" Take off, you hoser!"
- Bob and Doug McKenzie of Strange Brew fame.
In the weeks that have passed since our last blog entry we have been busy soaking in the life of an expat within Muscat and the regions surrounding. We have a few weeks left before the really hot weather kicks in so we have to get "out and about" before then.
The first expat oriented event we attended this year was the biggest pop concert ever to hit the confines of humble Muscat - James Blunt. Yes, that James Blunt. For those of you giggling away at your computer screens right now I admit to being slightly ashamed. But James Blunt is a well known international musician and Muscat never sees one of those so we were excited. We walked to the outdoor concert along the beaches from our friend's apartment. He started out the concert by explaining that he has a "long list of miserable songs and this is the next one...". I actually do like James Blunt (written in hushed tones), but given the lack of cheer in his lyrics we were happy that this was a "licenced event".
Speaking of licenced events, this takes us to our next Muscat activity. Every year the local Canadian Club puts on the Canadian Stampede. This devoted group attempts to recreate a small version of the Calgary Stampede complete with line dancing, country music, beer and nanaimo bars. I like neither country music nor line dancing but the consumables got my attention. Its an event that sells out every year and reminds us of the bizarre place that we live. It was really good fun and for one night only we waved the flag proudly eh?
In addition to being couped up within the walls of Muscat we have been heading out of town as much as possible. We did some nice hikes and completed the snake canyon Via Ferratta. Apparently "via ferratta" is Italian for "iron way" or something along those lines. Originally it was used during the second world war to get soldiers across the mountains quickly. Four of us headed to the canyon knowing very little about the undertaking. We'd heard varying reports such as it's"a little hairy", "awesome" and " pretty scary". Thanks for the tips.
Basically you climb, scamping, boulder , etc across the canyon 200m up. You clamp and unclamp yourself as you climb along a steel chord attached to the rock face. Every once in awhile you get to a zip chord and zip across to the other side. The final test is a "monkey walk" where two chords run across the canyon's gap. The one above you, you are to clamp onto while walking across the chord below. A little like a tight rope with training wheels I guess. It was definatley "a little hairy", "awesome" and "pretty scary". I look forward to offering advice to the next in line.
Finally, we just arrived back from a beach camping trip to Khaluf on the east coast. We headed down just after work on Wednesday night hoping to reach a guest house by dark. We reached it, but they were full. A guest house on the edge of the desert full? We were completely surprised. With little else on offer in this desolate area to drove on until we could pull off and camp in the desert. We were very careful as we didn't want to offend anyone by being to close to the road, nor attract attention as we pulled off. Our two trucks found the "perfect" location in the pitch black night. We set up our tents and slept. As the sun rose so did the roosters, goats and children in the Bedioun camp about 50 meters from our tent. Darn. Soon enough we were invited in for tea but passed on the offer as we needed to continue on.
Khaluf's secluded beaches kept us entertained with white sand, a warm ocean, schools of dolphins and flocks of pink flamingos. Our list of favourtie camping places in Oman just keeps getting bigger.
At the end of this week we are headed off to India. We will be there for about two weeks and we are looking forward to the sensory overload that awaits.
(Secretly we have also started our countdown to seeing Canada again in June and July)
