Animal day at GAA - April 21, 2010

This week was environment week at school.  We did all sorts of activities for Earth Week.  We collected our garbage and carried it around for the day to see how much we generated, we planted flowers, did without using lights, AC and water for an hour, had an animal day where you had to dress up as an animal and paid 5 dirhams (money raised went to the animal shelter) and our grand finale was classroom without walls day.  This day the whole school was out on various field trips (cleaning the beach, zoo, kayaking the mangroves, and visiting a dump) for the day.  It was a good week.  Here are some pics of my animals...

By the way - notice the missing tooth?  Happened this morning at breakfast before we headed into school! :)

Trip to Fossil Rock - April 22, 2010

We did a day trip to Fossil Rock to show Jeff a little bit of the UAE and not just the city.  We also had some of my co-workers come along for the ride.  It was a good day out but we had several mishaps.  First Ewan blew a tire and we tried changing it but the bolts were stuck.  They bent a tire iron tring to get them off! :(  So we changed our plans and had our picnic along the road waiting for the dude to come help us out.  It turns out that Ewan had to go back to the shop and get new tires.  So the rest of us continued on our way and made plans to meet up with Ewan farther on. 

we have seen camel crossings signs throughout our travels but never any camels actually crossing the roads.  Well, today we did.  It is like any deer crossing but they move much slower!  I would hate to hit one because I imagine it would be like hitting a moose!

We finally got to fossil rock for a little explore.  To bad it was so windy and I think we were in a sandstorm.  You couldn't see very far but the group thought that we drove out here we should at least climb and see some fossils.  Being in the sand storm is not nice- you think it is bad at the beach and sand gets everywhere- it is no where near as messy and hurtful as the sand is in a sandstorm.  It gets in your eyes, mouth, ears, hair, and everywhere else.  We thought we would do a bit more dune bashing since getting out to explore seemed a bust.  That became a bust as well, since we ended up blowing a tire by hitting it on a rock.  Changing a tire in the sand is not pleasant!

Once the tire was changed we decided to be on our way home.  It sounded like everyone had fun because they mentioned doing it again sometime.

Sayq Plateau - April 6, 2010

Today was another easy day since Samantha still wasn't 100 percent.  We decided to go up to Sayq Plateau.  There were a few geo caches that we did along the way.  Before we started the drive up we had to go past a police check point - to make sure we had 4 wheel drive and that we had engaged it.  We drove the whole way up wondering WHY?  The drive was way easier than the drive yesterday and it was paved the whole way.  It was very hazy so there aren't many scenery pictures.

Once we got to the top we stopped at at a place called Diana's viewpoint - Princess Diana had visited here in 1990 and somehow the name stuck.  As you can see from the pictures there is a village (Ash Shirayjah) hanging on to the side of the cliff with their farming terraces below that.

We then continued on the plateau to the old town of Bani Habib.  We had a picnic lunch before we started our hike.  We hiked to the abandoned village and were able to explore it.  A very interesting place to explore.  It must have been beautiful before everyone left because you could tell that it was a very nicely laid out town, with large trees all around.  Wayne and I figured it couldn't have been abandoned too long ago because there was wallpaper in some of the houses and pvc pipes (I think for roof drainage).  Across the wadi and higher up there was another abandoned village.  It was a picturesque wadi with the plantations neatly laid out.  I imagine when the trees are in full bloom it is quite something.  Below find pictures from the village...

Before we hiked back to the truck we had a little rest beneath a huge tree.
Once back at the hotel we had fun in the pool for our last night.  We head back home tomorrow for a relaxing weekend before school starts again.

Wadi Bani Awf - April 5, 2010

Today we were going to drive the Wadi Bani Awf route that goes over the Hajar Mountains to Muscat.  We didn't get to do much hiking today, because we had a sick little girl.  She came down with a fever after we were about half way through the drive.  We continued on and the scenery was amazing.  We are definitely heading back for this drive.  There were a couple of canyons that are a must see, that we missed.

We went through several villages on route.  We always kidded that Dacre was in the middle of no-where, well Dacre has nothing on these villages.  Their drive to town is more than the half hour it used to take me.  :)We saw fajals coming down the mountain, a soccer pitch on the top of the mountain, deep gorges, and windy twisty dirt roads.

Once we were down the mountain, it was a wadi drive back out to the highway.  This wadi had water in it as well, that we had to drive through.  It was an amazing drive that will be repeted hopefully with a few hikes added.  Once we were at the highway we headed into Muscat and then around the mountain back to Nizwa.  On the way back we made a few stops for some geocaches at a hot spring and a look-out point.  Samantha slept on and off for the whole drive.