Nizwa to Muscat…

The Al Diyar Hotel, which means "Home" in Arabic...

By morning, the flood waters had receded... Business as usual...!!

By morning the river had subsided, the flash flood that raced through Nizwa, a thing of the past…

The manager told me that it was unlikely to happen again until next year…

“You have witnessed an unusual thing, my friend…!!”

“And Insh’allah, my bike was not touched….!!”

He smiled broadly at my comment…

“Yes,” he said,” by the Grace of the Almighty…!!”…

That and the fact that it was never in any danger, I thought wryly…!!

I rode into town to see the Nizwa Fort, and discovered that the river had run through the centre of town, at one stage cutting the people living on the left bank to those on the right…!!

The river had cut through the centre of town, and water was still gushing across the road...

Nobody seemed to mind much… After all, it had only lasted for a few hours, and in this part of the world, a few hours go by like a few minutes…!!

Nizwa Fort... The town's iconic landmark...

Wherever I rode, cars hooted in greeting, children waved…!! It was like being back in Africa…!!

Most towns and villages have huge structures such as this one in Nizwa, to welcome visitors to them...

I headed onto the new highway that linked Nizwa to the coast and headed east towards Muscat, eager to get there and see the city that had always held rather exotic connotations for me…

Perhaps it was the Portuguese connection…

Barely a decade after Uncle Vasco arrived in the area with a shopping list that included gold and spices amongst other things, the Portuguese arrived en masse, and occupied present day Muscat, a position they held for more than 140 years, until circa 1640…

Restless locals eventually drove them off, but were in turn conquered by a vast alliance of tribes from the Yemen, and it is from these tribes that the current rules of Oman originated…

The highway looped up into the mountains after the town of Izki, running through the foothills at times, but mostly sticking to the edge of the vast gravel plains that make up much of central Oman…

Mountains of many colours...!! Amazing scenery in Oman...

For the most part, the mountains just seemed to go from flat valley floor, straight up into the bright blue sky… There were no rolling hills to begin with… It was like riding next a huge jagged-topped wall…

This building is dwarfed by the multi-hued mountain behind it...

The soil ranged from a rich dark red in some places, to many shades of brown and gray, and in one place, where the road had been cut through a steep valley, the rock face was a greenish colour…!!

Some of the rocks had a greenish tinge to them...

At an exchange rate of about 20 to 1, it cost just R47.50 to fill my tank...!! Bonus...!!

I stopped at Somail to take on fuel, the Big Fella spitefully thwarting my plans to squeeze 400 km out of his present tank…

I had to be satisfied with a “395’er”, as the next service station was many miles distant according to the signposts, and I had been on “zero” range for 12 kilometres at that point…!!

Still… I thought it was quite rude of him, and told him so…!! The petrol attendant looked me over carefully, wondering you I was speaking to, before inquiring if everything was all right…!!

“Yes, yes…!! No problems…!!” I replied, giving the cause of my embarrassment a dirty look…

On my around to take the nozzle from the attendant, I gave the back tyre a swift kick, and it wasn’t to test the pressure…!!

Another cool Omani surprise awaited me when I shoved the nozzle of the fuel pump back into its holder…!!

I looked at the reading on the pump housing…

OMR 2.60…

“Is this right…?” I asked the attendant… “Two Rials, sixty…?”

“Yes sir… The price went up recently…!!”

I did a quick mental calculation, and realised that petrol cost only R2.15 a litre…!! What a bonus…!!

Another friendly greeting... This time from Sinu Koshy, and Indian expat working for Toyota in Oman...

The entry into Muscat...

From Samail, the road ran to Bidbid (where the auctioneers originated from…??) and then onto Bawshar, before the Gulf of Oman came into view…

Every junction and intersection was clearly marked, and the GPS was working perfectly…

I rode through Mutrah, the outlying town which butts up and merges with Muscat itself…

Another wonderful surprise awaited me when I first laid eyes on Muscat…

Not a single unsightly skyscraper in sight…!!

Every building painted, mostly in white, hardly any of the “plastered gray” that so many other Middle East cities like Amman, Aleppo and even Damascus, are famous for…

I later found that “the Sultan had decreed” that no building in Oman will exceed ten storey’s…!!

Finally somebody stands up to the crass “blue glass, high-rise” developers…!!

Massive billboards depicting my latest favourite world leader could be seen on some of the taller buildings…

His eyes seemed to be measuring the height of the buildings around him…!!

