Author archive
24 January 2011
Upon landing in Muscat at 2325 I made my own way to Ammi and Salome’s place. They had kindly done some of my laundry during my few days away. Unfortunately I must have left a piece of tissue in one of the pockets and it left bits through the load, but Salome tidied it all […]
24 January 2011
Job’s Tomb I picked up a rental car from Avis at the airport last night … it was the first time I had driven a left-hand drive and on the right side of the road. John, April and I set off to Job’s tomb about half hour’s drive from Salalah. Job is a prophet to […]
23 January 2011
Chris, a friend of Vicky and Steve’s took us out for a big outing today. John and April (Vicky’s uncle and aunt) and I were lucky enough to experience Chris’ knowledge of the area and bird life. We travelled east of Salalah in his 4WD to several springs (yes, in the desert) where birdlife was […]
22 January 2011
The bus arrived early in Salalah by about an hour … despite a holdup due to another bus catching fire on the road. The fire service were there to put out the fire … impressive considering it was in the middle of nowhere. Vicky collected me from the bus station before going to work. Vicky […]
21 January 2011
We had an early start to catch Nizwa’s Friday markets in action … and to save ourself parking woes when it gets into full swing. It felt a bit strange for the livestock market to be in the relatively restored town centre. Other products like vegetables, meat are sold in permanent buildings (much like Melbourne’s […]
20 January 2011
Ammi and Salome offered to collect me from Sur today, saving me an early morning bus ride to Nizwa via Muscat. It would be about a 3 hour detour for them to get to Nizwa through Sur. It was very kind of them … and Salome had the back seat in the Jeep which was […]
19 January 2011
Around Sur Today our driver took us around for a brief tour around Sur before leaving for sights further afield. Sur is famous for handmade dhows so it seemed appropriate we started at a dhow-building yard. Text continues after this gallery. Heavenly Wadi Shab The highlights were meant to be Wadi Tiwi and […]
18 January 2011
Above: Token photo from our accommodation in Sur, since photos weren’t allowed with the turtles. Teaming up Ammi kindly dropped me off to the bus station this morning for my 7:30 am bus to Sur. Sur is a seaside town that’s often used for excursions to watch the leatherback turtles nesting. Unfortunately Sur is still a […]
17 January 2011
I had originally planned to Muscat today for the Wahiba Sands … large expanses of dunes. It’s stuff I had done before in Dubai and Morocco, so I opted to stay in Muscat today. These things have a certain romantic novelty value and are expensive … twice is enough. The day quickly disappeared … researching and […]
16 January 2011
The layout of Muscat is a little unusual. It’s like several towns that are not quite joined. I took the baisa-bus (shared minivan) to Mutrah this morning. This is the port-side part of the city. It’s quite pretty walking along the Corniche which links it to old Muscat or Muscat proper. While there wasn’t many […]