Look close to see a sea turtle with white barnacle on its back.

sea turtle again

Nora preparing to jump.

On way to see dolphins

No smoking for sure.

One of the veteran cats that hang around in the heat. Only the tough survive.

Sipping mixed juice in front of Sutan's yacht

Room mate

No caption needed

Place where we get the layered fruit drinks.

Saturday was a day at the beach, we went about 2:30 and realized because of the heat, the only place is straight into the water. Snorkeling in the bay at Majan Beach we see many kinds of fish and most of the time see a turtle. Yesterday when snorkeling in a bay, on the way back from dolphin watching Nora saw a large ray. Thinking of Steve Irwin, she didn’t stay long in that area. We also saw a long yellow sea snake on top of the water when we were dolphin watching. By now the water isn’t very refreshing, it’s like a hot bath and doesn’t cool us down much at all.

Sunday was another beach day, and Nora and one of the teachers climbed to the top of the cliff and jumped in the water. We did a snorkel tour before hand to make sure there was nothing in the water. The water there is very deep, maybe 20 m. I had my water camera and was able to film the jump, a bit shaky since I was treading water for quite a while. We also spotted a turtle hanging out on the bottom, he was easy to identify as he had a big white barnacle on his back.
Will try to upload the dolphins and a few other movies, if internet lets me. If not will do when we get home.

Souq

Wednesday evening a group of us went to the ‘What’s my Line’ comedy show at he Crowne Royale Hotel. Funny fellows but all strong British accents and we missed out on some of the lines because of that.

Thursday night (Friday at home) we went to a party before we went to the pub to listen to Simon and Katie’s band play their last gig for the summer. There were 4 Canadians at the party. Makes us feel good to see each other. Very nice people for sure. After the party we moved on to the pub to listen to the last show. No drinks for me, for sure, hard enough to drive in Muscat dead sober.  Friday morning Nora and I went to the Marina where we met the boat we booked to take us out to see the dolphins. They were amazing, twisting, jumping and following the boat. As we drove to the site we spotted a yellow sea snake in the water, a good reason not to swim in the open ocean. On the way back we were able to snorkel in one of the bays, Nora saw a large ray. Thinking of Steve Irwin she didn’t stay close to observe it. In the afternoon went back to the souq and did a lot more exploring. The place is a warren of passageways and shops. So many vendors trying to get your attention and keep it. Every purchase is a test of wits, us trying to guess the lowest price they will agree to and them trying to bluff as to how high they can sell it to us. Usually we can get 20% to 25% off an initial price.

One of the Sultan's yachts

Corniche in Mutrah

Shooting the breeze outside Mutrah Sook

 

The evening of June 9^th   was an informal school dinner at the Turkish House Restaurant. This is a huge restaurant and the food is very generous. About 30 of the school staff attended and after 8 the food started coming to the tables. First course of hummus and other Arabic starters served with a huge slab of bread about a foot and a half long, which is straight out of the oven, then two salads, chicken and beef kebabs, pastries with meat, pastries with vegetables, French fries, calamari rings. The last is a huge fish each, grilled and split open. Dessert was Arabic pastries and two cakes. It was a huge feast, had to make sure I was quite hungry on arrival.

Food at Turkish House

Food at Turkish House

Nora is here

 

It has been a year since I last drove to the airport in Muscat, so I left about 9:30, Sunday, to meet Nora’s flight. Amazingly this is the time of day that everyone comes out, the traffic in town was very heavy until I hit the highway. I arrived by a different road and since there is always some kind of construction, I missed the parking lot and was heading back to the highway. I pulled over just to assess the situation and a taxi driver who was waiting around, saw me, and I asked him where the parking entrance was. He leaned in the car, motioned for me to move my bag off the passenger seat and he jumps in the passenger side and proceeded to give me directions as I drove, on where to turn in to the parking area.  On arrival at the parking lot he jumped out and trotted back to his cab! The flight was delayed so she arrived at 11:00 PM instead of 9:30PM. No complications, and she was able to get a visa, collect all her luggage and we made it back home no problem.

Next day Nora slept 13 hours, till 2:00.  A group of us went to dinner at the Silk Route, my favourite restaurant in Muscat. We all ordered different dishes and shared. It was an excellent meal.

