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….

A little swing way out on the beach tip…

Mar 1 2023

Not the best time to run out of media space on my blog, partway through travelling!

So my blog came to a grinding halt three days ago.

Unable to upload the photos to accompany the post, I couldn’t understand what was happening and I’m using a mobile phone to write and post the blog as we travel, so not all the options are available in comparison to logging in to my site on a computer.

The next day I realised that I had used up my free media allowance for the original blog, so I looked at the options and bought my domain…..but…on reading the instructions for moving the blog to my domain, transferring my existing blog to my new domain is not something I want to do on my phone. It looks like it needs backups, downloads and a quiet afternoon on the computer with no disturbances, not something Im going to get on this trip!

So I created another blog to continue the journey.

Once I’ve posted the first post on the new site, I will add the link to this post for anyone to click onto if you would like to follow me….I’m heading into new territory on the 3/3….watch for the link….

Feb 23 2023

Time to get going…Dubai to Shannah ferry port, Oman….

Getting going was easier said than done.

Post car purchase,we discovered the tyre adaptor key for lowering the spare wheel wasn’t included in the tool kit. Bit of a worry with a 12k plus round trip ahead and trying to find one wasn’t proving easy.

Tyre adaptor key….cost to order 900 dirhams ( over 200 euro!!!)

Lexus had none in the UAE and it was a 3 month delivery for an order so that wasn’t going to work for us on this trip and everywhere else we called didn’t have one in stock…so we bought two spare tyres to carry with us.

Slightly awkward with the spare tyres stacked in the back of the car but, best be safe than sorry. As we had to go back to the car souk to collect the insurance cover, we thought we’d mention the tyre key was missing.

So, car packed it was time to start moving. Heading to the Emirates Road, the OH was fiddling with the GPS unit which wasn’t picking up satellites and therefore, annoyingly, wasn’t working and the trip ahead is a biggie…the route is to Fujairah on the East coast of UAE, cross into Oman at Hatta, down to Masirah island, then to Mirbat in Dhofar, Salalah then along the coast to the Yemen border, then back up through Oman to the Saudi border, cross into Saudi and drive via Abha to Jizan, take the ferry to the Farasan islands in the Red sea for a couple of days then return through the mountains to Taif, then visit a dormant volcano site and return via Riyadh and Abu Dhabi.

A GPS unit is crucial for this trip, so a snap decision was made to replace it, but this meant a return trip to the Creek…..aagh, traffic, delay…what to do!

New GPS installed we headed off to the Car souk, where once the tyre tool predicament was explained , the boys headed off to look at their other cars for sale tool kits in case ours had been misplaced.That story will never be known but we left with the correct tyre tool and a saving of approx 200euro as that’s what this piece of metal costs to buy!!!

The reason for the Fujairah diversion to the journey was to collect Grayana cowrie DNA for scientific research for a project that the Smithsonian institute is carrying out in the Middke East… we had missed low tide from our delays but luckily found enough Cowries to take samples so then it was time to cross the border into Oman at Hatta.

The new Sharjah mosque, turn right onto the East coast road….the journey is under way….

Our route was Hatta, Sinaw, Mahout, Shannah…a long drive and sunset happened just after Hatta, so it was a long night drive…a little stop at the new Lulu supermarket in Sinaw for some fruit and a Tandoori takeaway…and a loo with a seat, not always available in the hinterlands of Oman and my new teflon hips are not yet adjusted to super squat mode, so that was a welcome supermarket stop in other ways!

Then the long haul night drive…. we always start off well, chirpy, chatty, music in the background, but after long hours of peering into the dark distance, trying to spot errant camels and blinded by big trucks, tiredness sets in…

Hitting Mahout we had 45 minutes to the camp site and Shannah port but as we came out of town and hit the Sabhka flats ( salt flats subject to tides), so quite dangerous in the dark if you drifted off the road, we hit intense humidity fog. I’ve never seen anything like it, we were completely blind driving using the GPs to stay within the road parameters, very unnerving and the OH was doing a driving/sleeping mode and so a mutual decision was made to pull off the road at the Comms tower as we knew it was high ground and not Sabkha…you cannot pull off the side of the road in Sabhka area, you may not get the car out again!

