Offroad fun!

I have been quoted a 2-hours wait. I've learnt to be creative. So excuse this long post, I have plenty of time today. As I sit here on a bench at the side of the Al Maha car wash, waiting for the mighty 4x4 to be cleared from the caked salty sand under its engine and the dust to be washed away inside and out I'll use this time to tell you about our latest adventure. Ohh I love technology (sometimes).

The alarm went off at 6.10am. The room was still dark and my eyes still stuck together. As I snoozed the annoying thing I figured out that surely with 3 families with small children, even if we took it easy being late was not going to make us the last ones. I was right, in fact we could have taken it even easier. 4 hours later between pee stops and emergency car roof rack repairs we were still making our way out of Muscat. It didn't bother us. This is Oman, if you want to live a good life take it easy and relax. It is up to you how you take the inevitable unexpected diversions: you can have a nervous breakdown on a daily basis or just see the funny side. The latter works better for me.

About two hours or so from Muscat we were reaching Al Wasil. This is where you normally enter the desert but seen that we were nearing lunch time and we were nowhere near half way through to our final destination we decided to stick to the main road. By 1pm we were crossing a sleepy town with more goats around than humans. I liked it. It really felt like we were in a forgotten place that got stuck back in time. I was waiting for a bundle of dry weed to appear tumbling down the road but maybe the goats ate it before it had a chance. We stopped for a quick lunch and a leg stretch by the windy beach and then back on the cars.

After spending a few hours on a graded track and later racing against the lowering sun we decided to stop and camp for the night. I am not too sure exactly where we were. There were tradintional fishing villages dotted around and sadly a lot of rubbish as a reminder that despite the seemengly remote location in fact we were not too far from civilization and its plastic. After a while spent trying to find a clean spot on the beach we headed slightly inland towards the desert sand where we set camp on a lovely stretch of clean, soft sand.

The following morning it was our turn to make breakfast. As I wished I could sleep a bit longer for the second day in a row I dragged myself out of the tent at sun rise and dug my feet in the cold sand. It wasn't long before we were all packed and back in our cars. A full morning and early afternoon of technical offroad driving through difficult terrains and lots of excitement. It was a fun packed day which ended in a remote corner of paradise.

We headed straight into the desert and tackled huge dunes, the heart racing when our car span to the side as we descended the first one. Simon was driving, it was his first go at high dunes. I was literally shitting myself. The bottom of the dune looked so far below, with the car out of line the heavy back was dragging us to one side (mine). I kept on leaning towards Simon (as if it was goin to make any difference) an instinctive reflex more than an effective solution. At one point I was seriously considering opening the door and jumping out of the car, then I thought better of it, ok high centre of gravity makes these machines more prone to rolling over, but we were sliding slowly and surely these monsters were built for this (with a skilled driver at the wheel).

Yet the idea of the car rolling upside down the dune with all our heavy cargo of cooler boxes, pots and pans and other necessary junk loose on the inside was making me extremely uncomfortable. As we reached the bottom of the dune my muscles unclenched and I started breathing again.

It is hard to convey the excitement of the day in words. The desert was absolutely beautiful and as we crossed it in our convoy of 6 cars, sometimes stopping for photos, sometimes to get unstuck, others just to wait for each other, I kept on looking around at this immense open space and I felt so free, so small, so part of it and so excited. You may think of the desert as one samey boring landscape but it changes a lot as you drive through it. Sometimes you find a solitary tree standing proudly under the blinding sun, giving shelter to local birds (or us passing nomads), to remind you that there is water under that sand after all and that even such a harsh landscape harbours life.

Sometimes you have hardened sand scuplted by the wind, others lots of little bushes on top of sand mounds and at times you encounter some other unfamiliar vegetation.
As we neared the road towards the sea and we climbed the last dune the landscape opened up to an immense flat of hardened sand. We lined up, pushed down the accelerators and raced a few kilometers at the top of our speed towards the paved road at the far end.

We pumped up the tires up to get on the tarmac only to bleed them again a few kilometers down the road. We enetered the longest and most difficult terrain in our offroad itinerary.

