New Year 2015

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New Year

Traveled up the coast to the town of Seeb north of Muscat. A couple of worthwhile stops were a Bimmah Sinkhole, located in Hawiyat Najm Park , similar to the cenotes in Mexico. Lovely clear water, in a dramatic setting with a few people swimming.

Then Wadi Dayqah dam, the biggest in Oman, which was an impressive structure in a stunning location. They had nicely landscaped a viewpoint at the top making a good place for a picnic. There’s a small area to walk around to take pictures of mountains reflected in the water.

About an hour west of Seeb towards the Hajar mountains is Nakhal Fort. We assumed it would be similar to Nizwa and Bahla, so pleasantly surprised to see such a huge fort with the impressive backdrop of the mountains. The whole fort is built on a big rock which protrudes through various parts of the walls and rooms. We decided to start with a coffee in the local small coffee shop in the tiny village, surprised that there were about 10 Westerners sitting on the terrace, as we drank our coffee 7 tour buses arrived, so much for thinking that we had come to a remote place. The fort was impressive, lots of small rooms and a maze like arrangement. There was slightly more information than for previous forts in that they had labeled and put more decoration into the rooms. The tour bus guides herding their groups around did spoil the first half hour but fortunately they were soon gone, still surprised at the number of independent tourists there. The guide-book recommended combining the fort with hot springs a couple of km up the road. It was a tatty place (rubbish at points of interest is definitely a problem here) with a few men in the tiny hot spring pool, quickly decided not to have our picnic elsewhere.

Drove on to Sawadi on the coast north of Seeb. Here there’s a very long beach that comes from two directions and meets at a point. Off the point is an island with a big castle on the top. The tide was coming in so the walking access to the island was gone for us. It was a much pleasanter place to have lunch. Locals clearly enjoy driving on the beach rather than strolling down it. Lots of lovely shells on the beach.



Back in Seeb we strolled down to the promenade to see the last sunset of the year. It was utterly disappointing as it was the cloudiest day we have had the there was in fact no sunset to see. But did have a good curry in a beach front café.

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