Jan 10 2024

Hasik, Mirbat, Taqah, Salalah, Mountains, Wadis and Beaches…

(previously published on 9/3/2023 on vickystravelinthemiddleeastandbeyond.wordpress.com)

Hasik is a fishing port and also an access point, via Dhow to the Hallaniyat islands, also known as the Khuriya Muria islands. I’ve not visited, on my bucket list!

Along the coastline just north of Hasik, the cliffs tower above the road and water running off the escarpment has formed immense stalactites hanging down from the contours of the rock. It’s quite a sight to behold…

Onwards towards Mirbat, the road is cut along the base of the escarpment bordered by the sea.It’s a wonderful drive, there is very little traffic and any budding geologist would be awed by the strata and rock formations.

A few stops at favorite beaches along the way…

We added in a new little off road trip after Sadah. Sadah is a small coastal town and I just managed to spot two traditional old houses and caught them as we drove past…

We had been recommended to visit a part of the coastline we hadn’t explored before. The track takes you through wadis, some incredible strata and after much switchbacking up and over the small hills, to a beautiful remote bay…

As we had arrived a day early in Dhofar, we had the option to stay in Salalah and as we needed the car air conditioning re-gassing and a fix on the angle of the headlights, so we headed off to the Nile Hotel in Salalah to see if they had a room for us.

We have stayed at the Nile a few times, a range of different rooms and suites at very reasonable prices. If you have use of a car in Salalah it’s a great place to stay if you want to explore the area.Just room only, but plenty of restaurants to choose from in Salalah and our favorite, The Oasis club…

Air conditioning fixed , new headlights bought and fitted for a lot less than it would have cost in Dubai, we headed off to the Oasis club for dinner and drinks.

The Oasis club is located at Raysut next to the Port of Salalah.It’s a lovely restaurant to head to at sunset as the outside terrace overlooks the beach and sunset with a glass of wine is always enjoyable!

Views from Oasis club and the resident cat …

Salalah and the surrounding towns along the edge of the escarpment and on the coastal plains have a unique climate. From May to September the area has its own Monsoon season or Khareef as it is known locally. The land turns a lush green, mists and rains abound and people from other areas of the Middle East flock to Salalah for holidays and to take advantage of the cool climate during the months of their hot summers.

Along the beach near the old part of Salalah…

But in February the landscape looks very different. Parched of water from September to April, with only occasional storms the greenery disappears and a barren, stony vista appears. I’ve been here at both times of the year and the contrast is huge…some shots from Dhofar from last October and from this trip…

October, a month after Khareef has finished.Greenery still abounds…

February, 5 months after Khareef has finished, the land is burnt out now, waiting for the rains…

We always visit Taqah, a small town on the outskirts of Salalah.It is on a beautiful sweep of coastline and fishing, as always on this Oman coastline is part of life…. on this beach we find some unusual bivalves, so it’s always worth a visit and it’s a lovely walk along the beach…

We spent a couple of nights in Mirbat. This historic old town is a favorite destination of mine. Mirbat was a involved in the export of Frankincense in ancient times, as far away as China. It was also the site of the 1972 Battle of Mirbat between Communist guerrillas on one side and the armed forces of the Sultan of Oman and their Special Air Services advisers.

In the centre of Mirbat is the historic old town. I have been coming here for many years and it’s sad to see the deterioration but now it’s a morbid fascination to see what buildings have collapsed and are beyond repairs. Anyone who has read my Mirbat posts will remember I have a favorite door…pleased to say it’s still there, but it doesn’t look too good now!

Mirbat was named after the horse stall. Apart from being famous for exporting Omani frankincense , it was famous in the 9th century AD for breeding and exporting horses. As you drive into town you are greeted by horses on plinths on either side of the road.

Route map…

Jan 10 2024

From Masirah to Hasik….

(previously published on 5/3/2023 on vickystravelinthemiddleeastandbeyond.wordpress.com)

Time to move on again, a big journey still in front of us, but visiting Masirah had been, as always, a lovely experience.

