Turtles by moonlight

We made our return journey down the wadi and regained the car for our last leg down to Ras al Jinz. We passed through the coastal city of Sur, which remains the boat building centre of Oman. Traditional wooden boats called Dhows are still built by hand here and we were lucky enough to find a couple moored just off the road for the night. In some places they offer trips for tourists but unfortunately we didn't have the time to experience it.

Our camping destination of Ras al Jinz was within the national reserve for Green Turtles that come to this beach to nest up to three times a year. They are very strict about access to the beach and so we had to wait for 9.30, but used the time to set up camp and enjoy a very agreeable fish barbeque in the full moon light.

These two pictures were taken within moments of each other, just by changing my camera settings I was able to capture two completely different shots. The actual light was somewhere in between the two - dark enough to have the above glow and light with the fire and lantern, but bright enough from the full moon that you could see just about everything without any other light. If you expand the below picture you should be able to see the stars in the sky...

Thierry slept in a camp bed in this structure, under the mosquito net, while we slept in a tent on the ground just to the right.

The campsite only had five groups staying for the night, but all the tourists that stay in hotels nearby make their way to the beach each night for the show. The lead Omani ranger gives us a short briefing of what the turtles do here and how often and let me tell you, the man is hysterical. It is impossible to convey his accent and word choice through the medium of a blog; you merely have to experience it for yourself. He was quite adamant that we tourists are always wrong with our comments about turtles once we return from holiday. Quote, 'big big wrong' - this one's for Marika, Venla and Thierry!

The turtles come and lay between 60 -140 eggs depending on their size, up to three times a year, and only once they've reached 25 years old (they can live to 150 years old). They then won’t return to nest again for four years. If they lay their eggs at 10 in the evening, then two months later, those eggs will hatch at 10 in the evening and the babies will make what is often an ill-fated attempt to reach the sea. Only 1 in 1000 baby turtles make it through the gauntlet of foxes, sea-gulls, crabs and fish that eat them as either eggs or newborns.

We made our way down to the beach and were able to see two turtles in various stages of the nesting process. Pictures below are a bit blurry, but with no flash it was the best we could do and hopefully gives you an idea of the scene... we were allowed to get really close, but not touch. They did however pass around a baby turtle they had saved which was only about 5", so sweet.

First they come up and dig a half metre deep hole in which they lay their eggs. They then cover this, drag themselves two and a half to three metres away and dig another similarly sized hole. This one they leave uncovered in an attempt to confuse the foxes looking for eggs. We have our doubts about the success of this decoy hole, see the survival rate above. The whole process takes anywhere between 1.5 to 5 hours depending on the time of year.

We saw one turtle, about 1m large, digging her decoy hole (see above) and another one finishing her decoy hole and then climb out, just past Thierry, and make her way into the welcome waves.

With the moonlight we were able to see her shadow as her exhausted body moved purposefully through the crashing waves and out into the sea. It was extremely impressive to see these large and docile creatures going about the natural lifecycle.

Into the cave

After our relaxing swimming stops we made our way further along the coast, again over a mixture of paved and dirt roads. We soon reached the mouth of Wadi bin Shab right along the coast. We picnicked in the shadow of the new bridge they are building for the high speed road between Muscat and Sur, another reminder of how quickly this country is changing. Our hike started on the other side of the water filled wadi and after passing an Omani villager trying to teach a Chinese construction worker how to fish, we entered the falaj fed palm trees.

This walk started in the blisteringly hot sun along the rocky wadi. We soon gained the blissfully temperate shade of the rock walls and followed the ledges along the wadi for a while before reaching the first jump into the deeper water. Wadi Shab is a bit of an interesting one, since the mouth is affected by the tides and then moving further up it dries out entirely, before reaching the deep, permanently water filled pools that lead further and further into the gorge. After the exertion of walking up the sun drenched wadi, that first plunge was nothing short of heavenly!

