Posted files under ‘Oman’
Oman roady part II
We decided to head back to Oman to finish off our trip. We wanted to explore the Nizwa area a bit more, we ran out of time on the last trip. We based ourselves in Ibri at Ibri Oasis Hotel. It’s a 2 star hotel & we were very happy with it, the biggest complaint being the smell of old smoke in the bedroom & smoking in the restaurant but hey they are a bit behind on non smoking laws in Oman. The hotel bill cost us under 1200 dirhams for 2 nights, 2 dinners, 1 breakfast, 1 lunch & 2 bottles of wine! Not bad at all & CJ thought he was staying in a castle so was very pleased. I got the rare chance to sleep with both my babies as CJ now sleeps with his Dad & MC with me so it was really nice. Thursday we explored Ibri on foot which was great fun. Friday we headed to Nizwa to the famous goat market, a bit disappointing & lots of tourists snapping away, some quite rude, in people’s faces taking photos without permission. The few people I asked to photograph said no so I tried to be discreet. Bought some yummy dates. We had to leave quite early to get to Jabrin Castle before it closed but could have easily spent a nice day in Nizwa. Jabrin Castle is still being renovated but was lovely & will be impressive when it’s finished. Friday afternoon we explored Bahla by foot while CJ & MC napped in the Ergos. Again I was a little disappointed as Bahla is known for its pottery & I wanted to buy the incense burner I missed out on last time, of course the town was dead & we heard the pottery souq (that we searched for & just couldn’t find) would open at night. Bummer, could have bought it in Nizwa & my frankinsence from Muscat is still sitting un opened. On Saturday we decided to do the Wadi Damm hike, we actually made it all the way with babies strapped on & jandals on our feet. CJ walked the whole way up alone. It was a great weekend!
Ibri
Nizwa
Jabrin
Bahla
Sleeping beauties
Wadi Damm
Add comment February 15, 2009
I Heart Oman
Over 2,000 kms & too many buffet’s later…… I love Oman, what an amazing trip we had & both babes were fantastic, incredibly cruisey. Day one we drove through Hatta to the Oman 
border a
nd on to Sohar for a picnic. Then we continued down the coast stopping at Barka and visited the Halban Tombs which are as old as the oldest pyramids in Egypt
. The drive was beautiful & it was so refreshing to be on holiday in Oman. We arrived in Muscat in the evening to find out we wouldn’t be enjoying the stunning Omani beaches on this trip due to the ‘Red Tide’ which is a toxic algal bloom that’s been around the East coast of the UAE & Oman for over a month. The ocean was a dark browny red & stinky. The Dive Centre was a great place to stay, barasti huts on the beach & perfect for families, I highly recommend it!
Day 2 was Saturday. A & C headed off dolphin watching
. They saw hundreds! We spent the rest of the day lazying about & in the evening shopped for 
treasures at Muttrah souq & drove around checki
ng out Muscat which is really pretty surrounded by the mountains
.
On Sunday we headed to Nakhal. We bought some halwa for our picnic (Arabic dessert) & explored the castle
. Then we drove part way up Wadi Bani Awf for lunch with the billy goats. C did some goat hearding & then we had a quick drive through Rustaq before heading back to ODC, it was a full day driving with more amazing scenery. We were hoping to swim in the fresh pools up in the wadi but we didnt make it far enough & couldn’t 
swim at the hot pools either as being female I “would be shy” in front of the Omani men there.
On Monday I was ready to try diving but couldn’t because of my asthma (I needed a medical cert) so we had a day free from driving, hanging out at ODC. The next day we got up early & drove further down the coast to Sur, once again we had 
stunning mountain & coastal views. From there we headed in to Wahiba Sands and a further30km into the desert where we stayed at 1,000 Nights Desert Camp. The camp was cool & we had a beautiful Omani 
dinner, they cooked Shuwa which was lamb that had been cooking underground for 24 hours. It was freezing over night in our tent but the day soon warmed up when the sun came up on Wednesday.
Another huge day driving from Wahiba Sands all the way to the Sayq Plateau where we stayed at the hotel up the top of Al Jebel Al Akhdar. Thursday was our last day & we were still a loooong way from home. Before we left the mountain we visited the abandoned mountainvillage Bani Habib then spent the day driving home stopping at Ibri.
There was so much to do & see, lots of things had to be left off the list until next time. C kept commenting ‘this holiday is really nice” and it did him good too! The photos don’t do it justice, it was really amazing. Will work on fixing the pics!
4 comments December 14, 2008
