A Wadi Picnic

Woke to the sound of desert grouse and mynah birds this morning after a solid 12+ hours of sleep! Diana (Edward's sister) had prepared a lovely picnic lunch, so the eight of us left the house late morning to drive to a Wadi (dry river valley) about an hour North of Muscat. Our travels were initially thwarted by a flipped petrol tanker on the highway which resulted in much traffic chaos. After extracting ourselves from this mess 90 minutes later we headed to a different Wadi (Wadi Fanja) in the mountains west of the city instead. Saw a camel or two sitting in the backs of small pickup trucks along the way!  Also viewed numerous large mosques along the side of the highway covered with glistening marble and beautiful tiles cladding the exterior.

As today is a National holiday celebrating the Islamic New Year we arrived to find scores of Omani families picnicing along the river. At this point we headed off-road and up the riverbed to find a spot for the afternoon (noted in a photo below). It was facinating to see the Omani men dressed in brilliant white dishdashas and the women in black abayas with dozens of little children playing in the water and running around. Many were fanning cooking fires for lunch with the amazing aromas of meat and spices wafting through the air. Everyone we encountered was extremely friendly and we responded to literally dozens of waves and hellos as people drove by over the course of the day in their 4x4's. 

We found a place, had lunch and then went hiking up the hill and little "ravine" we were parked by. The ravine was home to a disappearing stream; however, the well washed smooth rock in the ravine told the story of periodic raging floods. The stream would trickle into pools, then almost disappear before filling more pools. Saw several wild goats before stoping at a deep, cool pool quite a way up so the kids could jump and splash.  Muscat gets little to no rain and had it's first downpour in almost a year one week ago which has put more water into the rivers and created some great swim holes in the wadis.  The pictures certainly tell the story of how dry it is here....  It was a wonderful afternoon.

Came home to a marvelous Indian take-away dinner which we ate outside and are now ready to recharge with some sleep before another day of adventures tomorrow....