As we headed towards the sea we had to contend with the vast salt flats, a layered ground of crusty sand surface covering soft wet sand and salty water bottom. As the crust broke under the tyres, the car would sink in the slushy sand underneath creating a lot of resistance. Sometimes the bottom would harden and sharp salt crystals and rocks would protrude so we had to adjust the speed and drive around them carefully to avoid a flat tyre. At some point we stopped, J. Had to check a leak under her car. We kept on sniffing it thinking it was petrol.

We were miles from any basic road and the thought of breaking down out there was daunting. I didn't think we could even dream of towing that far, let alone in that terrain. Luckily we soon established that it was condensation from the AC and we kept going.

The last part of the drive was long and tiring but still a lot of fun.

Finally the landscape opened up to blinding white sand and turquiouse blue sea framed by emeral green lagoons with pink flamingos that struggled into the air as we drove past, perturbed by our arrival.

We had reached our final destination, Barr Al Hickman. Mouth wide open I was awed by the beauty of this place, miles of white beach so remote and wild. It was a corner of paradise.
We drove a litte bit longer along the beach and found a spot to set camp.

It was hard to leave at 3pm the following day! But then we have other adventures to look forward to. That was just one way of spending a long weekend in Oman.

Oh the car is almost done and my laptop battery is dying, I hope it was a good read. I'll post some photos soon.

Climate derangements

Dear all,


I have read the news and looked at all the photos on Facebook with interest..
Lots of unusual snow? That is so yesterday! ;)


While you are all snowed in by the greatest snowfall in England in 18 years, the temperatures here are already set on a constant hike towards the other end of 30c and while you play snowfights in the parks, grateful to old dear tfl for enabling you to skive off work, we are planning our next weekend adventure crossing the Sharqiyah Sands.


OK we had to plan this one because we were jelaous of all the fun you are having over there with the white powder... ;)


We have now turned the page on our winter: alas a couple of days of freakishly heavy rain and scarcely a week of inconsistent cloud cover and temperatures hovering around 20c by day and a "freezing" 14c at night.


The thing is, you may not believe it but you are not the first in hosting a freaky snow show.


I know, I know probably this sounds just so minor in the hype of the current weather craze in England but the world is not the same any more. We must have crossed the line with pollution a while back because the weather has become so unpredictable that it now even snows in the desert (yes that's right).


Could this be a sign that we are finally heading towards the so much speculated apocalypse? ;)


It happened just over a week ago, we had snow in some parts of Oman and in the UAE. Luckily nowhere near us but it's enough to spark some confusion and of course, fuel some new crazy ideas...


http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/01/25/64949.html


Yes this is the Gulf for you, it always manages to take you by surprise! You see, if they are not making it bigger then they'll make sure they get it first, including some freak snow event in January.


Anyway, climate derangements apart, I have to say that the thought of London turned into alpine village overnight is quite exciting. Judging by the photos on Facebook it looks rather pretty under the thick blanket of snow.

Have fun for us too, won't you?

Rain!!

If you thought it never rains in Muscat, think again. It DOES and when it does it is serious business.
We had confirmation a couple of days ago when a storm broke out.
I was alone at home, Simon was working rather late, typical that the first time had to be on a night like that. Hell broke out.
It started with lots of lightening, then a call from our maid telling me that she would not come the following day because her house was flooded and her things were floating away. Little did I know it was going to be us next.

I started unplugging electrical items as I realised the storm was coming but didn't manage to reach upstairs that the electricity went off. The whole area was in the dark. Things started bashing against the house outside, objects flying from the surrounding building sites lifted by the strong winds. Every now and then a flash of light would brighten up the rooms inside the house... then the water started flowing in. Huge pools of water formed at every window and with the strong wind blowing in a favourable direction water rushed in from under the kitchen and rooftop doors. In no time I heard water coming down the stairs like a waterfall splashing loudly on the landings all the way to the ground floor, the noise amplified by the echo. Running around trying not too slip on the wet floor and stairs I tried to stop the water coming in with every towel I could get hold of. Finally I found our torch. By the time I got to the kitchen the whole floor was covered with water.

I don't know who was more terrified: the cats scared by the noises were skidding around on the wet floors looking for cover or me worried that something might fly in through one of the windows.

By the time Simon was home after I called him in panic, the storm was over and gone. We stayed up till late to mop up all the water.

