.

Far away from where the road buckles under desert, Stefan Altzeibler is pouring over a satellite image of the area, explaining how a road over desert is like glass over a pillow. "Think of the road as glass," says the general manager of the road construction company, Strabag. "And the desert sand as your pillow. If you thump your hand down, the glass will crack as the pillow under gives way. But if your glass is on a table, its stiff top will support the blow." Which means that Strabag's new road, between Ashkharah and Khuwaymiyah, will build itself layer upon layer, each supporting the next, from soft to progressively harder. "You'll start with sand, move up to filling, add the aggregate base, top this up with asphalt."

There's a lot of engineering that goes into 60km and RO4.7mn of desert road. First comes the earth work: gouging out the area where the road will be layed, removing the top layer of sand in this case. This is then filled in with hard material dug out from what is known as a 'borrow pit' within the industry, a source of filling material that meets specifications layed out by Strabag's engineers. This material is then mixed with water, and forms the foundation for the next stage: the aggregate base course. This is when stones are sourced, crushed and screened. They're brought to the site, and then layed with a paver, with the help of laser-guided instruments for correct alignment. Over this comes the prime coat, where bitumen is sprayed. Over this comes the asphalt: a mixture of bitumen and a filler of dust-like particles and other materials, brought together at 170ºC. The road is compacted till it cools down to about 75ºC, at which point it can't be pressed any further. Because of the intense temperatures of Oman, as little bitumen is used – just four per cent of the asphalt.

Such are the intricacies of a desert road – lives spent beating the desert, deflating tyres for the sand and building the technology to make roads where there was empty space. All this, though, is just a preview to what the Sharqiya coast has in store. As Bedu fishermen laden with squid begin to venture onto fresh asphalt for the first time, the next story will unfold.

How to get to the desert road

• Set your odometer to zero at Wattayah
• 36km: on the Samail road, take the turnoff to Sur.
• 103km: Turn right to Mudhaibi and Mahoot, at the Shell.
• 115km: Turnoff to Samad (2km away). Don't take it – instead, carry straight on.
• 146km: Mudhaibi
• 163km: Shell roundabout at Sinaw. Fuel up, turn left to Mahoot.
• 288km: Shell and Omanoil filling stations.
• 356km: Al Maha T-junction. Turn left and tank up on fuel. If you go on straight instead, you'll hit Douqm 162km away.
• 374km: Mahoot roundabout. Just before, you'll find the Mahoot Hotel on your right, just after the mosque. Turn right to Flim (half an hour on dirt track), or head straight to Ras ar Ruways and Shannah, gateway to Masirah.
• Zero the odometer at the Mahoot roundabout, and head straight.
• 40km: T-junction, with Shannah on the right (13km). Head there for the ferry to Masirah. Just after turning right, you will find the fantastic pink and white salt flats on your right. Alternately, drive straight on for Ras ar Ruways (25km on). Soon, the road starts deteriorating, until the sand on either side starts to take over. You'll reach the construction work at Ras al Nagdah, and the last outpost before the desert, a little wood cabin of Haji the mechanic. From here it's all sand: either desert or beach. Drive down the beach at low tide, north till Ras ar Ruways, about half an hour north. Venture in your own vehicle with extreme caution from here on.

Look up the upcoming December issue for more on this area