Rolls-Royce Phantom through Oman

Tom Bird
05 October 2009

I’m driving the only example of the recently facelifted Rolls-Royce Phantom that exists in the Middle East through the strange No Man’s Land between the UAE and Oman. I’m two hours into a journey that according to the sign we’ve just passed that read ‘Salalah 1281km’ is going to take a rather long time indeed. But I’ve got a feeling it’s going to be a journey to remember, all we need to do is get into Oman.

The journey hasn’t had the best of starts, my intial plan to leave Dubai at the crack of dawn was thwarted by problems with the Phantom’s paperwork, traffic and general poor organisation on my part. I feel a little flustered piloting the Phantom along the road-work laden streets near the CAR ME HQ en route to pick up snapper Thanos. It’s not the smallest of cars and I don’t really wanted to ding the expensive bodywork before I’ve even left. Eventually, we head out on the E44 towards Hatta – a journey that I’ve done countless times before and is absolutely chock full of speed cameras. It’s also rather unremarkable except for the new roundabout that’s undergoing construction a few hundred metres from Big Red – and is it just me, or is that getting smaller?

But once we get our passports stamped into Oman – after relinquishing a few dollars for the priviledge – we leave the madness of the UAE behind and settle into a comfortable fast cruise towards Muscat, the kilometres passing under the Phantom’s wheels at a significant rate.

The run to Muscat isn’t what I’d expected. Coming from the UAE where any journey between towns entails a boring arrow-straight blast through the desert, the coastal road to Muscat is heavily populated. You can’t go for more than 10kms before hitting yet another small village – complete with petrol stations, bakeries and takeaway restaurants. We make a mental to stop here on the run back.

We head towards Muscat and our first overnight stop at The Chedi. I was expecting an oasis in the middle of nowhere, so was surprised to find it’s a stone’s throw away from some heavily populated residential areas of Muscat. Still, it provides a cool haven of calm whilst we wait for the sun to drop and the rush hour traffic of Muscat to die down.

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