After an hour the peasouper fog cleared, the OH had had enough sleep to start the drive and we got to Shannah port at 3 am, we slept in the car, putting the tent up at 3 am is tense stuff, easier to crash in the car…

Car sleeping means you invariably wake with the dawn and as it’s really uncomfortable, you are happy to get up as the sun rises…so we headed off out onto the sandbanks to see what was around at sunrise…

Didn’t expect to see Barbie’s leg but it made for a photo op!

Having had a successful day out on the low tide sandbanks,we decided to take the last ferry of the day across to Masirah and camp there to avoid waking at 4am to get the first local ferry at sunrise and could we could camp on Masirah without pressure to have another early start…

Trip route- Dubai to Fujairah, cross the Oman border at Hatta then to Sinaw and Shannah.

Apr 4 2020

Oman travels, October 2019…Up on the heights of Jebel Samham …

In Dhofar, Southern Oman, after finding the African lime butterfly on the scarp slopes, we pushed on to revisit the remote Jebel Samham mountain.

As we drove off, a little Crested lark eyed us curiously…

Jebel Samhan (2100m) is the mountain that towers over the eastern portion of the Salalah Plain.

It is a plateau, rather than a peak and beyond the Jebel the whole area is full of sinkholes and limestone caves. This is a vast wilderness sanctuary (4,500 kilometres), with no permanent population and a protected home to the critically endangered Arabian Leopard, which during a past visit, I had the surreal experience of stumbling across one, face to face, in the middle of the night…check this link for that strange moment, I’m still in wonder about that night…

The road to Jebel Samhan climbs up and over the barren plateau and passes through rocky fields of leafless desert roses.

Adenium obesum, the desert rose, also known as elephant plants, have huge bulbous trunks and striking pink flowers and their strange appearance adds to the other-worldly feel of the plateau.

You are able to drive to a viewpoint on the edge of the reserve to gaze over the coastal plain and surrounding wadis.

On arriving we were alone in this remote place. There is a small path, with barriers to a certain point, the drop is sheer and I didn’t go to the certain point, my head for heights has gone with my youth.

The views are magnificent…

Suddenly we heard voices and were surrounded by tourists. Unexpected, and overwhelmed on this narrow path with teetering drops, we headed back to the car to be greeted by a long row of 4-wheel drives and their drivers, taking a rest.

Our invading tourists were on a tour, time to speed off and hope we didn’t bump into them again..

Passing through a small village, which I ( obviously) renamed One-Cow town.

We headed back down off the plateau to the coast. As we turned a corner, we screeched to a stop.

In front of me, a Dhofar Chameleon was just starting to make it’s pausing, balletic walk across a very large road.

Time to make sure it made it across. Luckily it started to run as I got out of the car, then spent a few minutes on the other side of the road contemplating this large human with a camera, Lucky me! I love to see a chameleon and also watch them change colour to match their surroundings and mood. If they start to turn black, they are stressed, this one just blended it with all the different backgrounds.

My saved-from-the road Chameleon posed perfectly for me, but then it decided it head back across the lethal road.

I had to save it, stop it somehow, so I leant in to enfold it within in my hand so I could move it away from the terror of the road corner, but it didn’t really like my saviour role.

It bit me very hard, tore into my skin, and I couldn’t get it off my hand and it started to bite my hand deeply, the OH had to prise it away, it had its teeth in deeply and ripped off a load of skin…lesson to self…Do not pick up a chameleon, however nature-kind you are…

As we were travelling remotely, had health insurance, but limited resources in that area and little availability for health care , I did a quick google on Chameleon bites when we got back to the room. Luckily a disinfectant wash seemed to be all that was required, they do not seem to carry bacteria…. Anyhow, I’m here to tell the tale, with no missing digits!

!…

Nov 30 2018

Skywatch Friday…

Sunset at Masirah island, Oman…

Linking with Skywatch Friday…

Nov 29 2018

Butterfly of the day…

Plain Tiger (Danaus chrysippus) butterfly.

Taken at Ayn Athum, Salalah, Dhofar region of Oman in November 2018.

There is a waterfall, in the Khareef (monsoon) season and a park is under construction where the river begins.

It’s a place to spot birds, butterflies, dragonflies and fish.

We were there just after Cyclone Luban, the area was lush and green with plenty of wildlife to keep me busy with my lens!

