We had Nic visit us from Friday, October 21st to Sunday October 30th. It was very nice to have him here with us. We did quite a few things, and planned a few more things that didn`t work out for various reasons.
We picked him up from the airport on Friday night, went for dinner than came home so he could catch up on his sleep (8 hours time difference takes a toll on you, plus not sleeping very well on the plane). On Saturday, we decided that we would go hiking at Jebel Shams, the highest mountain in Oman that is reachable by car (or so they say!). We knew how to get there but what it said was that the last 12 km are on an unpaved road, but it did not say that it is not like the gravel roads that we are used to. It was an unpaved road that you probably must access with a 4X4, even though fairly slowly, or with a car that you don't care about, travelling at a little less than 10 km/h. We drove for a bit on that road than turned back; just not worth it. We therefore visited the Al Hoota cave, since we were in the neighbourhood! It is a gigantic cave that just opened up again; it had been closed for a few years. The "english" tour was fully booked so we took the "arabic" tour as opposed to waiting for 45 minutes without knowing if we could get on the english tour anyway. Didn't understand a word (or very little as we are now taking arabic lessons), but it was quite impressive (but no pictures allowed).
We both went to work on Sunday and Nic rested and went for a nice long walk along the gulf. On Monday, Jacqui took the day off and they visited the Grand Mosque, the Opera House and a museum in the old part of Muscat.
On Tuesday, I took the day off and we ventured along the coast for a trek in the mountains. We found the place we wanted to go to, but the road to get there was closed! We therefore headed for another trekking trail that took us up a mountain then down, and from there into a wadi until we ended up close to the old Souk in Mutrah. It was a very nice walk, albeit a little warm for Nic!
The next day, Nic and I headed back to Wadi Shab. He had been there on his first visit, but the place is so beautiful that he wanted to go back. So we did. It was a very pleasant walk, he enjoyed the swim and went all the way into the cave, via water, once again, as it is the only way to get there. On our way back, we stopped at a newly opened dam, the Wadi Dayqah dam. It was quite impressive to see as we never see bodies of water like this inland.
On Thursday, Nic and Jacqui did a few things in the morning, caught a movie in the afternoon and then finished it at the Crowne Plaza.
On Friday, we drove to the desert for desert camping. The place we got (Arabian Oryx Camp) was so much nicer than the one we had last year (ex of Crowne Plaza vs Super 8), but the dune bashing was not as good. Our driver was older and not crazy at all ... too prudent to give anyone any thrills on the dunes - that was deceiving.
On Saturday, we drove to Wadi Bani Khalid, another very famous wadi in Oman. It is very nice and we stayed there for a couple of hours before coming back home to Muscat. Jacqui drove Nic to the airport on Sunday afternoon (I was still at school) and he headed off to Seoul for a few days and then to Japan for about three weeks. We were very happy to see him; it was such a treat to have him here!
Other than that, everything is fine, We had parent teacher interview on Wednesday and are really looking forward to a quiet weekend, and to coming home in 6 weeks!
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| We were adopted by a goat on Jebel Sham (Jebel = mountain) |
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| A farm, north east of Nizwa - where there is water, things grow |
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| Our view heading up the mountain on our trek (Nic and I) - we are parked with the cars on the right hand side |
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| Taking a break - yes, it's hot (about 32 - 33, feels like 35!), especially for someone coming in from Canada! |
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| Getting farther away |
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| Even more |
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| Froddo and Sam going to Mordor??? |
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| Our last vision of this site! |
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| Follow the trail! The map says 2.5 km, climbing up to 200 m above sea level, which is where we start from. |
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| View of the terrain that we are crossing |
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| "Let's go Dad, keep up!!" "I need to take a few more pictures, Nic" - gotta love those cameras!!! |
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| We came from up there! |
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| Down the mountain, at the start of the wadi, which we'll follow to practically the end of our trek! |
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| Part of the wadi |
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| Only water that we saw on the way! |
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| The falaj, at Wadi Shab |
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| At Dayqah dam |
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| Sunset at Wahiba Sands - a beautiful desert! |
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| Our camp (in the shade), seen from a sand dune far above the camp (in the sun)! |
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Sunset on Wahiba sands - the sand goes from really warm to very cool in no time as the sun goes down.
But if you put your hand into the sand, you can still fell the heat, until you get deep enough (4-5 inches) to where the heat of the sun never got |
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| The sun is setting down here, but rising somewhere! |
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| Our desert camp - very, very nice! |
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| Our room |
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| with a fridge! |
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| where we watched the sunset from! |
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| Home sweet home! |
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| Our front entrance |
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Sun rising in the morning - we are still the shade because of the sand dune
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Getting closer - the building behind us is partly sunny - we are shaded at this point!
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| At Wadi Bani Khalid |
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| Fish eating the dead skin off your feet |
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| Nic having a swim at Wadi Bani Khalid |
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| Jacqui too!! |
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Till next time!! Masalamah!
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