Oman - Beach

On to the final part of our adventure in Oman (we've been in Muscat, mountains, and desert so far), we head to the coast/beach. We arrived in Ras al Hadd (just southeast of Sur) mid-afternoon - some partook in wifi after being deprived for 36 hours in the desert. I went for a walk on the beach....because (surprise) this was my favorite part of the trip! To give you an idea of how much of the country we were able to see, I've included this map from www.vidiani.com. We started in Muscat, drove through the Hajar Mountains, stayed in Nizwa, then drove to the Wahiba Sands, the last leg we headed onto Sur (stayed at the end of the next red line on the turning point of where the coast heads south), before returning to Muscat.

I was able to stick my toes in the Indian Ocean (Arabian Sea is a section of the Indian Ocean)!

While looking for shells (it makes my heart happy to find treasures!). I came across this relatively large pufferfish on the sand. I also happened upon some giant cuttlefish bones.

After dropping my shells in our room, I wandered around the rocky cliffs at the end of the peninsula.

It was crazy how close people drive up to the shoreline. Just around the corner from the beach the seas were much rougher!

I thought these rocks/boulders looked like a camel sitting in the water.

Seaside bougainvillea!

Cool rock composition/colors.

Richard and I found some neat critters in the tide pools.

Crabs and chiton.

The sun started setting behind some of the rocks.

Some birds flying past the setting sun.

Fishermen heading out to sea.

After dinner, we met up with Nasser and headed to the highlight of this portion of the trip. We went to Turtle sanctuary at Ras Al Jinz for a chance to see the endangered green turtle (Cheloniamydas). Since we had a driver and were thinking of South Carolina sea turtle events, we did not bring our wallets/any cash and they had a whole museum/visitor center with a gift shop...sigh! It would have been cool to get some t-shirts.

A big benefit of having a driver/tour company plan the trip/details was we already had our tickets to head out to the beach. Once they started taking groups back, we were in group number 3! The reserve will scout the beach and actually found two groups of nesting turtles and would alternate which tour went out to each group of turtles, to lessen the impact on the sea turtles. Nasser also said that at the height of nesting season, when the most are coming ashore, it is so hot there are very few tourists as most are in the mountains escaping the heat. Once we made it out to the beach, we were super lucky! We saw a lone hatchling heading out to sea.

We saw one momma done laying her eggs and making her way back to sea (the white wave is the sea and the turtle is right in front of that).

We saw two mommas still laying their eggs.

What are the chances we would be that lucky at the beginning of nesting season (apparently at the height of nesting season there will be hundreds of turtles on the beach laying eggs)! There was some bioluminescent plankton we saw as we walked along the beach. Clarissa even stopped and picked up a couple glowing bits and carried them around for a few minutes (what ended up being her favorite part of the trip).

The next morning, we headed on to Sur to visit the seaside fishing village. As we turned onto the highway, we happened upon some grazing camels....so of course we hoped out to take some photos!

Why did the camel cross the road? I don't know either?!?!

When we arrived in Sur, Nasser set us up with a boat ride around the sheltered lagoon in Sur. The entrance of the lagoon is marked by Al Aygah Castle, which includes a watch tower. The watch tower guided Dhows of yesteryear into the lagoon as well as protected Sur from invaders.

We had a wonderful vantage point for seeing all the minarets (see post tomorrow). I think the highlight was the number of green sea turtles we saw feeding in the lagoon. They weren't surfacing....so sadly this is the best picture we got of one.

Yes, we....Clarissa was trying her hand at marine turtle photography/videography.

We had a lovely breeze.

One of Sur's big industries is making dhow boats for the region (Qatar has several on order in preparation for the 2022 World Cup games). Nasser said that it takes about a year to build a dhow.

Towards the end of our boat ride, we past really close to the Al Aygah Castle, as well as, a modern day lighthouse looking tower.

I think even Richard enjoyed the boat ride.

We headed back to our route back to Muscat. Along the way we passed Galhat (also called Qalhat Ancient City). It is on a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Galhat was major port on the east coast of Oman/Arabia between the 11th and 15th centuries. Archeologist found evidence of trade links between the east coast of Arabia, East Africa, India, China and South-East Asia.

After driving a bit more, we arrived at one of the more popular wadis in Oman - Wadi Shab.

When trying to park, Nasser's car kept beeping to alert him of something behind him....but we weren't that close to the next car/wall.....when we got out...we saw the source of alert....silly goat....lol.

So you have to take a small boat from the car park to the start of the hike into Wadi Shab.

Then we started our 40 minute hike one way, in the sun, on a hot 95°+ day! There were a number of date palms growing along the walkway.

There were several pools of beautiful water along the way has cliff overhangs for walking along...sometimes providing a bit of shade.

Lots of greenery growing around the pools of water.

Clarissa (being in all black) was super hot and wore out about 30 minutes in. Richard stayed with her in the shade. I went a bit further and caught up to Mason and Nasser. We didn't end up going to the very end of the trail, but still enjoyed the beautiful oasis in the desert.

We all made it back to the start and took the boat across to the car park.

As we arrived, we saw a goat standing on a trash bin....King of the Rubbish!

After having a lot of water, and a bit of lunch, we headed back on our way to Muscat. We stopped off the highway to check out 'White Sands Beach'. The water was a bit green (which tends to happen when there is a algae/plankton blooms....recall we saw the glowing plankton the night before).

