Our last days

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Day 9:

After an early breakfast we were picked up at 8am and went on a tour of the mountains. We drove through Muscat in a 4WD vehicle and headed to the mountains. We visited a couple of villages seeing Nakhal Fort and a hot water spring before setting off up Wadi Bani Awf, a Wadi is the local word for dried out river. It was a bumpy track leading through the valley of the mountains. We stopped at some small villages, and then headed up the mountain on a small dirt track. The way was not always clear and our guide asked for directions in several villages, the usual response being we needed to turn around and go back the way we came.

After a while we finally arrived at Bilad Seet a village for lunch. There was lovely green fields carved into the mountain. We then continued across the mountains (back on the right path) to Al Hutaah Cave. We visited the cave which was very busy, and after a small wait went on our trip around it. It was very lovely. We then headed to Jabal Shams, the ‘mountain of the sun’, the biggest mountain in Oman. We watched the sunset over the mountains and then head back on the main, tarmac road to Muscat arriving at 9.30pm very tired and just in time for some pasta before we collapsed in bed.

Day 10: Homeward bound (finally)!

We had breakfast, finished our packing, got some last minute rays and had a huge lunch before heading to the airport. We had time to do some duty free shopping before heading to the plane. 8hr flight with no entertainment as the power to our row of seats was dead, the flight was fully booked so no extra space.

We arrived at 9pm tired and jet lagged. Wayne met us and drove us back to Essex.

We chatted for ages into the night, and then I woke up - my body clock still 4hrs ahead, so only slept for 1/2hr! Was very very tired the next day, but happy to be back home.

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