Your inspiration this week is windows…..or of a landscape or piece of art that’s like a window to another world for you.
Windows of Mirbat.
A town in Southern Oman that is slowly crumbling away.
Wandering around the streets, there is a shot at every step, but it’s the windows that my lens points towards.
These little wooden, arched and shuttered Omani windows; I wonder at the lives led behind them in the days when old Mirbat was thriving.
Windows on another world…
In Oman, you get the chance to see how our Earth is layered and wonder how it happened all those millenniums ago… was it a swirling maelstrom of fire and upheaval? Was it a gradual happening?
Driving through the landscape you ask yourself a lot of questions…. a photo from the incredible road from Hasik to Ash Shuwaymiyyah in the Dhofar region of Southern Oman, layered with strata…
Anemone at low tide, Masirah Island, Oman, February 2017….
The small village of Qurun on Oman’s east coast, lies just below Al Ashkharah, which is a town in the Ash Sharqiyah region.
Qurun is a sleepy little settlement on the edge of a salt flat area, and the bay beyond is where the local fishermen bring in their catch. If we head up this coastal road on visits to Oman, we always have a quick stop at Qurun. The beach often turns up some shell surprises and it’s a lovely place to take a break and stretch your legs walking down its long shoreline. Continue reading
You don’t expect to find a window on a lonely beach, but in Oman, there is always the unexpected sight.
A derelict mosque sits on a sand dune above the beach, the elements are sweeping it away, storm by storm.
Taken on the long beach north of Al Ashkharah, Google maps GPS 21.941609, 59.648001.
Al Ashkharah (Arabic: الأشخرة) (named after a poisonous desert plant) is a town in the Ash Sharqiyah Region of Oman.
Oman stories…
Bahla, (Arabic: بهلا), is a UNESCO World Heritage Site town, located 40 km away from Nizwa, and about 200 km from Oman’s capital Muscat which lies in the Ad Dakhiliyah region of Oman. It is notable as the home of one of the oldest fortress in the country, the 13th century Bahla Fort and for the town’s pottery.
On our November/ December trip to Oman, during the long 10 journey from Duqm to Dubai, I marked Bahla as a stopping point for a break from the endless roads. Continue reading
Travelling in Oman in September this year, on the road from Mahout to Sur, you pass along a sleepy coastline.
Fishing and camel and goat farms seem to be the livelihood in this region. Hemmed in by the vast Wahiba sands to the West and the Indian Ocean to the East, travels along this coastal road are rather like being in the land time nearly forgot. Continue reading
Sunrise in the Al Wusta region of Oman.
Fishermen heading out to their boat at dawn, in anticipation of their day’s catch…
Flashing past this door scene in a small Omani coastal village, I requested a reverse, gestured nicely with my camera and received approval for the shot…
Door life in Oman
Linking with Thursday Doors, pop on over and check out some of this week’s lovely doors….
Leaving the comfort of the Salalah Marriot, we headed up the coast. Oman is doing some major road expansion and the road from Mirbat to Hasik, which winds through crinkly foothills, is being straightened and expanded to meet up with the incredible road constructed from Hasik to Ash Shuwaymiyah, linking these two towns through a mountainous range. Continue reading
On the way back to Dubai from my recent Oman road trip, we passed through the old city of Bahla, in the Ad Dakhiliyah region of Oman on the route back to the border crossing at Al Ain in the UAE. Continue reading
November 2016:
By car from Dubai to Kharfat, Dhofar, Southern Oman is a very long trip indeed.
1,354 kms to be precise. Continue reading
Fishermen, at sunrise, heading out for a day’s work at sea. Shot in the Al Wusta region, Oman.
When I read the intro to the challenge this week, I spent a while thinking which shot in my photo library could be considered “Local” and encompass my locality and also would fit this challenge.
I failed to come up with a solid background. Continue reading
Following the cloud trail, Al Wusta governate, Oman, September 2016.
Taking part in Skywatch Friday, pop over and see more sky today…
It must be Autumn, there’s a cloud or two in the sky… Crossing the Huqf, Oman, September 2016.
Linking with Skywatch Friday, pop over and check out some sky today…Desert, photography, Oman
Back in Oman, heading down through the vast and empty wastes of the centre towards Ras Madrakah, where the Gulf of Oman turns into the Southern Oman coastline, occasionally you come across a place that makes you wonder why it exists? What made it be given a name? Why is it there? Continue reading
A cloudless, sunset sky in the desolate wilderness of central Oman. Hundreds of miles of empty space, land and sky alike, just vivid colour, as the sun allows the day to turn into night….
Travels in the Middle East and beyond 