Despite having a sand storm cancel half my plans, I still managed to pack in a few adventures. On Wednesday on our way up to Jebel Shams (the biggest mountain range in Oman) we stopped in the town of Nizwa to check out the markets.
I really wanted to buy a clay pot but we had some off roading to do and I knew it wouldn't make it back to Sohar in one piece.
At 9am the next day we met up with our guide and set off to trek the balcony walk of "The Grand Canyon of Oman" and ascend the Via Ferratta. The balcony walk along the side of the mountain took us a couple hours and was full of amazing views.
The trek itself was fairly easy, and I would definitely do it again!
About three quarters into the path there is an old village of stone houses built into the mountain. Our guide, Justin from Oman Adventure, told us that the Sap Beni Khamis people used to live there, but moved further down the mountain about 40 years ago, which really isn't that long ago. The path that we were walking was made by them and by the goats.
The Via Ferratta or "steel cable climbing route" follows a path originally built by the villagers with wood sticks. Most of the sticks had been removed, but there were still a few towards the top of the ascent.
The Via Ferratta had some challenging sections at the beginning that caused a few "what the hell am I doing moments" but overall it was super exciting and I really enjoyed it! For those of you that read my Facebook status and thought the worst, no, I did not need to be air lifted out by the Omani Air Force. I ascended that Via Ferratta like a mountain goat!
So after the Via Ferratta we headed back to our bungalows and noticed the one side of the mountain had rain clouds. Well rain is a very rare thing in Oman and we have been told that this year has been particularly dry. When it rains in Oman, everyone goes nuts, there's crazy flash floods and rivers basically flowing across roads. Most people stay home when it rains or avoid driving when it rains. But not us, we decided to become storm chasers and chase the rain.
We head off on some mountain road towards the direction of the clouds and thunder. We see some donkeys, we take some photos, and we carry on. Then we found the rain. Turns out rain makes dirt roads really slippery :)
Jorge, the driver, took a hill a little too fast which caused the Land Rover to slide and his wife to yell. He throws it in reverse and we back up and carry on. Then like a minute later, we slide again and start hearing this loud noise like water rushing from a faucet. But it wasn't water, it was air, we had a flat.
No big deal, flat tires happen all the time. We all get out to survey the damage and it starts to HAIL. But again, I'm from Saskatchewan, flat tires and hail, no problem. Slight problem though, we don't have a jack. So now it's hailing, we're on the side of the mountain with no phone service, we have a flat tire and no jack. Little problem.
But alas someone is coming! It's the bus driver on his way to pick up kids!!! He speaks very little English, we speak very little Arabic (3 out of 5 us have been taking Arabic lessons for months and we know about 10 words between us), but he tries to help.
Then more help arrives, the Omani Air Force pulls up, in a truck. The young guy speaks some English, he sends the bus driver on his way, and the two air force dudes help us with our tire.
A short time later the bus driver comes back with a bus full of very curious and very entertained Omani boys! I'm sure we gave them quite a story to tell their friends and family in their village. Bunch of dumb foreigners chasing rain in the mountains without a jack haha.
After the two men finished changing the tire, we tried to give them some money for their trouble, but they refused to take it. Instead they invited us to come for coffee! So we followed them back to their base camp. At their camp, they let us wash up and invited us in to sit on the carpet and drink coffee and eat halwa with them.
At the base there were 3 more men and they were all very interested in what we were doing. Only one of the men was in uniform and his English was really good, he was so friendly and had this huge grin on his face the entire time, like he was super excited to be with us. We all had huge grins on our faces too because we were also thrilled to have met these awesome guys. They told us so many interesting things about the area.
We smelled roses from one of the man's village that is famous for rose water, our main hero (Army shirt dude and the only guy who actually lives at the base camp) showed us pictures on his phone of the frost on the trees that happened earlier this year, and we shared stories about our home countries. It was an unforgettable experience!
I asked if we could get a group shot with the 2 men that fixed our tire, they agreed but went to change into traditional Omani dishdashas for the photo. We took the photo outside and then the older dude, who spoke very little English, proceeded to point out everything and teach us the Arabic words for it. At that point the donkeys had wandered by and they told us the name for "donkey" was "hemaar." I pointed to Jorge, the driver and said "hemaar." All 5 Omani men broke into serious gut-retching belly laughs, I don't think I have ever made a group of people laugh harder than those men at my joke! I guess "donkey" in Arabic also means "jack-ass" like in the English language?? Or the Arabic meaning of "donkey" is something much worse?? I have no idea, but they all asked me if I was married after my comment and wished me luck in finding my husband and even suggested I try and find an Omani husband (ha ha!). I know I said this already, but it was an incredibly amazing day.
I'm sure you've all been in a similar situation and have experienced the kindness of strangers. If you're from rural Saskatchewan, this kind of thing has probably happened to you a hundred times. Our experience with the Omani people was a perfect example of how it doesn't matter what language, religion or culture you are from, it's human nature to want to help each other. Awesome people are everywhere in the world, even the Middle East ;)
Hi Jacks. Are you still blogging?
ReplyDelete