Camping in Oman

I now understand the real value of hiring a guide for camping in the desert and for sleeping in general. We didn't opt for going with a tour company because they are incredibly pricey - roughly between $300-450+ per day/night. The deal that comes with a company is they know where the cool spots to camp are, we don't. That becomes evident every evening as we're wondering where to go. Finding information on campsites is slim and the tourist info we read about camping says there are lots of open camping up on mountaintops and in places along the coastal road from Muscat to Sur. During our 2500kms. of driving we did see some perfect camping locations, but usually during the day when we didn't want to stop for the night.
The 2nd night we found a quiet spot off the road to Yitti on the other side of Muscat. You drive through a narrow section of the town and then suddenly you head up and over this mountain. The roads are quite narrow, no consideration to gradient, just straight up with very sharp U bends. Makes for an exciting drive. After some twists and turns the road levels out towards an open stretch of beach. Just back in from the ocean we find a place to pull off and catch up on some sleep. I'm more confident of this spot after last night's interruptions.
Waking up around 6:30am to the sound of dumptrucks coming past us every minute or so was not my idea of sleeping in. Just down the road there is a big development site with roads being built and a huge billboard sign boasting about the new resort going in. This kind of growth is happening in many places around Oman and will certaintly change the untouched charm it has now.
After lounging in the sun at the Dive Center for the afternoon, we were lured back to the white stretch of sand beach we rested on the day before in our search for the Wadi Shab trail. We headed out with more driving confidence this time up the dried out river bed and onto the plateau. The road had been graded since our previous drive yesterday and was in very good shape. We made our way down to the coastal road and to our all time favorite beachside campsite just before sunset. There were other SUV's parked here as well so we knew this was a tour company favorite. Graced with a full moon, no bugs, lovely temperature we proceeded to enjoy the evening with drinks and curried rice a la frijoles. Truly a quintessential camping experience!
The next day we drove off around 8:30am as the heat was coming up along with the flys and we had a long driving day ahead of us. The coastal road is a real mixture of washed out areas with newly graded fixed up, make shift patches of dirt road that follows the ocean literally. Just off towards the Hajar mountain range is the new, improved 21st century 4 lane blacktop road that we were ushered onto in a couple of places by the road workers where the old road had experienced complete washouts. We were back and forth between the two. I'm so glad we got to drive the original road as it made the trip a lot more exciting and interesting.
We passed Wadi Shab again, 'gorge between cliffs' and headed down to Sur. The road down to Sur takes you through many small local towns where you mostly see goats roaming around the buildings and streets or perched up on a rock cliff. The odd person or child is outside, but we rarely saw people. We reached Sur around lunch, an 'ancient port and seafaring town that was prominent in the country's trade with India and East Africa. It was renowned for building great ocean going boats and still retains vestiges of the industry.' The traditional wooden dhows are still built in the boatyards today tucked away in a sheltered lagoon. Many boats can be seen listing on their sides in various states of disrepair. We tried to find turkish cafe, but instant Nescafe has marketed themselves so heavily in this country, there is nothing else available except for tea. They appear to be big Lipton tea drinkers.