The following day the electricity was back. We had complete cloud cover and some more rain. It felt like being back in England. Although the wind had stopped and it wasn't as bad as the night before, more water came through every window.

If it wasn't for the wet floors it would have been even exciting but now I have had enough!

We knew the building quality here was bad but now we know just how bad. How hard it is to make windows and outer doors water tight is beyond my comprehension. I guess that although I hear that when it rains it is always heavy here, it is just not worth the effort (my opinion is not going to make the difference).

Today the sun is shining again. If it wasn't for the lower temperatures, some scattered clouds in the sky over the mountains, the puddles in the street and the mess brought by the wind, you'd think it was all a dream.

Health & Safety in Oman

I hadn't mentioned yet that over the Christmas period (at last) we had the water connected to our house (until then we were having regular refills of our water tank over the roof by the blue truck).


The day of the connection, a guy, I assume an employee of the water company, turned up unannounced at the door asking if he could use our electricity, seemingly to run whatever device he was carrying to check the water pressure.


In the meantime as we had run out of water and I had no idea the water was being connected that day, the blue truck I had called earlier also arrived and started filling our tank.

The tank filling business always created a huge pool of water at the front of our house so the ground got a bit wet.



Undeterred the water company employee passed his cable through the puddle, over the front gate, into our flooded front garden, through our front door; plugged the wires (literally) into the nearest socket and got on with his job.


The following picture requires no further explanation....

Christmas season

Happy New Year to you all!

Following our trip to the UK things got very busy. Our long weekend to Dubai led us right into the Christmas period during which Angela and John (Simon's parents) joined us in Muscat to leave us on 1st January. Hence no time to update the blog until now.

Things are now back to normal. We are relaxing in the garden taking in the perfect beach temperatures, the blue sky and the beautiful sun.

I guess many of you will be curious to know how we spent our Christmas period in Muscat. Of course being a Muslim country Christmas is not a mainstream holiday here yet, if you ignore the sun shining and the beautiful weather, Xmas day was more or less a "standard" affair for us with food, family and even Xmas service at a Christian Church not far from our home.

On the 24th we went out for a nice meal at the Shangri-la where we even had a table-side show of Christmas Carols, ate turkey and lots of other lovely food!

For Xmas day we had lunch at home where to my dismay I realised that duck is indeed a small animal with very little meat! lol! Maybe it wasn't the best choice but it was nice nonetheless :)

We visited a Christian church not far from home for Xmas mass. It was a very interesting affair. The mass was in English.. or intended to be, although at times it sounded as if it had switched to some obscure foreign language. It didn't in reality, it was just the priest's strong accent and a slight lisp. I guess it made me concentrate more... maybe.
It was interesting to see how extended the Christian community is here, especially considering that the church we went to is not the only one in Muscat.
The majority of the people there seemed to be from South East Asia, a mix of Sri-Lankan, Indians and Philippinos. I think you could count westerners on the tips of your fingers. Probably because most tend to fly back to their own countries for this period of the year or maybe because the ones who stay aren't as bothered about going to mass or go to some other church...

Not sure, I thought I'd see more.

Although at times we were working in between Xmas and New Year we took some time to visit places and do some trips outside Muscat. We spent 26th December by a wadi, visited Nizwa on another day and also took the opportunity to visit the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque.

It was nice to spend Christmas with family!

Here is a link to the photos taken during this period.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/liquidworld/sets/72157611995480911/

As usual the private ones will only be accessible to those who have signed up to flickr.com and who I have added to my list of contacts.
Send me an email after you have signed up to ask me to add you. For obvious reasons I will only add family and friends. If you have stumbled onto this blog by chance but you are not part of this trusted circle, you may still enjoy the public photos.

Happy New Year!

Muscat it is...

Back in Muscat... It was really nice to see a few of you in London.. a real shame to miss some others, especially Clara, Martin and the children. :(
I hope you are all feeling better now.



We got back the day before yesterday. Left London early in the morning with the meter reading -1c and landed at around 10pm in 25c of glorious sea breeze. This is more my element.

Although I have to say that the weather here has somewhat changed in the last few days. We are having a few clouds around and today for the first time since I moved here I saw some "real" rain and crazy wind, yet it doesn't last too long so I guess it is just a diversion. The clouds over the mountains make a very dramatic backdrop.

