A weekend in Oman

The photo is of Balat Sayt a village in the Omani mountains. All the photos are here but first the story:

We left Dubai late on Thursday afternoon, crossed the Omani border and stayed the night in Ibri. Ibri is the second largest city in Oman and is about a 3.5 hr drive from Dubai.

The next day Colin took me to see the pre-historic tombs at Al Ayn. He's seen them several times before but I'm a first-timer and they amazed me. The first view of the tombs is spectacular, twenty-one beehive shapes standing in a line on a ridge silhouetted against the imposing bulk of Jebel Misht. The tombs, which date from between 3,500BC to 2,500BC, were built using flat stones that have been layered one on top of the other, almost like weaving. Nothing has been used to hold the stones together, no mud to act like cement or anything like that, the beehive is held together by its own weight. Even after all the centuries several of the tombs are intact, though others have succumbed to the ravages of time and have fallen over into well organised piles of rocks. There is a small opening at the front of each beehive and I was able to crawl into the largest tomb and stand up inside.

Wadi Dham was the next stop, another new place for me. We walked a short way up the wadi but I wimped out of walking too far as it was hot, damn hot. We stopped off next at Jabrin Castle. It was closed because it was Friday but that was ok as we've both been there before.

On to Misfat Al Abreyeen, a village built on the side of a cliff. I was there a couple of years ago with my brother (kia ora Bro) then a drive up into the mountains to the top of Jebel Shams arriving after dark. Jebel Shams is the highest point in Oman (3075m). Spent the night at the camping ground that has bedouin style tents, very nice. After the 40 degree temperatures on the plains it was a shock to the system when later in the evening the temperature dropped to 16.

The next morning we went along the top of Jebel Shams to see the Wadi Nakhr Gorge which is known as the Grand Canyon of Arabia for good reason. It must be thousands of feet deep and being the Middle East there are no safety barriers or anything wussy like that! No, on second thoughts, at the most popular viewing spot there's a bit of wire half heartedly strung across a small section of the edge. The edge is a vertical drop. Misjudge it and over you go...next stop China! I walked over to the edge (not the wussy part with the wire) and jumped up and down a few times which seemed to get Colin's heart rate up a bit, can't understand why. A short way along is the village of Al Khateem and a track that goes round the lip of the canyon and ends at an abandoned village but being pressed for time we had to move on (meaning that I wimped out again).

Next was a drive on a rough goat track road to the village of Balad Sayt. The trip itself was only about 40 kms but it was hard driving all the way. The road was like Horsemans Road in Waitakere before they did it up, but without idiot sheep making sneak attacks from the bushes. Anyway as usual I'm off on a tangent, so let's get back to the story. Colin was going to Balad Sayt on a mission. Last year he and his son Daniel were exploring the village when they met an elderly gent named Hadth bin Nasser. They took some photos of Hadth that Colin's since had enlarged, printed and framed so the plan was to take them up to Balad Sayt to deliver to Hadth. The village is very old and the 'streets' are about as wide as a suburban footpath at best and at their narrowest about the width of a house hallway. There's no vehicle access naturally, cars are parked down in the wadi and people walk into the village from there. On the walk up to the Hadth's house we met a local youngster named Saud who spoke very good English. Saud rounded up Hadth's grandson and they showed us the way. Hadth was so pleased to see Colin that he ran outside and just about jumped into his arms. Saud translated for everyone which was a God-send (also meant that he'll be the centre of attention for days as the boy who spoke to The Foreign Visitors, so it's good for him too). After we had coffee, oranges and dates with Hadth, Saud took us to see his school. Saud told me that there's no medical clinic in his village and when I asked him what he wants to be when he grows up, he said without hesitation "A doctor, so I can come back to Balad Sayt and look after the people".

From Balad Sayt we...and when I say ’we’ I mean Colin...drove down the valley to the entrance to Snake Gorge where we stopped for coffee (but no scones). Along the way I noticed what looked like piles of timber lying at the bottom of the cliffs, but it's not timber it's rock that has fragmented off the cliffs. The land formations in Oman are fascinating. In some places the earth has been squeezed into shapes resembling rolling waves of different types of rock. A bit like a bowl of cake mix after someone's passed a knife through it. There was a place where a huge cliff of black rock suddenly changed direction and appeared to plummet headlong into the surrounding countryside, it made me think of the Titanic's last dive. It's hard to contemplate the power of the forces required to manipulate the earth into such torturous shapes. Ok enough from the amateur geologist, sorry Ian, I should leave it to the experts shouldn't I?

Down to the Batinah Plain and following the wadi, which is also the road. There’s been heavy flooding in the area recently and the damage has been quite extensive. As you'll see from the photos, the water level was high and the debris that was washed down can be seen in the branches of trees, and in the wiring of power pylons.

From there it was back to Dubai, though in an indicator of what could be waiting for us in the Gulf region this summer, it was still 40 degrees at 5pm. To quote Colin "It's going to be really hot when summer comes...."