From there we swam, walked, clamoured and plunged for a while before arriving at what at first appears to be an impassable rock face. This is misleading, because really there is a small hole in the rocks that allows you to access a cave within the rocks.

If you look closely enough in the middle of the image, you can see a small hole which is just barely large enough for a head. A palm tree was stuck in the top of the hole so you were forced to duck under water for a few seconds to get into the cave.

It is not a fully enclosed cave, but rather a confluence of large boulders that have come to a rest here, blocking up the wadi except for a waterfall that can be climbed to reach the upper reaches of the wadi. It is fully flooded however and you have to swim, tread water and hold onto the cave walls at all times. You could swim behind the waterfall into a small space just barely big enough for two people.

It is a magical spot, completely cut off from the world, with the water cascading into the pool in two places and just enough sunlight filtering in from the top to allow you a sense of the outside expanses of the canyon.

After swimming under a couple of the ledges and under the waterfall, we took turns climbing up the waterfall using the ropes that have been left for just this purposem (see ropes on bottom right corner of image above).

It isn’t as slippery as one would expect, though caution was still required and after a couple of minutes you emerge into the brilliant sunshine above the cave.

The wadi continues on into the mountains, in fact you can actually follow it through to the other side and Wadi bani Khalid, which we visited the next day (more on that soon).

However our journey was back the way we came and therefore we made our way to the other side of the large rock which the waterfall flows past and onto the ledges above the cave. From here you command a full view of the deep pool within the cave, standing about five or six metres above the water.

It is a bit daunting, but you don’t think about that, you just stand, take a strong step forward and hurl yourself into the air! The journey is a short couple of seconds, but oh how exhilarating! If the climb up the waterfall wasn’t such a pain, I would have gladly gone again and again!

Note of thanks again to Thierry for letting us use his camera yet again for this escapade. Since the whole trip was pretty much in the water this was not a place for mine but instead for a small compact camera like his which is waterproof up to 10m.

Bumpy roads and sinkholes

An early start welcomed us as we set out for an overnight camping trip to the south east corner to Oman. We had stocked up on supplies the night before at the Indian `hypermarket’, Lulu, which is far more interesting inside than even the intriguing exterior. It is more to do with the amazing mix of Omani, Indian, Pakistani and Western clientele than what they sell, though some of the fruit and veg was pretty unique. Of course, they did have a true blast of the known, good ole' Papa Johns, though in Oman it's called Baba Joon's (we had a picture of a van with the sign - as well as one of Lulu which is a site to see - but again, they are on Thierry's machine so will post later).

We were heading for the Arabian Sea coast, though first we had to drive through the large wadis around Muscat. We were on paved roads at first, but due to the extensive damage done by Gonu, the cyclone that hit Oman earlier this year, the roads were not all together reliable. It's hard to fathom the strength of the water that would have been rushing down the wadis out of the mountains, but apparently in places, it was five to eight metres high and more or less completely destroyed anything in its path. Here we were months later and in many places the damage was still quite fresh looking.

They are building a new paved coastal road from Muscat to Sur, however this is not complete, so the old dirt/rock track is what we spent most of our time along, including one 40 kilometre detour well away from the coast through the hills and troughs of the rocky foothills.

Once again Thierry cranked up the Green Day album on the ipod and we bombed along the tracks in an intrepid way. Please let us put in here that Thierry is a very good driver and truly understands not only what his 4x4 can do, but how it handles the different terrain, i.e. we had fun, but it was never dangerous.

This is just one of many random road (or should I say track) signs we came across. Don't worry it didn't really drop off as it seems here, and we did slow down. We dedicate this one to Adeline...

So once you do find a nicely paved road, you still aren't guaranteed a nice smooth ride. This is just one other example of the damage by Gonu, where the road in between these rock barriers was just washed away. No warnings, just a dirt track veering off the road down through the wadi and around to the other side.

Our first stop along the way was at this large sinkhole just a few hundred metres in from the coast and near absolutely nothing. It is approximately seventy-five metres deep by the same in diameter and is so inviting you want to jump into it from above.