We found out this beach is popular with expats living in Oman.

Our final stop was Bimmah Sinkhole. There is a little park around the sinkhole which provided Clarissa and I place to put on our swimsuits. Then we hiked down the stairs (the others were silly and didn't want to get refreshed in the cool water!).

As you can see the sinkhole is quite a popular place! The sinkhole is approximately 65 feet deep (20 meters) and 165 feet by 230 feet wide (50 meters by 70 meters).

Clarissa and I watched as some teenage boys jumped off the top of the sinkhole into the water (crazy if you ask us). We didn't take a camera down with us, but Richard got this picture of the two of us swimming (I'm in a purple rash guard and Clarissa is right next to me in an aqua one).

Its pretty cool to say we've swum in a sinkhole now! After leaving the sinkhole, we drove the last 1.5 hours back to Muscat. We then had to say goodbye to Nasser.....he was Mason's favorite part of the trip. Both kids really liked him (he has a number of kids of his own...mostly high school/university age).

That wraps up our adventures in Oman (I already wrote about the next day we spent in Muscat after our tour). It was a great trip and if you look at the map at the beginning of this post, we covered a good bit of Oman....BUT we didn't make it down to the frankincense trees to the south, to Tage (the world's longest cave), or up to the beautiful steep cliffs of the Musandam Peninsula. Hopefully we will have another chance to come back and see those areas as well.

Oman - Desert

On to the next part of our adventures in Oman (we've been in Muscat and the mountains so far), we head into the desert/sand dunes. As we were driving out of Nizwa and the Hajar Mountains, it was quite odd. It seemed one minute the landscape was mountainous and then suddenly we were in the middle of sand dunes.

We were staying at a desert camp and we had no idea what to expect. I think I was picturing safari-like tents and Richard was hoping there was decent air conditioning. The camp had hard structures with rooms, private bathroom and, of course, air conditioning.

Mid-afternoon, Richard and I wandered outside the camp to check out the landscape and nearby camels.

Richard being schooled on how to drink water.

Hope I don't step on this barefoot!

After exploring in the heat, a nap was necessary to recover....it was hot! Later in the afternoon some fruit, coffee, and dates were served in a main tent. A light afternoon snack before heading out for some dune bashing.

As the sun began to go down in the sky, we began to see why the Wahiba Sands are renowned for its gold hued sand dunes.

After driving around and bashing some dunes (gunning it going up and sliding down them...in a SUV!!). Nasser (our driver/guide) took us to the top of a ridge to watch the sun go down....which in the meantime the light really emphasized the ripples in the sand caused by the movement of sand from the wind.

So beautiful! Of course we took some family photos.

Clarissa and Nasser raced up and down the dunes.

Easier going down than up the dune...lol.

Of course we were not alone at our lookout point...lots of Landcruisers....

Nasser took a great video of Clarissa throwing up sand. It's quite neat as the sand was so fine and lightweight it would just float in the air as the wind blew it.

Richard was happy to see the sun setting...lol.

All the other Landcruisers left....

 In relation to us, the dunes were so huge and went on for kilometers (or miles)...definitely felt small!

Clarissa took a photo of Richard, myself, Mason and Nasser from the bottom of a dune.

It was a beautiful sunset.

That night we tried our hand at star photography again. While you can't make out the milky way in the photo, it's a vast improvement of our attempts in Fiji!

The next morning as we headed out of the desert we interrupted some camels eating breakfast....

Lol...I could not pick a favorite photo....the baby is so cute but the adults with leaves chewing was funny too. A little further down the 'sand road', we happened upon a family with a momma and baby camel in a pen. Nasser asked a boy with the family if we could go in the pen and see them up close.

Do you know what a camel sounds like? We do!

We also stopped at local nomadic Omani tent, they had some woven items for sale

and quite possibly the coolest thing we saw....a real scorpion (and a small snake in a different bottle). It's not the best picture, but you can see the dark pincers to the right at the top of the sand.

It was here we got our last glances of the golden/almost rose gold colored dunes! The sand dunes were Richard's favorite part of the trip.

After departing the Wahiba Sands, we headed to one of the biggest and most beautiful wadis in Oman - Wadi Bani Khalid. What is a wadi? A wadi is an Arabic term referring to a valley or canyon. In a lot of countries with wadis, they are dry unless it is a rainy season. In Oman, these canyons tend to be spring fed and hold water year round in pools surrounded by tall canyon walls. We would describe a wadi as breathtaking oasis in the middle of the desert.

The kids may have gotten annoyed with me stopping to take photos....but it was so different than what we had been seeing.

 

There are some villages around the wadis and they let their goats roam around freely.

At the main pool in the wadi, there were tons of families having picnics and swimming.

There was a bridge crossing over the wadi (we may have watched some kids jumping off the bridge as well).

Behind the wadi is Muqal cave. The sign said it was another 10 minute or so walk. We didn't go as someone wanted to go swimming.

Getting used to the cool water. Clarissa said there were some of the toe nibbling fish in the water here a well.

 Pictures don't do the wadi justice.....needless to say I tried to capture its beauty.

Good words to live by!

You can see the green of the wadi with the barren mountain in the distance.

After visiting the Wadi Bani Khalid we stopped for some lunch at a little cafe in the town closest to the wadi. Then we headed for the beach! The beach will wrap up our adventures in Oman...so stayed tuned!