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dxb-mct via sharjah, fujeirah, sohar, al hazm, rustaq, nakhal

After a delicious breakfast at the Intercontinental hotel, we caught a cab over to the Budget car rental where our friends D & S were waiting to pick up the car. We would be spending the next few days driving through the UAE and Oman. The rental company required extra Omani insurance, but with 4 people to split the cost, it was reasonable. The plan for the day was to drive across the UAE to the Omani border via Sharjah and Fujeirah, then down along the coast via Sohar to Muscat. It was going to be a very long day and it was already 9:30 by the time we left Dubai. The traffic heading into Dubai from the north was horrendous, practically a parking lot, but our way was clear as we passed mile after mile of construction sites; it is just amazing the amount of growth that was taking place. Sharjah was a short drive away, where we took the eastern road towards Fujeirah. We passed the palace of the emir before civilization gave way to sandy desert. The road was in exellent condition, a 4 lane expressway most of the way. We were listening to Arabic music on the radio (we came to call it Habibi (love) music). All of the road signs were in Arabic and English, making the navigating easy. The desert soon gave way to the rugged Hajar mountains, still barren of vegetation. Our first planned stop was at the fort in Fujeirah. This part of the Arabian peninsula (mainly Oman) is home to more than 500 forts, all in varying condition. The Omanis used to be the main naval power in the region before the Europeans arrived in the 14th and 15th centuries. We had a little trouble locating the fort; we could see it from the road surrounded by date palms, but it took awhile before we found the road leading to it. It was already quite warm and bright out as we emerged from the coolness of the air-conditioned car. The mud brick fort was closed (undergoing renovation), but we spent a few minutes wandering around outside. The next stop was at Khor Kalba, a large mangrove swamp just before the Omani border. This area is very popular with birdwatchers. We then drove to the UAE border post. This turned out to be quite a hassle, as the guards there weren't sure that we could take the car through to Oman. We had to drive to the Omani border, verify that we could take the car through, then drive back to the UAE checkpoint, get our passports stamped, then drove back to the Omani side where we paid for our visa. This took well over an hour, as the border posts were some distance apart. We were getting hungry at this point (around 1PM) and hoped we could find a place to eat in Sohar, which was still another hour or so drive away. The car would beep if we went over 120km/hr, which soon got very annoying! Sohar was the home of the legendary Sinbad the Sailor, and had at one time been the largest town on the coast. We found an ATM to stock up on Omani rials then had lunch at a nearby Indian restaurant. There is a large population of Indians and Pakistanis in the Arab countries, they form the bulk of the oil and construction workers. The Omani currency is 3x the US dollar, so everything seemed very cheap on the menu (Chicken with cucumber salad was 0.50). Next we stopped by the Sohar fort, gleaming whitewashed in the midday sun. The fort had already closed at 1PM, so we had to be content wandering around outside. We still had a long drive ahead of us to Muscat and planned on visiting the fort loop via Al Hazm, Rustaq and Nakhal. Beeping be damned, we sped on ahead doing 160km/hr or more while black Mercedes zoomed by us like we were standing still. We finally reached the turnoff for the fort loop, another 150km detour, but it turned out to be very worthwhile. The first fort was Al Hazm, a newly restored fort of a slightly different style than Sohar and Fujeirah. It was already late afternoon so we only had a quick look around before setting off for the next fort at Al Rustaq. Al Rustaq was a large town surrounding the date palm oasis. The fort was still open and the light from the setting sunsetting sun was perfect, so we spent a good while wandering around this amazing building. We still hoped to get to Nakhal before dark, and arrived there just as the light was fading. Unfortunately we couldn't find the entrance road and had to be satisfied with a picture from afar. Muscat was still another 100kms or more away! It was already past 10:00 as we finally entered Muscat, only to encounter a huge traffic jam! We also got lost trying to find the Mutrah turnoff before finally getting our bearings. Muscat seemed like endless suburbs, shopping malls and mosques. We arrived at Mutrah and quickly found a decent hotel for the night. We were all starved by this point, and hoped that someplace was still open for dinner, as it was already after 11 PM! We walked down the corniche to another hotel that was still serving. We had local fish and chips, staring out over the port below before crashing for the night. D+S apparently still had some energy left and went out to visit the night souk.

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