The last sunset on Masirah, Metal palm trees and civic decorations along the sea front…

We were booked on the 7.30am Government ferry. There are local ferries, which sit and wait for enough cars and lorries to fill it, then set sail. This can take half an hour or two hours, or you can take the Government one which leaves promptly at its departure time. My preferred choice!

Today it was just us and three jolly local ladies in the family section. The ferry only had a few cars onboard, I suspect the early service ran at a loss today…

Shannah port on the mainland is where the ferry docks and is also home to a large fleet of fishing dhows. In the morning the dhows are unloading their night catch into the refrigerated lorries, which either travel to processing plants along the coast or off to the larger cities. The seagulls are frenzied when the catch comes in!

Dhows and Seagulls at Shannah port plus a White heron watching the action…

Onwards to Mahout, the closest town on the mainland to try to get some cash out of the ATM. My UAE card was rejected the whole time on Masirah, luckily an international one worked or we would have been scuppered as card payments are not common on the island, cash is king!

Mahout has a morning market which makes the main street busy, full of people shopping, going about their business or just sitting, passing the time of day with friends…

I managed to photograph a few of the traditional Omani doors and gates in Mahout…on this trip I have noticed that these old traditional metal doors are becoming fewer as the old properties are being knocked down or left to disintegrate….I’m glad I have a record from our travels…

From Mahout we decided to revisit Khaluf, a fishing village 26 km off the main road south to Duqm. Quite a remote little place, fishing is the reason for its existence but it’s shores are also home to small Umbonium shells, namely the beautiful Umbonium eloiseae

Normally this is found in a pale pink colour, with some popping in an eye catching candy pink, these are found at Shannah and on Masirah island.

At Khaluf, they have a redder hue, with some deep red. It’s all a similar area with distances between each pocket where they are found, but the ones from Khaluf are quite special …

Khaluf is also the start of white sand dunes, also known as the Sugar dunes. Beautiful to see but we didn’t go into the dune area as the car is fully loaded for the journey and we didn’t want to deflate the tyres for a quick drive in the dunes, so viewed from afar…

Then to Ras Madrakah…another small village at the headland which juts out into the Indian ocean.This is another main fishing area, it seems the village solely exists for this purpose, there is nothing else in this lonely place….well, a few seashells of course!

We left Ras Madrakah just before sunset and headed off down the very lonely roads and gravel plains of this part of the coast.We didn’t have a fixed plan for sleeping, either a rest house or a snooze in the car, it’s spacious and comfortable enough and the tent isn’t!

Time for some dinner, at Al Jazer, where we had previously stopped for petrol on past trips, there are several little restaurants lining the road. Dinner, which was a tandoori chicken and biryani rice in salubrious surroundings, was very good. Replete, we pushed on…

Dinner on the road…check out the outside wallpaper! Delicious dinner though….

Shalim is a lonely town on the route and we have stayed in the fairly basic rest house before, so we decided to stop there…we were fairly surprised to be told it was full, so we pushed on to Ash Shuwaiymiah where there is another rest house.

Normally a rest house costs 10 rials ( around 25euro, I suspect the locals price is much less)here we were asked for 25 rials! The OH went to look at the room, came back , said “No way” and we drove off. There is little care of these properties and they are very basic. As the name Rest house describes, a place for rest on a long journey, but not at 25 rials!

The next part of the journey from Shuwaiymiah to Hasik is on a road cut through the massive escarpment of the Jebel Samrahan range of mountains that separates this part of the coast from the lower coastline of Dhofar. It’s a thrilling road trip, but less so at night, more of a hang on to the hand grip and occasionally squeak “ Slow down!”

