Muscat to Sur, Wadi Shab and Wadi Tiwi, Oman

Posted on November 12, 2011 by Travis

After Muscat was when the real outdoor adventure that Oman is famous for started, we picked up our Toyota Prado rental, the first time I had driven a true four wheel drive, this was going to be fun, I thought.

After stopping to pick up some supplies from the supermarket, plenty of water and non-perishable food items, we drove east towards Sur. After one hour we reached the tiny town of Yiti, this was where we realised we had driven in the wrong direction, so we backtracked back to Muscat and went south instead.

thydzikgooglemap(http://sonyaandtravis.com/maps/oman-2011-muscat-to-sur.xml)

Wadi Shab

There wasn’t too much to see until we reached the first of the Wadi’s in the afternoon, Wadi Shab. The entrance to the Wadi is marked by the main dual carriageway slung across the entrance, we parked the car and headed into the Wadi. Throughout the Wadi is lush vegetation and turquoise pools of water, at some points shoes need to be removed to cross small streams. After about one hour we reached a large pool of water, continuing past, mostly by swimming we reached the final pool, there was a tiny crack in the rocks with which only our heads could past while remaining above water. Inside the enclosed cave was a beautiful water fall.

This would have been all the more enjoyable if I wasn’t holding the camera and passports in plastic garbage bag all this time.

From there we made our way back to the entrance of Wadi Shab walking in dusklight, we were surprised by the now risen water which we had to wade through.

At nightfall we drove to Wadi Tiwi where after driving a little into the Wadi in pitch black, decided it would be much safer to either turn around or camp for the night. That night we slept in the roomy four wheel drive.

thydzikgooglemap(http://sonyaandtravis.com/maps/oman-2011-wadi-shab.xml,s)

Wadi Tiwi

Roosters woke us up in the morning, and we found ourselves in quite a nice spot, a bit of water and dense palm trees. Also, the first of the hikers passed us by foot, who must have parked at the main road.

We continued following the road into the Wadi, not as beautiful as Wadi Shab, I thought, but it may have been the driving into the Wadi was not the same as walking. We left Wadi Tiwi for Sur.

thydzikgooglemap(http://sonyaandtravis.com/maps/oman-2011-wadi-tiwi.xml,s)

Sur

Sur was a really nice little town, plenty of small historic forts and castles and a great location on the port with many dhows (Arabic boat). Our arrival that day also corresponded with the start of the Islamic holiday Eid, and many families were slaughtering goats, not just to enjoy the meat during the three day holiday, but also as a tradition where the sacrifice of an animal commemorates the sacrifice of son Ishmael by his father Abraham.

A few of the places we visited in Sur were;

Ayjah Lighthouse
Al Hamoodah Fort
Alayah Watchtowers
Al Sunaysilah Castle
Bilad Sur Castle

From Sur we travelled further east along the coast, past Ras al Hadd (marking the joining of Gulf of Oman and Arabian Sea) to our next destination, a camp located somewhere in the vast Wahiba Sands Desert.

thydzikgooglemap(http://sonyaandtravis.com/maps/oman-2011-sur.xml)

Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani Museum, Qatar

Posted on October 22, 2011 by Travis

A few weeks ago we decided to visit the private museum of Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani, I made the booking on Thursday and we were all set for a Saturday visit.

Driving up to the museum we were presented with a beautiful fort-style building with towers at each corner. On entrance we signed the guest book and proceeded to the main and largest hall, full or various weapon and armour artefacts. It was a very interesting collection of guns, knives, daggers and plate armour. From the first hall, you could see that Sheikh loved collecting things.

Making a left turn was an eclectic collection of Islamic and Qatari items sprawled on the walls and shelfs with minimal labels. Further on was the Sheikh’s collection of paintings, some of people and many abstract. The last section had a small collection of vintage cars.

On the other side of the museum building were a number of smaller rooms with artefacts belonging to a common theme, rooms included;

Fabrics and Jewellery

An interesting room, consisting of embroidered fabric with Islamic designs and traditional jewellery. What I thought interesting was the large collection of drawings of females, scattered around the room, some quite erotic.

Literature and Manuscripts

A room consisting of very old Arabic writings and books. There were some interesting old maps.

Fossils

One of my favourite rooms, here we found 400 million year old Trilobite fossils from Morocco, plus a large number other plant and animal fossils, including dinosaur bones.

Cars and Trucks

Leaving the main building we drove to a separate building which housed a huge amount of vintage cars and trucks, as well as a Piper PA-34 Seneca twin-engine plane. In some of the side rooms was a religion display, which had Islam, Christianity and even Judaism items in individual rooms. The last room had a collection of scientific equipment and bottles which I think was trying to portray Atheism.

Overall it was a fun visit.

United Arab Emirates weekender

Posted on October 1, 2011 by Travis

Last weekend Sonya and I had an opportunity to visit the United Arab Emirates (UAE) over the weekend. We had previously visited Dubai, so thought we would check out Abu Dhabi instead.

I met up with Sonya who was already in Dubai for a course on the Friday (the start of the weekend in the middle east).

We hired a car and for the first day we thought we would explore the UAE. UAE has very close ties with Oman, as it should, as the two countries are geographically interspersed together. We decided to visit Dibba, situated on the northern-east of the UAE, located at the Gulf of Oman it politically shares parts with both UAE and Oman.

From Dibba we drove to Hatta, Hatta is located in the central-eat of the UAE, to reach Hatta we actually crossed into Oman, and then back into UAE.

In general there really wasn’t much to see in the northen UAE, a few camels and interesting bits and pieces, but not too much.

From Hatta we drove to Abu Dhabi reaching around 6 pm.

thydzikgooglemap(http://sonyaandtravis.com/maps/uae-2011.xml)

Ras Abrouq peninsula – Film City and Zekreet Fort

Posted on July 29, 2011 by Travis

Film City

On the weekend we decided to go on another excursion, this time to a place known as Film City. Film City is a mini Arabic town constructed for a television series, located on the Ras Abrouq peninsula, eighty kilometres from Doha.

It is recommended to take a four-wheel-drive vehicle, but we managed to get there in our tiny Suzuki Celerio, the tricky bit is finding the access road, as a new highway has fenced it off.

Film City mimics the traditional mud-brick houses with wooden doors, the town contains small houses, a mosque, plenty of gates and doors and a look-out.

thydzikgooglemap(http://sonyaandtravis.com/maps/qatar-2011-film-city.xml,s)

Zekret Fort

Located on the west coast of the Ras Abrouq peninsula and slightly north of town of Zekreet is the Zekret Fort. The fort is a traditional square design with circular towers in each corner, this design is visible in the restored ruins.

thydzikgooglemap(http://sonyaandtravis.com/maps/qatar-2011-ras-abrouq-peninsula.xml)

Sonya and Travis

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