Muscat is the capital of Oman and sits on the edge of the Arabian Sea. The city is made up of low whitewashed buildings of varying sizes. There is no trash, I repeat, no trash anywhere. We were in a 4×4 jeep for a 4-hour trek from our port to the Wadi Al Arbaeen in the middle of the desert. We never saw trash. Lots and lots of goats, date palms, no cows and no trash.
Wadi means valley and this place was pretty spectacular. We were a convoy of 15 Land Cruisers with 4 guests in each air-conditioned (thank goodness) jeep. Unfortunately our driver didn’t speak much English so we didn’t get much information out of him. We drive and drive until we get to the end of a paved road and then it gets fun. We are on a one lane curvy, up and down, rock bound path (wouldn’t call it a road) for maybe 40 minutes and it’s obvious our driver has done this many times before because he never slows down. No curve is too curvy, no rock is too big, we push on until the path opens up to the ocean. The smart guy (you know who) in our car kept saying we were driving parallel to the ocean; we were all skeptics and then, there it was. We first visit a fish market and bathrooms which is always an adventure. We get a bit of history about our excursion for the day; get back into the jeeps for another 20 minute drive to the Wadi. Fresh water pools are in abundance here; it’s beautiful. The blue skies, the lush greenery, colorful rock formations are amazing considering we were in the middle of a desert.
Next we head to a small city where a family of about 300 live. Small colorful houses, with narrow streets and copper doors were quite interesting. We were told don’t even think about taking pictures of women; men ok if you ask first to get permission.
Back in the jeep to another area of green-blue water pools where we were able to swim or for most of us cool down. The water was crystal clear until you walked in and touched the muddy bottom but in 60 seconds, clear again.
Last stop was at a dam where a beautiful park had been built with tables, benches and magnificent date palms. We were given box lunches which included naan and hummus, date Newtons, fried triangle things which were delish, sandwiches, fruit and water. This was an 8-hour excursion and we were beat, mostly from the sun, so not much conversation on the way back to the ship.
