A long day ahead of us as Ahmed our driver picked us up at 8am for a drive to Nizwa,the old capital, jabal sham 3500 ft high canyon and misfat,oman's oldest village.
On the way we passed the airport,which when we arrived were pleased to see had a certain Arabian end of the line railway station air to it . not sterile like other mid-east airports. low level and built in the vernacular. people all crowding around outside haggling for taxis etc. Ahmed burst our bubble by pointing out the brand new one being built which will be the largest in Mid East he said with pride. it was strange to actually have a local person do something for you,unlike Qatar .
The countryside all the way was mainly gravelly scrub with quite a few palm trees but these were overshadowed by massive mountains all bathed in sun turning them all various shades of red. Nizva has an impressive Portuguese fort built 500 years ago and heavily restored but with fantastic views over the surroundings. just below the fort was the souk ,all original ,unlike in Qatar. An Omani hat was tried on by Sebastian but his head was too big!
Onwards to jabal sham, Oman's Grand Canyon , 3500 feet high, we enjoyed our picnic in solitude until wild goats came to pester us. From there we travelled to Misfat, Oman's oldest village (700yrs). A labyrinthine village of alleys and irrigation channels chiseled into a steep hillside. We imagined this is what the hanging gardens of Babylon and Petra probably looked like. each individual palm tree sized plot had its own sluice to irrigate it. On the way we also stopped to view an old Persian castle nestling at the top of the valley or wadi where the locals complain about the amount of rain they have. we could pick out the ruins of the castle as Omani flags had been draped over them on national day a few weeks ago. the national day is the sultan's birthday on the 18th Nov.