Tuesday was the day the girls were waiting for, for since I arrived. Nora came to school with Orb Factory tiaras for the girls to decorate. They had a wonderful time decorating their own tiara and looked like Arabian princesses when they wore them. Many thanks to Steve Kay at OrbFactory.com for the tiaras.

By Tuesday evening I was feeling extraordinarily tired. That was the beginning of 4 days of a very disabling bout of the Omani flu.  All work and social engagements cancelled till I was mobile. Nora is a very good nurse.

Went to Majan beach yesterday and it was beautiful as usual. Nora was able to see the sea turtles and identified some fish since they were in the fish tank at work. We saw sea anemones with little clown fish hiding in them, trigger fish and Parrot fish.  

Next time I’m taking my underwater camera  Linda sent, and will be able to get some pictures.

Mountain Trek

Friday morning Adrian, Helen and I set off on a mountain trekking adventure. We met at the Dolphin Club, where I left my car, and we rode in style in a brand new pistachio green jeep Wrangler. We met up with the other caravan members at a service station outside Muscat. The tour was arranged by the company Guide Oman. There were about 35-40 4x4s and quite a few people. The tour guides brought along all our food and a portable kitchen, where they prepared a feast for us at every meal, (4 in all). We drove along the highway for about an hour until about a half hour from Sur and then we turned off onto a mountain road. We climbed from sea level to 1350 meters. There were countless hairpin turns and on the switch back road. The road was alternately a very steep climb and steep descents. The road has been carved out of the side of the mountain, in fact the very roads I was looking at two weeks ago and thinking to my self, “I don’t want to go up there”.  The sides have been shored up with the rocks taken out when making the road , so it was like a guard rail.  Helen and Adrian drive like professionals and the Wrangler was very stable, so I wasn’t scared at all.

We climbed till we reached the plateau and we stopped for an awesome buffet lunch. Very good and lots of it. From there we went to see a huge sinkhole, which contains the world’s second largest cave.  I stayed away from the rim.

We drove from there to a landing strip in the plateau, which made a very good camp site. We picked a spot, unpacked out gear and set up camp. In our circle we had 3 vehicles. We made a camp fire after a delicious supper and sat around till members started falling asleep in their chairs.  Helen brought me a blow up mattress and I bought a sleeping bag, so I was all set. Next morning we were all up early and had some of Adrian’s coffee, before we went for breakfast at 8:00. The donkeys that live close by were up and braying and running around. The camels who most likely know they can get hand outs from campers, started coming in to camp as well.  There were about 15 of them, and some were following people trying to eat their food. On the road again we drove on more of the same switch-backs, steep ascents and descents and more roads on the side of the mountain. We saw many beehive edifices, which are ancient structures, with their purpose still debated. They are made of stones and shaped into stout stone towers of many sizes. After that we began our descent into the valley. The way down was very rocky and bumpy, if I had a cream churn, we would have made butter long before w e reached the bottom. In the valleys we often drove in the wadi roads, which are roads in the dry or partially dry river beds, with lots of rocks. After about 30 or 40 Km of bumpy dusty roads we reached a large wadi with a deep pool. We were glad to have a swim while dinner was prepared. After dinner we set off and drove and drove over about 30 km of wadi roads, crossing streams often, till we reached the flat top road.  Great time!

Wrangler crew

On the way up

Looking down at the sea

Waiting for lunch

Village children

OmaniVillage

Goats on the hillside

Jeep Wrangler

Huge cave

My bed and our wheels

morning at the camp site

looking for his breakfast

Camel

Going down

Goats in a village

The road ahead of us

Beehive structures

where we are going

Wadi crossing

wadi swimming

House on the way

Off roading in the wadi

A Little Drive

Every day is a busy day, lots of work at school and more correcting and home-work when I get home.  Saturday and Sunday were great days at the beach and the cove has white sand and lots of coral.  I rarely just swim, I always snorkel, there is so much to see under the water. The last two days we saw a turtle and were able to follow it and watch it come up for air, just one gulp and its down again. There are amazing schools of silver fish, and they just part and swim around us. Sometimes we are surrounded by thousands of fish perhaps 15 cm long. We see an occasional sea anemone and Nemo as well as all the other different types. The coral is also so varied and amazing.

