Barren yet exquisite

Today's adventures took me south of Muscat along the coast to start, but to get there we travelled inland for a while and went through another stretch of the Hajar Mountains.  The Omanis have done something very interesting along their roadways which cut through the mountains --- in order to help prevent loose rocks from falling onto the road they have put a layer of cement right on the mountain face, and then in places also coloured it to look as close as possible to the real mountain face.

When we came back out to the coast again we were at a little fishing town called Quriyat.  Of course a fishing town has a fish souq, but I didn't take any photos at this one - as I was feeling very much the tourist, just me and a dozen Omani men standing in the souq as a boat with fresh tuna pulled up at the dock.  I would have wanted to ask before taking pictures, and that would have been a difficult thing to do.

After leaving Quriyat my next stop was at the Bimah sinkhole - a limestone crater with blue/green water at the bottom.  Although it doesn't look it in the photos, the depth of the water is apparently very deep - in fact the exact depth is still unknown.  Kas (my tour guide) was saying that local folklore says that the sinkhole was caused by a meteorite, but according to geologists that is totally not true.  The sinkhole was formed by the collapse of what was likely an underwater cave, with water from the sea and underground water from the mountains both meeting at the sinkhole.

Leaving the sinkhole we travelled back into the mountains again - but this time the road was far from a lovely, paved highway!  We were off-road, cutting through the mountains and driving along the bottom of several wadis.  I'm awfully glad I wasn't doing the driving in some places, particularly when the "road" was winding its way up or down some of the mountains.  Truly stunning scenery - and at the end of the wadi in we arrived at Oman's "Niagara Falls".

These bags contain dates that have been picked by the people living very remotely in the wadis.  Apparently someone does come along, I don't know how frequently, to pick up the dates - providing  a source of income to the people who live there.

And then the drive back out of the wadis - equally stunning scenery!

After our off-road adventure we had a picnic lunch at a place called Wadi Arbayeen - a large dam that has been built in the mountains.  Actually it was a very interesting picnic - because I was the only one who ate.  The tour company had only packed food for me and even when I asked Kas to come and sit at the table with me he wouldn't ... so I ate by myself enjoying the beautiful scenery.  And as soon as I was done, my picnic box was carried for me back to the truck and we continued on our way.

Back to Muscat - with some great views of the city as we came down out of the mountains.

Unfortunately this now draws to an end my time in Oman - I'm leaving tomorrow, back to Dubai.  I hope these last few posts have conveyed to everyone the beauty of Oman, and I definitely wish I had more time here!!