Salalah to Muscat, Oman 19 - 22 May 2008

Diving and driving

21 May. An early rise with the sun at 5 a.m. for breakfast in our room at the Intercontinental hotel and we were on the road heading west with our air conditioned 4WD Toyota Landcruiser by 6 a.m. It was already 38 degrees!
It was a great day driving 400+ kilometres through the magnificent Al Hajar mountains. First we paid a short visit to impressive Nakhal Fort and soon after we left the paved roads and drove through the spectacular canyons of Wadi Bani Awf and Wadi as Sahtan. We made detours up vertiginous mountain roads with sheer drops to one (or even both) sides to the villages of Al Hayl, Salma, Al Farrah and Wijmah. We found a little shade under a rock and ate our picnic lunch in the car with the engine idling and air conditioning at full blast as the outside temperature was +45 degrees.
Back on the tarmac, we visited another fort in Ar Rustaq before returning to the coastal highway for Muscat. We managed to get back to Bahwan IT in Qurum in time to pick up the Toshiba laptop, which was confirmed to have a dead motherboard. There was not enough time to get it repaired before our departure for Iran on Friday morning as they need parts from the US. So, no more uploading of log pages with photos before we’re back in Geneva. We can only upload the What’s New page from internet cafés.
Later we enjoyed a second delicious dinner in Trader Vic’s by the Intercontinental.

22 May. The dhow harbour at Mutrah with its fish market and souq haven’t changed much in the last seven years, although they have started building a large hotel next to the fish market. It was already boiling hot at 9 a.m. when we visited the fish market and then walked in the blazing sun to the souq. The clothes we’d bought in Salalah for Angela to wear in Iran were none too practical as the dress trailed on the ground, so we decided to look for a tunic to wear over trousers. Although the shops in the souq are apparently all owned by Omanis, they are all run by Indians or Sri Lankans and they sell beautifully coloured Indian cotton tunics. After stocking up for Angela, and getting instructions on how to put on the scarf, Flemming bought a Pakistani outfit for himself in cool white cotton.
In the afternoon, we worked for a while on the computers in the business centre and then relaxed by the pool.