The sun was already beginning to bleach the color out of the sky, but the grainy textures, arrested ripples, and frozen sand waves only became more pronounced. This would not last long, as the sun rising higher would in turn flatten surface details. I pushed to the top of the highest nearby dune as much to prolong my sandy stay -- forestalling my return to conversation (and yes, coffee as well) -- as to see even further to the north. Somewhere out there was the invisible Saudi border and beyond that miles and more miles of dunes, intermittent gravel plains, and a sprinkling of seldom-visited, half-buried waterholes. Out of reach, likely never to be visited by me. The thought of these soft, supple, even sensuous sands marching higher and higher, further and further away, was tantalizing. To spend time amongst them, mesmerizing. But really -- one might ask -- is not one dune much the same as another? As one pine is to another. One rose to another. One star to another. #clayhausphotography #oman #omantravel #emptyquarter #arabiansands (at Empty Quarter الربع الخالي) https://www.instagram.com/p/CnBNUQoLuEd/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=