O(h)Man(!)

Alright, so here it is: a week late and four contributors short. Everyone's out for the count except me, and I'm dealing with a bout of insomnia, so I guess I'll pound this out: Mama C, c'est pour toi! The rest of you can read it, too.

So yeah, we went to Salalah last weekend: 9 hours of driving to the southern coast of Oman.



We took some back roads, but these were well groomed highways, even though they were through the "Empty Quarter," which you should google or look up in an encyclopedia for context. In sum, it's a big, bad desert, and the likely place of Lehi's wanderings.



In fact, the purpose of our visit to Salalah is that it is widely believed by scholars and amateurs alike that that the Dhofar region of Oman is the land Bountiful. That might not mean anything to some of you, though I think non-relatives and all but a few close friends stopped watching this channel a while ago. So anyway, yeah.

We went with the Stewarts (formerly of Red Deer) and several other families from Dubai to scope it all out and get a feel. It was a disappointment for those expecting placards and revelations, but most of us were pretty realistic that what we were after was atmosphere. Saturday morning we drove out to Taqa Castle, a small fortress currently under renovation. Significance? non that I know of. But it's an old bedouin outpost, dating back many centuries, and gives us a little insight into the durability of the civilization that has inhabited the area for millennia.









Then it was off to Khor Rouri, a protected archeological site that may never be the same after our visit.





Just down oceanside from the old settlement is a bay that is a possible site for embarkation.



Inland up the river is a dry fall that, in monsoon season, is a stunning waterfall.



The idea is that a boat could be constructed on the riverbed and then, as the water levels rose, could be carried out to sea.

The Dhofar region is green by any standard. It's quite amazing to come down out the desert over the crest of the Dhofar mountains and see all that green. In monsoon season, it's apparently trebly stunning.





Anyway, yes, there are bees, cows (though I suspect these are imported from decades ago, not indigenous--they look Jersey, not indo), and lumber aplenty (though I suspect the "milk and honey" thing is merely a cultural translation of a Hebrew idiom, and not meant to be literal). We were under no illusions, of course, that this was exactly the spot--things change over the centuries and millennia--but it was nifty nonetheless. Our geologist friend who used to live here and visited the area several times says he's doubt-free that that was, indeed, the general place.

Another candidate for the launch is Wadi Sayq, 200 kms or so west along the coast, sandwiched between the Yemeni inland and the Indian Ocean in the narrow strip of Omani territory, in what I think was part of Aden historically. He's been there, too, but isn't as impressed. The FARMS folks, on the other hand, say it's all but certain. A group went on Sunday, but we elected not to because getting there is tricky and uncertain, and we didn't want to put our kids through that.

Anyway, Saturday continued with a trip east to a little town called Mirbat--an old fishing village. We wandered through the narrow dirt roads and met with our first anti-American sentiment: some female students in a bus had already met members of the group, and assumed we were also yanks. Thumbs down (no car bombs).







Got some beach time, wondering why we were the only ones in front of our hotel, and learned it was a "public" (meaning Omani) beach, and that we probably shouldn't be there--had to hike half a k to the Crown Royale hotel beach instead. Then Jamie S went with us into the mountains to visit the mausoleum of Nabi Ayub, otherwise known as Job's tomb. (Nabi means prophet, I believe: Ayub must be Job's Arabic handle.)

This first one is of Job's footprint (apparently) next to the hoofprint of a horse. Look really closely and you'll see both (I suggest double-clicking the pic to magnify).



These three are of the tomb itself: note that whoever is buried here was very, very tall. The footprint is more believable after seeing this. The tomb is close to 12 feet long, if not a little longer. Incense burns all the time, and instead of charging admission, the guide, who has worked there for 15 years, accepts donations to help pay for the upkeep of the mausoleum and maybe to help with groceries.







This last one is the remnant of an old mosque that is attached to the mausoleum just outside the window to the left of the guide in the picture above. The wall on the right faces Jerusalem, and the wall on the left faces Mecca. The implication is that Job was muslim, and prayed in this mosque. It's anachronistic, of course, but since Muslims believe that Mohammed restored true worship, they have no more difficulty "owning" Job than we might see Peter and GBH as part of a contiguous line. Muslims consider Mecca a holy site for several reasons: 1) it is where Adam and Eve reunited after being removed from the Garden, 2) there Adam built a replica of God's home, called the Ka'aba--a structure Abraham rebuilt when he deposited Hagar and Ismael on the Mecca plain, 3) it was near there on Arafat that Abraham was ordered to sacrifice Ishmael (not Isaac--otherwise the story is the same), 4) and of course Mohammed was a Meccan and the sites of his vocation and restoration are all right there.

Anyway, the picture:



A brief but interesting visit--there was a special feeling, which I wouldn't describe as spiritual so much as still. As we left, a group of muslim men arrived and stood very pensively and reverently beside the tomb. The mountains themselves reminded me very much of Italy, actually. Little settlements sort of sandwiched onto hilltops. Peaceful and beautiful.

Drove around Salalah that evening, and had dinner at a Lebanese restaurant called "Obar." Meh. They were out of all the traditional fare, so whatever. Underwhelmed. The other members of the group had better luck at the mom-n-pop places. Live and learn.







Our hotel, by the bye, was a bit of a dump, but cheap. We ended up in spacious if musty rooms in the old villa where the owner and employees lived. They gave us the second floor, and we had beds for everyone, so while we worried about bugs, we couldn't argue with the price, Two nights, two rooms for about $120 cdn. Shower kinda worked even. But it was run by a lovely Indian family and what looked like an assortment of brothers and cousins and friends (oh my!). There's a shot in there somewhere of the proprietor's daughter with Jonah. The beach was pristine: shell fragments, but fine sand and fun little snails that would wash in with the surf and then burrow immediately into the sand to avoid the kestrels and other birds hunting them.











Spent Sunday morning at the beach (the right one this time) doing some boogie boarding and introducing Jonah to ocean waves. Took some video but can't get it off the camera yet. It was a blast for all. Headed back home.

So besides the camels on the road,







the squat-and-leave-it toilets without toilet paper or even functional water hoses (a bucket under a tap was sometimes all there was for washing--so we tried very hard to limit bathroom use), we also shared the trip home with mosquitos--the first we'd really seen since coming here. Where they were coming from is still a mystery, but we guess they hatched in our truck after being tracked in with the sand from the various beaches we visited. I killed upwards of twenty, and everyone else between them killed as many. We let several dozen out the windows, and they still kept showing up. The only to get bitten, however, was Christopher (poor kid) who was asleep in the back seat.

And now I've managed to make it all sound incredibly boring. It's the insomnia. Anyway, some video to leave you on this split Sabbath. (How did you spend your first weekend in December?)

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In other news, Wendy's now 37. "Old woman, old woman, old woman, says I/Oh whither, o whither, o whither . . .