Few photo opportunities arise at night in this dark, mountainous area, but we did get a shot of the wall fossil we discovered several years ago ( noted on the GPS)

Popping out of the escarpment run, we had been told by a kind Omani who had waved us down on the road that there was a Rest house in Hasik, so we found it quite easily after he had told us where to turn off the main road ( no discernible signage on the road we could understand, but probably a sign in Arabic ) and thankfully had a bed for the night! Handy to know about this place if you are ever doing this long run at night because the next place to stay is in Mirbat, another 120km down the road…

I will just add here that Omani rest houses ( aka small hotel for travelers) are fairly basic, they provide a bed for a rest, private room and bathroom but the maintenance and cleanliness leaves a lot to be desired.As Oman is such a vast country, these little rest houses cover the needs of travelers and are a necessity. We are usually traveling with camping bedding and quite often I will use our bedding for sleeping. However some are better than others, but you don’t know that until you arrive!

Route map…

Jan 10 2024

Masirah…climbing Jebel Humr…

(previously published 4/3/2023 on vickystravelinthemiddleeastandbeyond.wordpress.com)

The centre of Masirah island is dominated by a spine of small mountains, only accessed by tracks through the wadis.

The highest point of the hilly backbone is Jebel Humr at a height of 274metres, a table-topped small mountain, part of the Mesozoic ophiolite sequence of Masirah.

I have always wanted to reach the top of Jebel Humr and during past visits we have circled the Jebel by car, using little off-road tracks, but it always looked impossible as there is an upper cliff below the top, with overhang.

During the pandemic I made an online friend , a younger woman who lives on Masirah and who had joined our facebook group about shells relating to Eastern Arabia. On our first trip to Masirah post-pandemic, we met several times , it was refreshing to meet a young woman from the island , we forged a lovely friendship and I knew that we would meet up again. She told me she had been to the top of Jebel Humr and would organize the walk/climb on our next visit.

In the meantime , last May, I had my second hip replacement…Climbing up to the top of mountains seemed unattainable and on our visit to Masirah in October 2022, my friend was not on the island so the climbing plan was moved on to our next visit, probably it was best, I’m not sure I would have made it back in October 2022, looking back on it now…

So, here we were, at the bottom of the track leading part way up the mountain, it was 6.00am, pre-sunrise and a good time to go. Amal had brought Abdul along to show us the route, as climbing to the top of this lonely place was something he did fairly often.

However, recent rains had washed the tracks away that he normally, tumbled boulders and scree down the slopes.

Abdul was like a mountain goat, finding the best route through, so the haul up to the scree below the top was done on the fly, but with help from the OH and Abdul, I managed to make my way up.

The top didn’t seem to far away, but it looked unachievable , scree and loose rocks and an overhang and a bit of a long drop to my right.

I will say at this point, I’m not good with heights, I lost my balance after the second hip op and became quite shaky when confronted with a downwards climb without any rocks to cling on to to support me. I do use a stick in rough areas for stability.

Abdul advised that this was the difficult part and pointed across the scree and upwards showing the route. I had a momentary panic as I glanced down at the drop but actually then thought, right this is now a personal challenge, two replacement hips, I am doing this! Otherwise all of us would have to retreat back to the cars and I would have failed… no way, this was something I had wanted to do for years, and I was doing it, albeit very carefully…

Amal was climbing like a mountain goat …in Hijab and Abbaya too…seriously impressive!

With lots of encouragement and help from the OH and Abdul we made it to the top, my thoughts of “How on earth am I going to get down this “were firmly buried so as not to ruin the “being on the top of Masirah “experience and we edged out of a rock channel onto the summit.

The sheer exhilaration of being on the top and having got myself up just made the whole experience so enjoyable. The top of Jebel Humr that is visible from the roads around the island looks like a flat tabletop mountain, which it is, but sneakily, to the East the mountain has another peak…well, should we push on up? Hmm… I made a quick decision that it would be pushing my luck to get up and down that one , so decision made , we wandered around the top of our level..and didn’t push it to the very top…not sure I would have survived that actually! At the level we arrived on , there is a helicopter landing area and a very rusty anemometer, apparently the top is used for helicopter training, there is a Royal Oman airbase on the island, so it sounds likely but possibly not recently, given the state of the equipment.

