Thursday, February 19th.
This morning 6 Toyota Land Rovers picked us up for a journey up into the mountains around Khasab. I was in the car with Donna and Andy and our driver was a young enthusiastic 22 year old. He was eager to please and practise his English. We drove off road and up the mountain on a relatively newly constructed dirt and very dusty road which has been built to service the locals and an army post near the top of the mountain. We stopped at several lookouts, the first of which was at 300m where we had a great view of the switchbacks we had driven to this spot and the coast of the Arabian Sea. As we continued up the mountain, we saw evidence of homes from the past made of stones or dug out of the side of the mountain. We came across a fertile valley where they could grow some crops during the wet season of the winter. We saw goats, some sheep and a few donkeys as well. At our picnic stop at 1300m I found a bush or small tree that was blooming with pretty small pink and white flowers. The tree had no leaves, but the twigs were green. This is an adaptation that I had seen in the south western US in a tree called the Paolo Verdi. The twigs are full of chlorophyll which makes them green and allows them to do photosynthesis in the branches, which means the tree doesn’t need leaves, which give off too much moisture in the summer heat. We had a drink and some fruit while the drivers had a rest. They cannot eat or drink anything until sunset as it is the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan.
On the way back we saw a lot of new build homes and noticed that they were all in walled enclosures. This is for several reasons. It provides privacy from prying eyes, provides women the opportunity to go outside without covering up, keeps the dust and wind down and provides security for the family.
When we got back we had lunch at the hotel but had to eat inside to respect the people and not to be seen eating during the day. Then we had an hour to relax by the pool before boarding the bus for the airport, which was tiny. There is only one gate and we were the only plane that afternoon. Oman has two parts. We are in the small section at the northern tip of the UAE. To get to the other much larger part of Oman you have to drive through the UAE which means more border crossings. So we flew. The flight was only 45 minutes, but still they gave us a sandwich, some dates and a drink. We were at our hotel in the capital city of Muscat by 7:15 and had the evening to ourselves, and again everyone disappeared.
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