The visit to London was great for a number of reasons: seeing friends was the top one. Thank you Mike and Debbie for Mike's lovely birthday bash at Bovey Castle, really something to remember!! Thanks a lot Alex and Julie for putting us up and for the lovely meals (I can't believe you still had the energy to look after us after the long days at work!). Thanks Joe and Alice for the amazing dinner on Sunday night... I almost struggled to get into my fancy gown for the Crystal Ball last night!


Thanks to all you who turned up at the May Fair bar on Saturday night. It was really, really lovely to see you all.

Many have asked how it felt being back in London and whether we miss it so I guess this must be the top burning question for most of you.

While living in London I always thought that I would miss it a lot once I left yet this trip made us realise even more how happy we are in Muscat.

It was certainly strange to be back but although familiar it didn't feel too much like home any longer. It felt busy and tiring with lots of people rushing about. I guess the cold and rainy weather didn't help.

Do we miss it? Simon and I are united on this front: apart from people there is nothing we miss from the cosmopolitan city.
Don't get me wrong, it's a great city and we both love it and have enjoyed it for a number of years while living there but Muscat is definitely ticking all the boxes for us at this point in life.

After all what should we miss? The beach is never too far, the sun shines for about 357 days of the year, natural wonders and places to explore are just a few hours away, the lifestyle is as chilled out as we wanted and now when we come to London we can enjoy it on holiday.

Mabe it's a new phase in life, maybe it's the sign of age progression but this life really suits us. And we can't wait to share it a bit with family and friends; hopefully see you again soon.

3-day weekend break

Between weekend trips, work, other chores, Yoga lessons and Arabic classes I'll try to give you an update...

The latest highlight: our recent 3-day weekend trip out of Muscat; it was awesome! It was my first trip away from the capital and although I still think Muscat is a fairly relaxing city (definitely nothing like the pace of London), coming back from the desert on Saturday afternoon it really felt like a big bustling city with all those cars and people.

We visited Ras al Hadd and watched nesting Green Turtles at Ras al Jinz, apparently the biggest Green Turtle nesting site in the world. We saw a big turtle laying eggs and small “turtle-litas”running towards the moon into the water... well there was one that looked a bit confused and kept on going round in circles!

On the way to Ras al Hadd we stopped at various places along the coastal road swimming in beautiful wadis (rivers) and stopping for a dip at the sink hole by Bamah, a deep hole in the ground filled with beautiful turquoise blue salty water.

After spending the night at the Turtle Beach Resort at Ras al Hadd we turned inland for our circular route back to Muscat, stopping at another beautiful wadi and then, icing on the cake, we headed for Wahiba Sands, the desert, where we spent the night at the Nomadic Desert Camp (www.nomadicdesertcamp.com) This is a desert camp owned and run by a Bedouin family.

On the way there (off-road desert track) we stopped for some Omani coffee and dates at the place where most of the family still lives, in the desert. We had a ride on their camels, who reluctantly took us on their backs and watched them being fed just before sunset. An interesting business animated by the young guy chasing an insistent free roaming camel (not owned by the family) who wanted to join the feast.. After witnessing the funny scene we got back into our car and followed our host's 4x4 deeper into the desert reaching the camp just after sunset.

After dinner we had coffee around the fire under the stars and the glowing full moon before going to bed. We got up just before sun rise (in reality we were woken up by a screaming baby next door but what the heck it was worth it!). We climbed the dunes and watched the sun raising: it was amazing. The colours of the orange/golden sand are so intense at that time in the morning it's hard to explain what a spectacle sunrise in the desert is!

The morning air in the desert is pleasantly cold (I was wearing my fleece for the first time since I moved here!). I even tried walking bare feet on the sand and it was painfully icy cold. It's incredible how cold it gets in the desert at night!

After breakfast we jumped on the car and went for some dune bashing with our 4x4 (following the guide in his car of course). I was the driver! My very first drive up and down steep dunes! My heart was racing, it was such and adrenaline booster. I loved every moment of it!.
We'll definitely be going back. Next time maybe we'll do the desert crossing....

Anyway, words are not enough to describe the beauty of the places we've visited. Have a look at the full set of photos and book your tickets. This is definitely a country worth visiting. I am loving it... every day a bit more... ma' as-salaama!