From Nizwa, we drive to a place where we spend the night in the desert at the edge of the Sharqiya Sands. (We leave Lawrence behind in a village 12 KMs away and are driven to the camp in a 4WD vehicle.)
Many of these desert-camping places are expensive, and feature luxuries like swimming pools (!) and air conditioning. This one does not. Just a non-air-conditioned tent.
Meals are included, and are served in a covered, rug-strewn dining area.
We go for a sundown drive.
Here are a few desert photos.
We ask our driver, Mohammed, to take our picture. Our tent camp is in the background
Of course, after dark the sky is full of stars. Lots of meteors, too. (And aircraft flying into United Arab Emirates airports at all hours.)
Our next stop is Al Hamra. It turns out that the only reasonably-price accommodation we can find is an entire Omani house. We stay there for three days.
We have the place to ourselves, except for a young Italian woman that stays for a couple of nights.
It’s a good place to get caught up on business.
There’s a lush palm oasis across the street.
Amid the oasis are the ruins of Old Al Hamra.
These abandoned villages are a reminder of what life must have been like here before the oil money started flowing in the 1960’s.
The main attraction is the mountain village of Misfat Al Abriyeen.
Many of the buildings here are built on top of boulders and cliffs.
There are abandoned houses here, too.
Running through the village are water channels that are part of the aflaj system. We see these elsewhere in the country.
It’s the middle of the day by the time we arrive. The temperature is in the mid-thirties Celsius.
The narrow streets are fun to explore.
Sight or Insight of the Day
Nothing very exciting. Just a simple observation.
For some reason, I can’t pass an animal without wanting to give it a pat.