He of the immaculately trimmed beard, The Sultan of Oman, Qaboos Bin Said...

Oman's National Symbol...

The National Emblem, an Omani Khanjar dagger in its ornate sheath, superimposed on two crossed swords adorned every notice board…

By all accounts, the Omanis / Yemenis were a relatively war-like nation, and the crossed swords and dagger which forms Oman’s national emblem today, seems to attest to this…

They have fought a number of wars through the ages but have been self-governing since 1740…!!

I found myself down on the Corniche, the road that runs around the bay and harbour area, and cruised around for the next hour, taking in my surroundings and marveling at the public parks and gardens that were planted alongside the main roads…

Omani families sat in the shade of large trees, eating their lunch while their children ran rings around them… This was in such huge contrast to all the other countries I had been in over the past few months, and I think this played a large part in my enjoyment of my stay here…

Back on the Corniche, I sat watching a cruise liner docking on the wharf opposite me, while directly in front of it, an old Omani fishing dhow lay at anchor…

The centuries old souk of Mutrah stretched out behind me, a throng of people moved through its main entrance…

For centuries, Oman was known for its trading and seafaring conquests, and today, has the second largest fishing industry in the Arab world after Morocco…

With a coastline of over 2100 kilometres, I guess this is no surprise…!!

From the Corniche, looking out over the bay and harbour area of Muscat...

The Omani were responsible for bringing Islam to Africa’s Eastern Seaboard in 1698 and gained control of Mombasa and Zanzibar shortly thereafter…

The Portuguese were pushed all the way south to their colony of Mozambique, where they set about teaching the locals a thing or two about flame-grilled chicken…

The Omanis controlled the slave markets of east Africa for many years thereafter, so much so, that Oman’s ruler Sa’id Ibn Sultan, made Zanzibar his place of residence in 1837. He built palaces and gardens on the island and eventually split his empire between his two sons, one received Zanzibar and other prime properties on the African coast, while the other, took control of Muscat and Oman…

Guess which branch of the family is smiling today…!!

The current Sultan, Qaboos bin Said, direct descendant of the original Sultan, came into power by ousting his own father in 1970…

Locals have plenty of spots such as this one to relax and watch the world go by...

The 40^th anniversary of his rule was recently celebrated, and unlike many other rulers in the Middle East, who have been in power for decades, Sultan Qaboos is much loved by the Omanis…

While Ben Ali, deposed ruler of Tunisia sits with tail between legs amongst his mates in Saudi Arabia, and Hosni Mubarak’s Cairo is in flames, the benevolent rule of Sultan Qaboos ensures that Oman remains a haven of peace…

No matter who I spoke to, both young and old, everybody had only good things to say about their Sultan…

Perhaps it was because as a gift to the nation on the anniversary of his rule a few months ago, he decreed that each citizen of Oman would get a double salary cheque, paid for by the Sultanate… All unemployed Omanis received a cash grant amounting to R5000.00…!!

Easy to see why he is so popular…!!

Being a rather cynical chap, I pried and prodded, trying to find something the people would be unhappy about but came up empty every time…

And the more I listened, the more I came to admire Sultan Qaboos…

Many conversations included the phrase, “the Sultan has decreed…” which I came to enjoy quite a bit…

I took to asking locals, “if the Sultan had decreed anything today”, and some of them earnestly replied that they did not know, but would check the daily newspapers to make sure…!!

It was hard not to smile all the time in Oman…!!

Muscat Gate Museum and fort... The bay lapping on the shores of Muscat Old Town is just beyond this "gate"...

The hotels at the northern end of the Corniche were all two and three star establishments, but not a single one of them had any internet connection to speak of, so I rode further up the coast, past Al Qurm, where the mansions of the wealthy seemed to be located, and on to Mutrah, where after visiting three other hotels and finding them far too expensive, I finally located the Beach Hotel, on the junction of two main roads that led directly to and from Muscat itself…

The staff was super-friendly, and spent an hour listing places for me to see, circling them on the map I had, and giving me the lowdown on life in Oman…

It was not only educational, but entertaining as well…!!

After lugging my kit up the winding staircase to the second floor, I sat planning the next few days, and wondering how I was going to see all the places on my long list…

The beach close to my hotel... Not a tourist in sight...!!

Either way, I knew that I would enjoy my time here, and tried to dismiss the nagging voice that told me I was running out of time, and had to get my butt back to Dubai…

©GBWT 2011