Of course common sense prevails and you walk down the stairs, carefully avoiding the tree in the middle.

The water was warm, gorgeously clear aquamarine in colour and completely relaxing after the jarring journey to get there.

We had it mostly to ourselves at first, though we were soon overrun by two other groups and took our leave, as it is a place best to be savoured alone. We took a short drive down the coast to a secluded white beach and tested our swimming legs in the salty water of the Arabian Sea.

Again, it was a perfectly enjoyable way to spend some time in the brilliant warmth and sunshine of a Wednesday morning! More about the rest of our day tomorrow...

The Chains

After a meal of Lebanese food eaten outside in the perfect Omani evening weather, we awoke the feeling fairly well rested. Today was a new adventure for all three of us, as even Thierry had never been into Wadi Hawasinah and The Chains.

Actually we struggled to find the correct road to reach these mythical chains, which were first constructed by the British forces as a training tool in traversing the mountainous wadis of the Arabian Peninsula. Road is probably the wrong term, since really we were looking for the track that lead up the Wadi ad Dil. You see, in Oman there are now a lot of paved roads, especially in the more heavily populated Muscat and Batinah Plain regions. However, once you get out into the countryside, the paved roads only are the main arteries and even then there are troubles, see tomorrow’s entry.

So, we actually completed the last fifteen kilometres by driving up the wadi bed, which was of course dry, as it is most of the year.

This is the wadi we drove up to get to the Chains which are in the gorge in the distance.

We passed a couple of ‘villages’, again, huts, goats (even some in trees) and a few living soles stuck wily nilly into the wadi walls.

The track ended next to a palm plantation fed by a falaj, with the gorge leading into the mountains behind. A falaj is an irrigation system in Oman, which brings clean water from a natural source down into the villages, fields and palm plantations much as aqueducts do/did.

Pictures of the falaj system in later blogs, but for now we thought we'd share the Omani version of a scarecrow which uses the traditional white Omani dishdasha which men wear, perched on a terrace of crops just on the side of the wadi.

We walked, scrambled over boulders, waded through a couple of waist deep pools and then reached The Chains leading up a particularly large rock face. From a distance all three of us felt this was going to be easy, only once Cora got about two thirds of the way up did we realise our mistake.
You see, it is a series of metal stirrups set along a length of chain and secured around the above rocks. At first, climbing the vertical rock face it is easy to get your feet into the stirrups and allow them to support your weight. However, the rock levels off a bit towards the top and this leads to problems, especially for the shorter legged members of the group. Regardless, Cora clamoured her way up, while Thierry found potentially an even more challenging way around to meet Cora at the top and CW followed up the Chains shortly thereafter.

From there it was more scrambling, small rock climbs and wading until we reached a virtual dead end. Thierry often had very unique ways of making his way over the rocks, needless to say we were quite often in stitches laughing over what we had to do with our bodies to get ourselves over these massive boulders.

Once as far as we could go, we took our time relaxing in and around the pool which was extremely refreshing and then turned and headed back to the car.

The way down was a lot more fun, since it included several jumps into the aforementioned pools, yes they were deep enough, and even one ‘slide’ (we had some great pictures of some of our jumps and slides but unfortunately they were on Thierry's camera and didn't make it on to our CD so we'll post at a later date, so for now we'll just give you a picture of part of the gorge).

The Chains were still a bit of a pain to go down, but we were rewarded with a couple of extra plunges and then a very welcome lunch under the trees before heading back up the wadi and to Muscat, with gorgeous views of mountains and the sun setting all around us.

For our first foray into wadi exploring it was a great introduction and left us quite invigorated.

Into the shadow of the Mountains of the Sun

With a couple of days to get used to the new environment and climate, we ventured out into the true wildness of Oman. We drove up into the mountains, heading off road for the last dozen kilometres, which Thierry really enjoyed as the driver and I must say we also enjoyed, though some of the bumps left something to be desired. We headed for what is called the Grand Canyon of Oman, Wadi an Nakhur, which sits in the shadow of Jabel Shams, the tallest mountain in Oman at just over 3000 metres.

