Friday, September 25, 2009

Eid Mubarak - Southern Arabia style

"For this cruel land can cast a spell which no temperate clime can match"
- Wilfred Thesiger (first European explorer to cross the Empty Quarter)
Here in the Middle East, and around the Muslim world, the holy month of Ramadan has just concluded. Following this month of fasting during daylight hours and focusing on prayer comes a festive holiday period called Eid Al Fitr. For Omanis it is a time spent with family and for expats like us an opportunity to travel. Coming with a week off of work, this is quickly becoming one of our favourite holidays!

This year we decided to head down south with our friends and neighbours Tom and Julie to the Dhofar region of Oman. As mentioned in previous blogs this area is unique in the country in both its people and its geography. During the summer months (June to mid September) Dhofar is hit with the "Khareef" (winds of plenty)- Indian monsoons bringing high winds and tremendous rainfall. The resulting lush landscape is in complete contrast to the arid conditions stretching from the edges of this area to the shores of Muscat a thousand kilometers to the north. We have travelled to this area many times but have never seen this phenomenon.

As we drove the 10 hour journey through the Hajar mountains in the north, then the sand dunes of the eastern deserts, and finally the gravel plains of the center of the country we openly mocked the pictures we'd seen of the green mountains and flowing wadis of Dhofar. Everytime we'd been to the area it had been brown and dry and we expected possibly a subtle difference at best. But as the road finally dropped from the high plateau towards Salalah we were shocked by the immediate change of our surroundings. It looked more like the lake district in England complete with green rolling hills covered in mist and not the desert landscape of Arabia. There we were taking pictures of grass and rain. How embarrassing.


The first full day was spent in the glorious cool rains at the tail end of the Khareef. Coming from hot days in the mid 40's a cool rinse was welcomed. Thankfully Tina stopped me as I was carrying my towel and bar of soap outside. Classless.

We drove up into the mountains to see the Jebali people and their environment. Walks through lush, water filled wadis filled with fish, cattle and bird-life couldn't have been more different than the Oman we knew. After a short picnic with a few friendly Jebali men we took back to exploring the mountain. The young Jebali fellow had told us of a thousand camels on this hill. We accepted this with the knowing nod you give to a child with a vivid imagination. Again, we were shocked as we rounded the corner and saw more camels in one spot then could be imagined. We sat for several minutes as the camels blocked our path and a friendly jebali gentleman tugged at the Kayak we had tied on our roof while a "less-friendly" herdsmen gathered rocks to heave at our vehicle. We'll consider that a mixed signal maybe. Our vehicle emerged unscathed, and the camels remain lumbering along that mountain in the hundreds.


The road continued along until it reached a sign that read "closed". That obviously only applies to other people as we drove around the sign and continued along the perilous mountain route. The road was a sloggy, muddy wreck from the rains of that day and other idiots driving this path like us. We slogged our way through until we reached a group of men stuck on the hill with no chance of making it either way. As we got out to help one might figure that the worst place to stand is behind the back tire right? In hindsight I would agree but that's exactly where I placed myself for the first push. Covered in wet mud we continued on our way. On the path shortly after we came across the Balbob tree forest that we had been familiar with from Africa. We trekked into the forest and found a tree that was about 10 meters in diameter. Chopped and bundled we were ready for a campfire for the next month. Just kidding.



The next day we took off for an area of the region that had intrigued us all. In the far south east corner of the country was an area none of us had been to and had no dirt track connecting to the northern coast. Off we went and were greated by a 3 hour drive with white sand beaches and tourquise water to our right and sheer rusty cliffs immediately to our left. The drive must rival some the greatest drives in the world. When we reached as far as we could manage we were greeted by a herd of 50 camles and pitched our tents for the night. The area was once prosperous through small ports trading in Myrr and Frankinsence. In more modern times it was prosperous again through the fishing of Abolone. Now that that the stores have dried up it is back to a coastline of sleepy fishing villages and stunning scenary. Much more recently this area has been again the center of attention as a micro-organism believed to be the oldest form of life ever found was discovered in the hills of this coast.


We launched our kayaks shortly after our arrival and a 40 minute paddle around our immediate vicinity resulted in seeing 10 giant turtles coming up for air around us. Turtles in this area include the Green, Leatherback and Loggerheads. Sadly our confidence in our kayaking abilities did not allow us to bring the camera along.

Rising in the eerie fog the next morning we moved back down the coast exploring various small towns that once prospered as ports of varying degrees during the heyday of frankincence trading.


As we headed back north towards Muscat we ventured towards another point of interest on our trip - the lost city of Ubar. Leaving the lush green hills of Dhofar behind we headed into the desert at the Southern tip of the Empty Quarter. It is here that the legendary city of Ubar is thought to have existed. As the story goes Ubar was a very rich settlement on the caravan route of Arabian goods (frankinsence, myrr, gold) to the rest of the world. Life there was lived in excess (think Vegas) and was punished by Allah and vanished into the desert. Reaching its peak in 3000BC, there is evidence of people as late as the 12th century AD and perhaps beyond. Many adventurers have looked for the existence of this place and through satellite imagery it is believed to be at this active dig site. Very cool.

Now that we are back in Muscat we are already looking forward to our next trip in Oman. Even if we don't return to Dhofar again it has left us with many good memories and we will recommend it highly.