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For spring break in 2012, we traveled to Oman - one of our new favorite countries! The flight was an easy 3 hour direct flight from New Delhi. We picked up a 4 wheel drive (Toyota Land Cruiser) at the airport and dropped it off when we flew out. We stayed in a hotel in Muscat our first night and in a organized camp one night in the Sharqiya Sands. The other six nights we "wild camped".
Oman was beautiful! We loved the beautiful outdoors, the freedom to drive and camp wherever we wanted and the very relaxed people. |
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Zoë had fun playing in the desert, just like when she was a toddler in Egypt. |
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| Some nights we just slept under the stars, on a blanket in front of our car. In Oman, you can basically camp wherever you want, so it's easy to pick beautiful spots. This spot was on the edge of a plateau, with great views over the ocean 1500 meters below. |
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We woke up at 4am in the morning to visit the turtle nesting reserve at Ras al Jinz. This Green Turtle started laying eggs just before sunrise. The turtle was impressively large, probably a couple hundred pounds. Zoë kept a journal all trip and drew all the animals she saw. (Drawing above, results below.) Very cute! She is so excited about reading, writing and math at the moment. It's exciting to see how excited she is to learn! |
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| It was a very moving experience to watch the turtle return to the Ocean after several hours of nesting and laying eggs. |
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| We were often four wheel driving on steep dirt roads. |
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In this picture, you can just barely follow the road we drove up to the top of the mountain - it's a barely visible white switchback leading all the way to the top of the far range of mountains. |
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| Unlike Egypt, many of the wadi's (dry valley's) had swimming holes in them. |
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If no one was around, a swimsuit didn't seem necessary! |
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| We traveled mostly in rocky, mountainous desert, but we also visited the Sharqiya Sands, a large dune area. We had fun driving the 50kms into this "camp" called "Thousand Nights". We stayed in military style tents. The best thing about the camp was it had a swimming pool! |
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| Oman has lots of cute villages that hug the cliffs. |
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| Spring time flowers were blossoming everywhere. |
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Most of the villages were still occupied, but this one was abandoned, so we had fun climbing around the houses. |
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| Each day or two we bought ice in a gas station to keep our cooler cold. |
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We camped on this dry lake bed. In the morning it was getting hot, so we had breakfast in the shade. |
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| Looking over the edge of Oman's "Grand Canyon" at Jebel Shams. |
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Hiking in one of the wadi's. |
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| Exploring another village. |
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