Driving south to Salalah from Muscat I enjoyed seeing some of Oman's summer bird migrants on the coast. Several pairs of Red Billed Tropic Birds and a flock of Crab Plovers were highlights; as always terns http://blog.omanholiday.co.uk/blog/_archives/2008/6/2/3725549.html were in abundance and an occasional Osprey surveyed from its lookout post. Once inside the mountain crescent around Salalah I caught sight of a pair of Bruce's Green Pigeon along with a few African Paradise Flycatchers and Grey Headed Kingfishers.

It was a different story from that avian abundance when I drove along part of the Rub A'Khali – The Empty Quarter. Empty is a descriptive word but climbing to the crest of a sand dune towards sunset – my shadow cascaded down the dunes slope and ahead a vast expanse of a flat plain – it was almost, but not quite empty http://blog.omanholiday.co.uk/blog/_archives/2008/6/2/3725541.html