The Desert Diva On Saturday my friend had told me that bad weather was forecast for Sur in the latter part of the day, and at 1.30am on Sunday the wind rose and proceeded to howl for hours. When I woke up the sky was grey although it wasn’t raining, although by the time I had breakfast and checked out it was beginning to spit.
In view of the awful weather I looked around for the best way to spend my bonus morning in Sur and stopped at the Sinayslah Castle. I paid the entry fee of 1 OMR (about 1.70GBP) at the gate where the local guard complimented me on my “beautiful car”. (Car accessory shops take note; the FJ is very popular in Oman, but I haven’t seen another one with pocket style fender flares or rock rails. Judging by the interest in Neil’s car I think there is a big market for these here!)
The castle itself was pretty standard for Oman, recently renovated, a few interesting artefacts, and stupendous views from the turrets!
On the way home I paused to take a few photos of a very rough sea; so different than the day before. Just as I left Sur the heavens opened and I experienced the worst rain I have seen in the gulf; I worried as I had 237kms to go to get back to Muscat. Yet only 40kms up the road the sun was shining and it was a beautiful clear, if somewhat breezy, day.
These photos were taken near the sinkhole at Bamah; there are loads of lovely camping spots around here, many accessible with a sedan.
Omanis always park their cars in the shade of trees, so when in Rome….. lunch in the shade.
I came back to Muscat on the amazing piece of civil engineering that is the road between Al Amarat and the Muscat expressway – I mentioned this in my Christmas by the Sea blog and have to say in daylight it is even more impressive. It was blowing a real hoolie at the top and I was glad I was driving a 2 tonne 4×4!
I made it back to Muscat by “beach o’clock” – half an hour before sunset!
These footballers in training shouted “lady take photo”… so I did!
And with that the sun set on a great, but less strenuous day than of late!
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