Oman

We arrived at the station in Dubai to catch our bus to Muscat at 6am, and enjoyed a breakfast of Dosa and chai before departure. The UAE/Oman border crossing was our longest yet - 2 ½ hours of patient waiting, whilst being slowly cattle driven through border control by our friendly and well organised bus driver. On arriving in Muscat we checked into our hotel - 4 star with a heated swimming pool! We met a lovely Polish couple at the pool who were also on a 2 week camping adventure in Oman and shared stories and plans. We discovered during our time in Oman that the country is far from an unusual or off-the-beaten-track destination, but instead has become an adventure tourist location. Christmas Day was relaxed, with tasty food, time by the pool, and a little exploration of the city. Muscat is a beautifully developed metropolis with a great atmosphere that shows wealth with modesty, friendly and welcoming people, and many great Omani, Pakistani, and Indian restaurants. On Boxing Day we enjoyed a fantastic tour to the nearby Al Dimaniyat Islands nature reserve, where we snorkelled with dozens of turtles and black tipped sharks - thank you to Annayah and Alex for the gift! It was amazing seeing the sharks swimming through coral reefs and the turtles gliding up to the surface for air. That afternoon we visited the HQ and manufacturing location of Amouage, a luxury perfumery created at the request of the Sultan of Oman. Each perfume had a unique and wonderful scent, and we decided to purchase a small taster set as a Christmas gift to ourselves. 

The next morning we picked up our hire car, waved goodbye to our 4 star luxury, and set off for more wild camping as we explored the nature of the country. Wild camping turned out to be far easier and more relaxed in Oman than Saudi Arabia, and we encountered many others camping along the way. During our first evening, we camped by the coastline and saw turtles swimming over the edge of the cliff and watched a beautiful sunset over the water. We then started the next day with an early morning swim in a sinkhole, followed by a visit to Wadi Shab. The wadi (meaning water) was surprisingly busy with many tourists, and we were surprised to see many of them in life jackets; we soon found out why. After a 30 minute walk, swim, wade, and slippery slide up the wadi we reached a large pool of water with towering rock cliffs on either side. At the end was an extremely narrow crevice between the rocks (barely wider than our heads at points) with deep water beneath. We passed through the narrow passage into a partially enclosed chamber with a rushing waterfall. We had to constantly tread water whilst holding onto the rocky sides in the passage and chamber. It was an incredible surprise and a highlight of our visit. Sadly, as we were swimming, we have no photos of the experience to share. 

That afternoon we drove further down the coast and stopped at the town of Sur to visit their famous dhow workshop. The town used to have many dhow manufacturing companies, but only one remains. They still make wooden dhows using traditional methods, including a current project to build one of the largest traditional Omani dhow designs, the Al-Ghanja. The craftsmanship was beautiful, and guests to the workshop were hosted with expertise and friendliness. On our second night along the coast, after setting up our tent in a secluded spot, a friendly local came to greet us. He brought tea, coffee, snacks, and a 1 litre bottle of scotch (despite alcohol being illegal in Oman!). By 1am the bottle was finished, and whilst we were a little tipsy our new friend was highly intoxicated and had overstayed his welcome. Despite this, we had a great time getting to know him and relaxing with some of the first strong alcohol we had had in a number of weeks - it was certainly an entertaining and unique evening. 

Despite a restless nights sleep, we woke the next morning and drove to visit the Ras Al Jinz turtle sanctuary to learn about the conservation work they do. We explored their museum, and were interested to find out that 5 different species of turtles nest and visit Oman, and it is the number 1 breeding site in the world for green turtles. Although we didn’t see them nesting, we saw two baby turtles in the sanctuary. That afternoon we drove towards Wahiba Sands, and managed, after some effort, to find a hotel with rooms available, and crashed out into a comfortable bed. After a good night's sleep, we explored the old centre of the town we were in - Ibra, which had beautiful and ornate old wooden doors and archways. The old centre is in a halfway stage of abandoned crumbling stone and clay buildings and tastefully integrated modern renovations. That afternoon we drove to Wahiba Sands to find a camping spot amongst the towering sand dunes. We walked up and over the dunes for a sunset view, and whilst we were taking photos two Omanis with large 4x4s drove up and offered us a dune bashing ride. We had an exhilarating 20 minute drive across the dunes, with some slightly nerve wracking ascents and descents up towering sand dunes. They then drove us back to our tent and we enjoyed an evening camping in the desert. Having had a taste of dune bashing the previous night, we headed to a dune buggy company for a proper tour of the desert. We spent a couple of hours driving around the desert and rocky landscapes in a 2 person dune buggy, following our friendly and safety conscious guide (thanks to Jenny and Andy for the honeymoon gift!). He shared some information about the area, and we enjoyed the thrill of driving up hills and rock crawling. We then headed on to the historic town of Nizwa. 

After checking into our quaint, traditional Omani style hotel, we went to explore the city. We visited Nizwa fort and castle, an impressive structure originally built in the 15th century, and recently renovated. They had castle gardens (complete with goats, rabbits and deer enclosures), extensive castle rooms which had been turned into a museum, and a central fort with views over the city. We then walked around the winding streets of the old town, and visited some of their many souqs (markets), which included a date souq, handicraft souq, sweet souq and even a goat souq! The next morning we drove to a hike through another river called Wadi Damm. Unlike the previous Wadi, this one was really peaceful and we were the only ones there. We walked up through a series of pools and waterfalls, scrambling up rock faces and wading through rivers. At the end we found a pretty pool surrounded by greenery with a small waterfall over a rock hang, which we enjoyed swimming through. We walked back along the wadi, and then drove on to find a campsite for the night, where we had a lovely evening star gazing with a crackling fire. 

We woke early the next morning to do a hike called the Balcony Walk. It was a 4 hour hike along the edge of a canyon, with impressive, vertigo inducing views the whole way. There were some old stone houses along the way, and an abandoned hanging garden at the end. Although we enjoyed the hike, we were a bit distracted as we were due to fly to Pakistan in 2 days time and Jem’s visa still hadn’t come through! We spent most of the hike attempting to call the Pakistan embassy, who were steadfastly ignoring our calls. After the hike, we drove on in the direction of Muscat, and found another campsite for the night. 

Before heading back to Muscat, we visited Samail Fort. It was an impressive structure winding up a hill, with a tower at the top of a rock face. It was surrounded by palm trees and nature, and had some amazing views. Despite this it was almost deserted, and had no information signs about the fort. Afterwards, we drove on to Muscat and checked into our hotel. That afternoon we went to explore the old part of the city, walked along the marina, and found a very touristy souq. We again spent a lot of the day stressing about Jem’s Pakistani visa, and were eventually able to get in contact with someone who could help. Visa issued at last, we were then greeted with the news that our flight was diverted from Islamabad and would instead be arriving in another city called Peshawar! After scrambling to book a new hotel in Peshawar, we were later informed it would in fact be landing in Lahore instead! With 3 different hotel bookings and no idea where in Pakistan we would in fact end up, we headed off to the airport. 

Unfortunately, for the second time we had to take a flight on our Overland trip due to impassable land borders and no ferry options. We explored the possibility of a ferry to Iran and an overland border crossing to Pakistan, but soon discovered that this is forbidden for UK citizens.