Linda arrived this morning at 5:00 AM. Yesterday I did a
practice run to the airport, so I was able to go to the correct place to pick
her up. Her flight was a bit early and she was through customs in 25 minutes. I
made it back to the apartment by 6:15, my usual time to go to school. Very nice
to have her here, she had a bit of a rest in the morning but right now crashed
about 7:00 PM. A 25 hour journey can be tiring, Vancouver to Muscat! Temps in
the mid 40s today, it is a hot place.
Masirah day 3: We left on the 7:30 ferry which left at 7:52.
There wasn’t such a mad scramble for room on the boat in the morning. We left
with an almost full load. The water was
choppy and waves hitting us side on but the ferry was very stable and not even
rocking. It took about an hour and 45 minutes to cross. Immediately after we
left the ferry we passed Km of salt flats. Apparently the sea water floods in
and is trapped and of course evaporates, in the +40 heat. We stopped to watch a
fellow scooping salt into bags. He was bare feet on the salt flat, gathering
the salt into piles and scooping it into bags with his hands, without any
tools. He looked tired and not overly happy, I‘d say, an example of almost
salve labor. We continued on through the desert, taking a different
road then we arrived on. More scrubby vegetation, hardy shrubs and trees in
some areas. More camels and goats roaming freely, had to stop to let a camel
cross, they go where they want to go, so we had to be careful. Hitting a camel
would be similar to hitting a moose. We took a short off road trip in to see
some white cliffs, didn’t get stuck, but the heat was unbelievable. Later on we
stopped in Adam, it is a walled city with mud brick walls, that was inhabited
up until the early 70s. It is located in a beautiful oasis, lush with date
palms and lots of greenery. On the last leg of our trip we came upon a huge
group of dunes. They were so beautiful, but with a lot of drifting sand.
We arrived home by 8:00 PM, a great
break from work.
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| Ferry on the way back |
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| Trying to get off the ferry while cars jockeyed positions to get on the ferry. |
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| Gathering salt from salt flats, with bare feet and bare hands. |
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| Real sea salt |
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| desert |
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| Off road excursion |
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| Dunes are art. |
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| Dune art |
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| Our 4x4 by dunes |
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| Blowing sand and masked gas attendant |
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| camel crossing |
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| Old walled city at Adam |
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| Date palms |