We parked in what can only loosely be described as a village, since it was really just four or five huts clung to the side of the mountain, with a few begging children, one languid goat, that we could see and two dogs that barked at us until we disappeared below the crest of the hill and onto the path.

The path was littered with rocks, and dodging the occasional thorn tree, we made our way the half kilometre to a small open air hut perched well above the canyon floor for a very picturesque lunch.

Continuing along the path that is hewn from the canyon side for close to three kilometres, we reached the ruins of an old abandoned village.

It is almost incomprehensible to imagine people finding, building and then living in such a remote location. It sits not only all the way at the base of the horseshoe shaped canyon, but is situated two thirds of the way up the canyon wall, right on the edge of a 500 metre drop to a ledge and then another few hundred metres drop from there to the wadi floor below! They created terraced agriculture sections large enough to feed themselves and with the water cascading over the canyon rim, they had enough food and water to keep them out of harm’s way, which was why they lived in such a unique location to begin with. Amazing what humans have done in an effort to survive; though I have never seen them, this reminded me of pictures of the Ansazi villages in New Mexico set high up in cliff faces.

The weather was phenomenal and with drops of 1000 to 1500 metres to the canyon bottom, it was a truly magnificent view, especially from the edge of the pool set just above the village. The pictures only give an idea but just don't do it justice.

The hike was fairly basic though on our return we had a long slow incline to scale, with the last few hundred metres being up an uneven `staircase’ of rocks set into the path. Thankfully our return journey was in the shade of the canyon rim and therefore we didn’t overheat, though the thinner air up there definitely tested our lungs. It was a really good day, even if the driving there and back was fairly extensive for only a few hours walking. Regardless it wet our whistle for other adventures over the next couple of weeks!

The first foray outside Muscat

After rolling out of bed a little groggily from having watched a rather disheartening English Rugby World Cup finals loss to South Africa on our first night, we all went over to the Grand Mosque in Muscat.

It is a fairly newly built mosque, only being constructed in the 1990’s, but it is a fantastic structure. The marble floors and outer cloistered walkways give a feeling of coolness and openness to the entire structure, with large open spaces in between the ablution rooms and the main building. Each walkway is different, with one looking like the overturned hull of a boat, only in marble instead of wood.

As nice as the outside was it was nothing in comparison to the main men’s prayer hall. It is a soaring, awe-inspiring place filled with marble pillars and archways around the walls, an intricately sewn carpet all created as one expansive piece and a chandelier larger than any I had ever seen before filled the ceramic covered dome. It was truly amazing, though we unfortunately only had five minutes there because the mosque was closing to non-Muslims for the day. We plan to make a return trip later on when we have far more time to truly see the space.


After dropping Adeline off at home, the three of us headed for Al-Hazm and A’ Rustaq, about 90 minutes outside of Muscat. It was a flat, fairly boring drive along the coastal plain at first, but as we approached Rustaq especially, the mountains loomed on the horizon. Al-Hazm is a 17^th century fort with a beautiful wooden door that is 300 years old.

This was however the extent of the fort that we could see because they are currently undertaking massive refurbishment projects in an effort to increase the tourism access. This is actually a countrywide effort and I wouldn’t be surprised if we suffer a similar fate later in the trip.

We had a pleasant picnic in the shade of a particularly vindictive acacia tree and then headed into the foothills to Rustaq. This fort was open and completely empty, which allowed us the rare tourist experience of having an entire fortress to ourselves. Built over the falaj irrigation system to allow access to fresh water in the fort, this was an important outpost for guarding the coastal plain from the interior tribal raids in previous centuries.


Many of the Omani doors have a smaller one within them such as this one. An Omani told us this was to ensure all visitors had to bow in reverance to the wali (governor) upon entrance, thereby making sure their egos were checked at the door.