After school yesterday a friend asked me to go to Ruwi, a part of the city about 10 km away. Ruwi is a place I often get lost, so this time I used a map and we were able to find the store we needed fairly easily.  On the way out, not as easy, Sushelia asked directions from fellows in Hindi and they told us the way out. We were on the way….but took a wrong turn off and that was it, we were on our way up the mountain to the town behind Muscat….with the gas light on and no gas station in sight and not one turn around or turn off lane until we finally came back down the other side. (Reminds me of a trip on the Cabot Trail, when I thought Pleasant Bay had a gas station, made it to Dingwall…barely) Luckily we spotted a Shell station and filled up. I had been to Amrat before and when we reached the central round about, I guessed correctly and we were on the way back up the mountain by another road, I was familiar with. The Proton, sure isn’t a SUV or close to it, but we chugged up the mountain and down the other side. The whole escapade took about 2 ½ hours.

Weather isn’t a hot as it was last year, not in the 40s very much yet. But it’s great, no socks, no sweaters, never cold. Love my 25 girls, they are so eager to work and love art projects. Going on a trip this weekend, a mountain crossing. I am going with Helen from South Africa and it should be fun.

Pictures from Turtle Beach

Underwater me

Turtle at Turtle Beach, no he isn't really pink.

Above turtle on sea floor

Nemo!!

Reef fish

Me, Sally and Ingi

Sally and me

I finally figured out how to add photos to my blog from my MAC. These are from last weekend.

Friday in Muscat

Today was an exploring day. I went to Mutrah and spent a lot of time at LuLus an Indian 'SuperStore'.  I bought leggings to prevent another roasting when I snorkel all day again and running shoes for the hike next weekend. The flowers here are awesome, the trees are full of blossoms, the frangipani is my favorite, it smells so nice and is beautiful. There are other trees full of yellow blossoms and then there are the trees loaded with red blossoms. The boulevards are lined with zinnias, the giant kind and are of all colors.The city isn't really very large and is easy to navigate.
I did a wash and before the clothes are out of the washer (powerful spinner) there are dry spots on the clothes. I washed my comforter and it was dry in about 2 hours. my apartment is just next door to a grocery store so its very easy to get what I need.

No explanation required

Beautiful tree

My apartment on the left, I'm on top floor in the back. The grocery store is Almaya

One of my girls is going to a wedding this weekend. This is a special henna.

Majan Beach

Thursday all over again, the weekend is here.  Our weekend now is Friday and Saturday. This week was busy as usual, the days fly by and then its time to get ready for tomorrow. Sunburn has all faded away and this evening went to Majan Beach with Maggie for a snorkel. The beach is in a small cove and is surrounded by coral. The sand is white and full of shell bits. Looking in the water close to shore it is interesting to see all the shells filled with crabs all scurrying around. I was swimming in a huge school of fish about 20 cm long and was surrounded by them, what a feeling. There is an deep area close to shore where the Surgeon-fish always swim, they are so beautiful, blue and white with yellow fins.  Then I looked down and below me I saw a huge leather back type turtle, probably the size of a car tire, the largest I have seen at this beach. These turtles are awesome.

Apartment is fine except for lack of water pressure. I think I have finally figured out how to manage the A/C. It’s a balance between sweating all night or freezing. As for the mosque next door, don't even hear it any more.

My girls are awesome and am enjoying them very much, such interesting people. They love art and have made some awesome creations.

The weather here is quite lovely, being a sun worshiper, I just love to walk out and soak it up. Its in the high 30s and low 40s these days.   Back home June 21, going to try get in a visit to the Souq tomorrow. 

Corniche Muscat. Its a long causeway drive which is very popular for walking and driving.

One of the most beautiful Mosques, within walking distance from my apartment.

Another mosque on the way home

Worth coming to Oman, Its all fresh blended fruit, no sugar

These forts are all over Oman, located usually on hilltops.

Mutrah Corniche

Fancy Arch on the way into Mutrah

Frangipani, they are so beautiful and smell wonderful