A Road trip to the First Wind turbines of Oman.
It was Thursday evening, as usual we four friends were deciding where to go this Friday morning since there was no official photography meeting.
Sushant decided that we go to Zeek since Khareef is in its last days. We all were thinking the same and then Subhojit suggested lets check out the windmills installed in Dhofar. We were confuse since the journey would be really long more that 150 kms or so but Sushant agreed to Drive for so long.
We all were excited to check this new place and waiting for our Friday morning to begin.
Im the lazy one in our group of four, waking up on time isn’t my cup of tea. But yes the thought of seeing windmills did woke me dot on time.
We left At 5:30 am from Charbi's place. It was pitch dark outside and simply decided to shut my eyes and sleep little more. Salalah to muscat highway had good amount of fog early morning, visibility was actually low.
Few kms ahead the road started getting clear and we could see huge limestone mountains on either side of highway. It was almost time for break of the day. Subhojit asked Sushant to stop next to the view of barren mountains and we could not agree more since we could see the Friday’s sunrise. The sky was cloudy and we could watch the red color of the sun peeking out through the dark clouds.
We took dew pictures here and move ahead on our journey. After we entered thumrait we noticed how drastic change was there in the landscape from lush green mountains of Salalah to absolutely barren mountains of Thumrait. It was actually getting too sunny. I could see some abandon tires on either side of the Highway, and we stopped again to explore the area. Some of the barren mountains actually gave a feel as if we are in Egypt of Our very own Oman. Some mountains actually replicated small size of pyramids and sphinx.
We enjoyed at this random spot a lot. Clicked lot of pictures around the huge tires and as well within it. Lol.
It was almost 8 now and now we decide to drive none stop to wind mills area else it could get really late.
Sushant kept driving and Subhojit had his navigation on and kept encouraging Sushant. Charbi and I were relaxing on the back seat and waiting to stand next to windmills soon.
You really have to drive for a long stretch in the interiors on the road to marmul to be precise to reach to the windmills. Since it was the first time any of us were going here so we were not even sure how soon we will get to see one.
Finally Subhojit spotted one and told us to look in a particular direction. All of us except for me could see it. It took us another 20 minutes to get a good glimpse of windmills. So we stopped at a point where we could see all of the 13 wind turbines. Honestly I could not get enough of the view, it was so beautiful. We all felt like small kids happy with something, new.
I managed to take some photos here and of the highway. Because as you know Oman roads are worlds best and no one who has been to Oman can ever deny of this fact.
Soon we reached at our Fridays mission “Dhofar Wind Farm”. Located on left side of the highway, this place has restricted entry. So we parked nearby and simply walked around these huge windmills. This was a sight to behold. This view will be forever etched in our minds. It was breathtaking to watch huge white wind turbines with Oman flag displayed on each one. The fans were moving and we just kept looking at them. Subhojit went far to get the best pictures and we managed to take some shots from the entrance itself. We spent around 40 minutes here, enjoyed our little tea break and tasty Sandwiches Sushant had made. It was really too hot here so its ideal to be here either early morning or late in evening during sunset.
Wind mills is the first large scale commercial project of Oman to utilize a renewable source of energy. This project is first of its kind in Oman and has been funded by Abu Dhabi. It aims to provide electricity to more than 10k homes in rural areas of Dhofar. It will offset tones of carbon dioxide emission and is a laudable step in the era of global warming. It will motivate the government and other countries to follow the same step. Wind energy is the source of clean energy without any harmful emission unlike other source of electricity.
From here we left for Wadi Dawkha located on the way to Salalah. Wadi Dawkha is a house of hundreds of frankincense trees. Thumrait has been famous for the trade of frankincense since ancient times. Wadi Dawkha is a well maintained place and you can spot many tourist here during peak hour of Sunrays as well.
On our entry back to Salalah we could not help ourselves to stop next to cold lush green mountains and enjoy the cooling of nature. It’s so amazing few kms you have scorching heat and few kms after cool breeze awaits. This is what nature is and wind turbines are step to keep the balance in the nature away from the sources that can further cause global warming .
Happy traveling!
