Oman - From the Desert to the Mountains

The night in the desert was superb.  A total tourist event of course, but still amazing to look up at a sky full of more stars than you've ever seen before in a jet black sky. 

A long drive followed, out of the desert and across the plains, stopping at a market along the way (our drivers shopped more than we did,  new pashminas) and onto Bahla Fort for a picnic lunch.  While we were eating and watching a drone flying overhead, a woman came over to talk to us.  Egyptian, teaching at the German University in Muscat, with sons at school in London and a first degree from Strathclyde Uni, she was there to film the castle  for conservation research.  In a country with little written history, last year they were interviewing local residents to try and capture living memories, including a woman over 90 (she thinks...) who remembered visiting an aunt who lived in the castle as the wife of a soldier and could relay stories her aunt used to tell.  Once a woman gave birth in one of the quarters and placed her baby on the windowsill as is traditional (deep window ledges were used for all forms of storage and display) only for the room to collapse around them.  An advantage of building in mud, not stone, they were merely covered in crumbled dust and lived to tell the tale, while the house was rebuilt.  These things happen...

On to Nizwa and a new hotel. On the way, our driver pointed out a white building high up on the mountainside, and told us we were going up there.  Yeah yeah.... Then coming up through the foothills from Nizwa town, we were stopped at a checkpoint.  Only 4x4 vehicles from here onwards.  Onwards was upwards, quite literally, climbing over 1800metres in less than 6km at an average ascent of 10%. It is "the" hill climb in the Tour of Oman cycle event.   Think Ben Nevis and add 50%, then take away the snow.  The journey down and back up tomorrow will be...interesting. But the hotel view is spectacular.  

For the ultra fans among you, the hotel was a checkpoint in the Oman by UTMB race.  The runners climbed *down* 600m to get here...

For days our guide has been saying that we were going to the Grand Canyon and we thought he was joking. Turns out he wasn't... up there is Jabal Shams, the highest point in Arabia, 2 kilometres down is the canyon floor and an abandoned village. Somewhere in between were narrow trails, with hikers and cyclists edging along the walls. Somewhere on the viewpoint I was breathing heavily at the thought of going back down the dirt-track-pretending-to-be-a-road we'd just weaved up. After that the hill climb back to the hotel was a breeze, even with the tropical rainstorm. This country is just stunning...

After the previous night's storms, there were a lot of puddles, even down in the plains.

We explored the Fort and Castle: where European defenders poured boiling oil over ramparts, the Omani poured boiling date syrup through narrow gaps in front of doorways, and removed floorboards from stairs to send assailants tumbling into deep pits.

Then the souk, to haggle for gifts and spices and dates and jewellery. Also for me to sneeze in the fruit souk and cause a minor kerfuffle. Probably just as well I didn't do that in the weapons souk; yes there was one but I don't think I'd have got anything past customs.