Trip to Wahiba and Sur: Birthday in the Desert

20.10.07
THANK YOU!!! To everyone who sent birthday messages, wall posts, forwards, etc.etc. I could not believe it when I opened my email. My birthday was an absolutely wonderful day, (we were in the desert all day and slept under the stars), but I felt so far away from the people with whom I would have wanted to share it. And so coming back today and hearing from everyone was the best present I could have asked for.
And Mom, I watched the moon until it set, and then watched the stars wheel overhead for most of the night. :)

I will try to upload photos, (the connection is slower than ever), and will write more about the amazing trip soon.

Love to all.

19.10.07
Exhausted, bruised, slightly sunburned, sand lingering in ears and toes after a long shower: this is how one should return form a vacation.
Am still smiling after three magical days, one of which happened to be my 22nd birthday, though the day was so wonderful that I hardly thought about it and only when I was lying under a blanket under the desert stars could I go through my usual birthday soul-search.
The group traveled by SUV to Wahiba Sands, a beautiful area of the Omani desert, home to the bedouin and their camels.
After visiting a bedouin family, (more on this and the effects of toursim on the bedoiun lifestyle later), we arrived at the desert camp, (full of Dutch tourists). Leaving our stuff in tents covered with hokey but cool-looking date palm fronds, some of us climbed the tallest dune to watch the sunset, then ran/slid/rolled down (Sam, it was like the Great Sand Dunes in Colorado. But better), to smoke shisha around the campfire and talk politics with our lecturer for the next day.

After visiting another Bedouin family, (again, more analytical thoughts on this later), we went to a village, (see photo of the "falaj" system of water transportation, one of Oman's oft-featured characteristics.) Then to Wadi bani Khalid, a fantastic wadi. Four of us tried to follow the wadi all the way to the alleged cave, but had to turn back before we were left behind. That evening we traveled to the coastal town of Sur, famous for its construction of "dhows", the traditional sailing ships (see photo
of me with the tower behind). that evening we trekked out to the beach to see/annoy Green sea turtles laying their eggs. I enjoyed the second night in a row of brilliant shooting stars. Seeing the size and dignity of the mother turtle, hearing her breath, (pant really; they do not breathe on land while moving and have to stop and rest, apparently), I appreciated the opportunity to be so close to a creature that may not survive the coming ecological changes...but I could have been just as happy on a non-turtle beach.
On Friday, another wadi, Wadi Shab, (the Young Wadi), this one a half hour trek through canyons over a path strewn with boulders from Oman's massive hurricane Gonu, (if I have not said much about the hurrican yet I should remedy this; it affected the entire country. Although the government has done well rebuilding they have also minimized information regardng the actual number of deaths, and the fact that the storm was probably a result of global warming and therefore was only the first of what could be many). Three of us and Said, a local boy, reached the cave and traveled beyond, climbing up a rope and then up a rock face. At one point the other two, Erick and Chase, had to stop, though Said and I managed to see the palms and old walls at the next layer of the wadi. Of course this was a piece of cake for Said, who later jumped from about 50 feet into the pool of water in the cave, (the rest of us jumped from about 25 feet). On the way back Mohammad, one of our drivers, joked about us jumping in again, and Matt and I took him up on it, jumping from the wreckage of a water tower on the cliff face, (maybe 35 feet up). It was, needless to say, awesome.
The last stop before returning to Muscat was a sinkhole, allegedly the result of a fallen star, though more likely the product of wave action and a collapsed aquifer. I jumped in, inspiring cheers from the kids gathered on the rim. We had taken the stairs about 100 feet down into the sinkhole, where a spit of land blocked a cave complete with small white stalactites. Swimming through, i wished I had brought a mask, though the water was clear enough to see all the way down--the rest of the group had had enough of water at that point, but swimming there was an opportunity not to be missed.
Finally returned home after dark, driving through martian-red mountains and huge anthill-like mounds.

Neither the words nor the photos can come close. the trip was amazing, and I cannot wait to describe it in person. Thank you again to everyone for thinking of me on my birthday. Your thoughts and energy reached me halfway around the world, I think, and had a lot to do with making these three days some of the best i have ever had.