Monday, April 13, 2009

3 days of wadis, ocean, turtles and desert..oh my!

Hello! It's 10pm on Monday, April 13, and a tired Lala is writing you from the town of Nizwa.

We have had the most jam-packed, exhilarating, intense, spiritual, breathtaking 3 days since I last had a chance to update the blog. We left Muscat, headed East, and we've done the following:
  • gone off-roading with our spiffy 4WD
  • hiked up the Wadi Ash Shab for 3 hours
  • met a guide (Said) who took us on an adventure: swimming up the three upper lagoons and into a cave
  • climbed up a gushing, slippery waterfall
  • jumped off a cliff into the lagoon!
  • slept outside on the beach under the stars just outside of Fins
  • stayed in a Barasti hut (like the Bedouin have) at Ras Al Hadd
  • watched green sea turtles lay eggs, bury them, and flounder off back to the ocean.
  • saw little hatchlings (baby turtles) make their way to the water by the light of the full moon
  • drove ourselves into the desert
  • met our Bedouin guide (Amor Ali) and his family and enjoy dinner with them all
  • had the ride of our lives 4WDing up and down and across the sand dunes!
  • rode a camel
  • slept under the stars on top of a sand dune (no tent)
  • learned about the falaj water systems (from Ali a local that wanted to show us how they worked). These systems are used to irrigate crops and bring water to houses and farms in Oman (also used in Iran and the UAE)
  • saw a 300 year old fort

We arrived in Nizwa around 5pm this afternoon. We are all feeling fantastic, healthy, incredibly awed by the beauty of this country and the friendliness of the people who live here and absolutely exhausted. We are spoiling ourselves with a hotel room, with a swimming pool, a chance to clean a couple of articles of clothing before heading out to the mountains of Jabal Akhdar tomorrow for hiking!

Bye for now.
~Lala

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am exhilarated and tired just from reading about your adventure. Remind me never to go traveling with the 4 of you unless I can afford intravenous vitamins :-)

Seriously, this sounds like the adventure of a life time. Thank you for taking the time to update your blog and sharing the excitement with us, and best wishes as you blast off on your trip into the mountains of Jabal Akhdar (can you say that 3 times fast? :-)

JL said...

That's all?! I did all that before breakfast today ;)

Happy to hear you got to ride a camel. That had to be super cool.

Steph said...

Sweet!!! OMG it sounds like a blast! I already look forward to the next update.

Have fun!

Steph :)
xox

jag said...

Oh yeah?? Well, I put away the last of my Christmas decorations on Friday! Ha. Beat that. :-)

I am so grateful that you take the time to bring us along via this blog... what a trip!! Blessings, xox