It’s a lovely place to visit…

Nov 28 2018

Wordless Wednesday…

Nov 27 2018

Birds of the day…

Five Egyptian Vultures,(Neophron percnopterus), just sitting, waiting…

Nov 26 2018

Bird of the day…

The great egret (Ardea alba), also known as the common egret, large egret, or great white egret or great white heron is a large, widely distributed egret, with four subspecies found in Asia, Africa, the Americas, and southern Europe.

On Masirah Island, Oman these elegant birds are everywhere to be seen, indeed, all along the Omani coastline.

Nov 14 2018

Wordless Wednesday…

Oct 31 2018

Wordless Wednesday…

Oct 27 2018

October 2018, Travelling in Oman and surprises on the roads…

I’m back in one of my favourite places for a few weeks. There is something about Oman that draws me back time and time again, the pace of life, the people, the incredible scenery and the sheer vastness of the country never fail to excite me as I cross the border and we start the extremely long drive to the South.

Currently, I’m spending time in Dhofar.

The Dhofar Governorate is the largest of the eleven Governorates in the Sultanate of Oman in terms of area. It lies in Southern Oman, on the eastern border with Yemen. It is a rather mountainous area that covers 99,300 km (38,300 sq mi) and has a population of 249,729 as of the 2010 census.The largest city, as well as the capital of the Governorate, is Salalah. Historically the region was the chief source of frankincense in the world.

On my first trip here in 2013, the roads were poor outside of Salalah.

A major road building project has been taking place during the subsequent years to upgrade the route from Salalah towards the north of the country through the small villages and coastal communities that lie so far from major towns.

The difference this visit is quite amazing, the road is nearly finished and it is now a far smoother and faster journey, however, as with all road travel in the Middle East, the camel is a road danger.

Our drive down to Dhofar continued through the night. At god o’clock in some remote part of the central plains, we rounded a corner, luckily having just slowed down to look at a flare from a nearby oil-field (this sort of observation is a way of passing time on the 14-hour car journey) and out of the dark a pair of camels came leaping onto the road…screech, slam of brakes, disaster averted, you really don’t want to hit a camel, even in the beast of a Nissan patrol that we are driving. More caution was required for the rest of night!

No photo of the night encounter but here are some camels along the roadside near Hasik.

Down here in Dhofar, cows also roam freely…

The new road, complete with cow, looking for her herd, a bit of a traffic impediment!

Here were the rest of the herd, on the other side of the cow-proof barrier…

I was a little surprised to see a whole herd making their way down the dual-carriageway. From physical evidence left on the ground, it appeared that they had joined at the previous slip road, possibly an easier route than the surrounding terrain…

On the return journey back down the dual carriageway, we then came across a camel herd being marshalled to their destination on the wrong side of the road by the familiar Toyota pickups that every Omani farmer seems to possess…

Then entering the town of Mirbat a herd of goats on the trot through town…

Laid back and typically Omani, life goes on, even if an enormous road has just cut through the grazing grounds. I’ll just remember to look out for herds when I’m driving at night…

Apr 20 2018

Skywatch Friday…

19/4/2018. Sunrise from the mud flats at low tide at Sur Masirah, Oman. Up early to walk the flats looking for shells and just to enjoy a beautiful morning…

Linking with Skywatch Friday…

Apr 19 2018

Thursday Doors, 19/4/18. At Shannah port, Oman…

A brief post this week as I’m on the road in Oman. I suspect this post may prove that doors, any type and anywhere are a magnet for me!

Shannah port, Oman is where you pick up the ferry for Masirah Island, Oman. There is a government service (National Ferry service) on a large car ferry that runs every few hours but there are also old style car ferries that run when they are full.

These ferries are quite old and on my very first trip, 5 years ago, I saw Greek signs on one of the ferries, which made me wonder if de-commissioned Greek inter-island ferries had been sold to the local entrepreneurs in this part of the world.

On my first trip, looking at the unmissable amount of rust and finding the faded and perished life jackets, I did wonder if I would reach the other side!

However, 5 years on and having been a regular customer on these little ferries, they are seaworthy…if anyone is familiar with the poem “Cargoes” by John Masefield, the lines ran through my head on my first trip, but muddled up to move the salt-caked smokestacks to the bluer seas of the Gulf of Oman!

You can wait several hours for them to fill, which is the downside! We had missed the last National Ferry, so headed across to one of the local ferries that was loading up with lorries. We were told it may run if enough cars and lorries turned up, this was around 5.30pm.