We descended to a lower plateau of the summit and discovered fossilized bivalves and a coral reef , this area is ophiolite, which was once an ancient seabed. The views of the West coast are magnificent and the bonus was 8 to 10 Egyptian vultures using the air currents to soar and glide above our heads….one even let me get close for photos, the climb was worth every moment on the top…

Now we had to get back down, I know the OH and my friends were slightly nervous on my behalf but lots of positive encouragement was forthcoming and I did think it was something I had to do, I couldn’t just ring for a helicopter!

I went down much of the scree slope on my backside, the angle was so steep that standing upright made me feel that I was going to plummet face forward down the drop so, when in doubt sit down! Abdul took great care with me and helped through some awkward spots and finally we were back at the cars….it was an awesome morning and having achieved the top I was very proud of myself, with help from some very dear friends…

Jan 10 2024

Masirah…Mishaps, Beaches, Shells and inter-tidal life…

(previously published 28/2/2023 on vickystravelinthemiddleeastandbeyond.worpress.com)

As we had arrived on Masirah a day early, we had no hotel booking for the night, but we did have a new pop-up tent to christen that night so not worrying about a place to stay we headed off to our favorite beaches to pound out some kilometers and hopefully find a few shell treasures on the tideline.

A few treasures found on our first beach, we then beached hopped down the East coast of the island with the Indian ocean waves breaking gently along the shoreline, taking in the beautiful views of this wild coastline. There are currently a couple of Dhow wrecks along the East coast.One from several years ago which is now pretty much disintegrated but two are intact , the one below beached…

From June to September the monsoon or Khareef that dominates the Dhofar coastline further south also affects Masirah and the Indian ocean turns into wild and raging seas.

Early evening we drove back to Hilf, the ferry port and the only town on the island to get some dinner. We decided to eat at the Park inn, which serves an excellent curry and fresh juices and then we drove to a remote beach on the East coast to camp.

The pop-up tent popped up beautifully, I had bought camping lights in Dragonmart in Dubai so we were well lit as we manipulated the air beds we have into the tent….hmm, the tent advertised as a 3 person tent wouldn’t fit our air beds so we ended up with the air beds halfway up the tent walls…a 3 very small person tent with no air beds methinks!

Not to be defeated, we just thought ok, so be it, we will sleep, we are tired and we did….for a while! The OH is tall, actually taller than the tent is long and around 2am I woke to much groaning and kerfuffle and the OH trying to make a swift exit out of our 3 man tent (not!) as he had woken with cramp from not being able to stretch out his body length…

He decided to sleep in the car so I had loads of space and fell back to sleep instantly. Before dawn the wind picked up and the flapping of the air vents woke me …then I realized water was dripping onto my face and head and probably my blanket…switched on the torch and the tent roof was covered in water droplets from the humidity….a swift exit to join the OH in the car, but sleep was long gone and as we were on the beach I enjoyed a magical predawn and sunrise experience, what a start to the day!

We had decided to visit the Sur Masirah beaches…this area is a shell collectors holy grail…this area is home to the exquisitely beautiful Punctacteon eloiseae (Abbott, 1973)

I found one of these shells once , in the water pools at low tide out on the sand flats. It was an exquisite moment and as the shell is fairly rare, I would be very lucky to find another one…

Punctacteon eloiseae (Abbott, 1973)…this is the one I found, makes me very happy to share it here…

But first we passed by a very old cemetery on the hillside. Normally, in a Muslim burial the body is wrapped in white cloth, placed in a shallow grave and covered in stones but in the centre of the cemetery is the resting place for some of the early settlers in Masirah from the Hadramaut area of Yemen….

Today was the lowest tide of the week of low tides and a good day to walk on the sand flats. Having found the Eloiseae shell previously, I feel very lucky and am not imbued with the desire to search for more so I’m happy to walk out on the sands looking at everything that normally is covered by the sea.

What’s a colour-fest! Vivid greens, oranges, reds, blues and even a yellow….anemones, sponges and sea squirts all exposed for a few short hours with crabs and starfish to add to the interest….a lovely few hours and over 10,000 steps on sand, a win-win afternoon….