With numerous towers and intricate systems of archer’s slits, cannon and slots for dumping hot oil on invaders, it must have been an endeavour to breach its defences.

It was truly majestic to wander out of the dark stairwells onto the sun-drenched ramparts and take in the towering craggy heights on three sides.

Beginning of an Omani adventure…

After a long day travelling, we arrived safely at Seeb International Airport where our progress became ensnarled in the bureaucratic procedures of entering the Sultanate of Oman. Required to buy a visa upon entry, we queued with just about every British family East of the Suez. There were children in backpacks, children playing in the ropes, children sitting on the floor, children playing video games, they were everywhere! And among them, were the adults, standing patiently in the queue with sets of up to six passports in hand, telling them all it won’t be much longer. Liars.

Visas firmly in hand, and passports duly stamped, much to Cora’s glee, we made our way through to the other side where Adeline and Thierry were waiting. After leaving St Albans in the cold darkness of a 2C degree morning, we stepped out of the airport into the warm darkness of a 27C degree evening.

There is something magical about arriving in a place at night. The mystery and expectation is held longer than when you see your surroundings from the air. After a quick drive to their flat and a humiliating painful experience of watching France lose again to Argentina in the Rugby World Cup, we crashed.

As we awoke to a blindingly brilliant cloudless sunny sky, we took in the surrounding view from the windows. All around us were brown rocky mountains, sandstone and whitewashed buildings with intricate details on the windows and sporadic green shoots.


We spent the day doing various activities that allowed us to see a large portion of this sprawling city. The morning started off with a few errands for the boys getting some water and other such things while the girls were off to the beauty salon so Adeline could get some highlights, and as it turns out, so Cora could get a massage which Adeline had booked for her as a surprise, just one of the many immensly generous things they did for us!

Adeline and Thierry had a wedding ceremony to go to in the afternoon so had a nice hour just the two of us walking along the beach picking up unique shells and trying to figure out what ate the washed up creature which we are pretty certain was some sort of ray.

We got our first taste of the old parts of Muscat including the port area of Muttrah and the old walled area of Muscat.

The latter is dominated by the Sultan’s Palace which is an odd mix of brilliantly white marble archways and an array of colours, curved architectural features, gold shields and languishing guards.

Some of us, i.e. CW, think, that the central piece of the palace looks much like a North Sea oil platform that has been crossed with a Bollywood set.

More tomorrow when we venture outside of Muscat for the first time...

All our bags are packed...

and we're almost ready to go...

The long slow buildup has finally reached its climax...we are t-minus 36 hours until our flight leaves the cold, damp, ever-darkening shores of the UK and heads for the warmth, sunshine and rejuvenating relaxation of Oman. Perhaps relaxation is the wrong term, since Thierry has designed an action packed couple of weeks for us. We anticipate a shed load of fortresses, souks, mosques, mountains, turtles and wadis. The photographer is readying her equipment and the writer is flexing his fingers in preparation for what we hope will truly be a trip of eminent enjoyment and exploration. We will be in sporadic touch over the next two weeks and will look forward to sharing our tales with you upon our return.

Notting Hill Carnival

Notting Hill Carnival is a yearly event, known as Europe's largest street festival. In fact, it's the world's second largest after Rio's Carnival in Brazil.

A predominantly Caribbean themed event, Notting Hill Carnival is home to many wonderful scents and flavours such as jerk chicken, fried plantains, cocktails in fruit shells and curry goat.

In addition to the colourful food, it also attracts a number of colourful characters, such as Elvis here who seems to appear at just about every London event like this we've been to.

The carnival is also known for its famous parade which is family oriented on Sunday and not so much on Monday (the bank holiday). The music is loud, and the beat strong, and people know how to move their bodies. Costumes are colourful, wild and on Monday, relatively scant. We were there on Sunday so only got to see some of the parade and mainly the part directed more for children.

Though we couldn't stay long, we enjoyed the summer sun - an unusual site on an English bank holiday - and enjoyed a taste of the Caribbean with some jerk chicken.