We hovered around, not wanting to board and be trapped by a lorry in case the ferry didn’t sail, but at 6.45 pm there were no new passengers so we made the decision to camp up in the dunes next to the port.

Local fishermen build shacks from bamboo and pieces of wood and as there was a strong wind blowing we needed to be in some shelter. Bumping through the very soft sand at the back of the beach, we came across just a perfect place for me!

Behind the door was not an ideal place for camping…

In case you are thinking “She seriously didn’t camp there?”… here is the evidence!

The view from the tent at sunrise…

We were on the port at 6.15am and boarded the ferry that hadn’t sailed the night before. It was full and we left within 10 minutes!

Linking with Thursday Doors…

Apr 18 2018

Wordless Wednesday…

April 2018, Masirah Island, Oman…

Mar 5 2018

Weekly Photo Challenge: Out of this world…

Photographing anemones, underwater, at low tide in the inter-tidal zone.

When I find them, I see the neon glows and the primeval structures that have endured and evolved and I’m awed at the beauty and complexity of the sea anemone.

Out of This World

Feb 15 2018

Thursday Doors, Speed bump village, Oman,15/2/18…

On the long drives across Oman from Dubai, towards the ferry to Masirah island, for a large part of the journey, the places we pass through have no name or signpost.

We now tend to refer to landmarks during the journey to mark our passing as there are few mapped names to refer to, for example, Flare roundabout, P-bush (easy to guess), Crinoid plates (ancient fossil rocks), The Mother of all Sabhkas (huge wet sand area), P-rock (for the second part of the journey, there are no trees and bushes in this area) and so on…

Flare roundabout…

The few small, lonely villages en route are flashed through, but there is one, now known forever to us as “speedbump village” that lines the lonely road and has four of the most lethal speedbumps known to man.

I once hit one on the initial journey, driving at night, too fast and it was an “Oh my God moment” as we crashed down on the other side. The OH was shaken awake and I crawled through the rest of the village. Lesson learned. Omani speedbumps are not to be trifled with, especially out in this lonely place, the nearest Mitsubishi dealer is in Muscat, a mere 6 hours drive…

This hamlet consists of a few brick houses, a coffee shop, a laundry, men’s tailoring and a mosque. Oh, yes, and a shop selling food. See the picture, it’s not quite a supermarket!

I cannot imagine what the livelihood is out in this remote place, possibly date, goat or camel farming, but as always, there are doors to be photographed, even here.

They might be old, rusty and have seen better days, but the traditional metal door and decoration tradition is here, much to my pleasure.

The Coffee-shop

The Mosque…

Selling food…

I love the heart doors, seen in the unlikeliest of places…

Shame about the modern one…

Love this bright blue amidst the gravel plain drabness…

An interesting wall, but the door behind makes up for it…

I just managed to get both doors in, they just fit out here in the middle of no-where…

This door design seems to be a variation on a symbol theme, but the pink wall adds to the green and rust hues…

And just so you don’t think I’m completely crazy for repeating this journey time after time, the view at the ferry port…

Linking with Thursday Doors, hosted by Norn Frampton. Pop on over to see some more doors today…

Feb 9 2018

Skywatch Friday…

4/2/18, Sunrise across the gravel plains, Al Wusta governorate, Oman…

Linking with Skywatch Friday…

Feb 2 2018

Skywatch Friday…

Sunset skies from Masirah Island, Oman, 29/1/18…

Linking with Skywatch Friday…

Jan 31 2018

Wordless Wednesday…

Jan 12 2018

Weekly Photo Challenge, Weathered…

Well, for this challenge I could spend days in my photo archives of Oman creating a whole gallery of the weathered look, be it homes, people, geology, windows, doors, beached timbers, fossils and, so much more.

Oman is a weathered country.

From geology to every day living, the harsh climate of intense heat and along the coast, the pervading sea-salt in the winds leads to intense weathering.

I have so much to choose from, but for today, just a beautiful, traditional, weathered door from Mirbat, South Oman.

Weathered

Dec 15 2017

Skywatch Friday…

Sunset across the low dunes of As Sunainah in the Ad Dhahirah Region, Oman. Shot from the road heading back to the UAE border crossing and then to Dubai, 8/12/17…