Because we had all worked yesterday – on the weekend – no formal working meetings were arranged for today. I had planned to rent a car for the day and explore the areas to the immediate south-east of Muscat, but Terry, the School’s Principal, very generously insisted that I borrow his car instead.
After the by-now usual memorable breakfast at my hotel, I headed first through Ruwi and then out along the old road towards the south-east. With plenty of time available, I made several stops along the way for photos, first at the top of the hill overlooking the small, traditional village of Yiti, and then at several points where wadis crossed the road to photograph the landforms and vegetation, with Wadi Qanu being the most impressive.
My destination was the coastal town of Sifah, 37 kilometres drive from the Yiti view point. Although there are several large tourist developments to the south of Sifah, my interest lay in the old section of the main town, which was a beautiful slice of traditional Omani village life.
I drove into Sifah past the old watchtower that still guards the town and stopped in the two small sections of the old town, a southern section near the As Sifa Central Mosque and a slightly separated northern section containing the village hall. I really felt I had travelled back in time as I got out of the car beside the beach that was lined with fishing boats and was confronted by a herd of goats walking along the street.
I spent quite a while walking around the quiet streets of Sifah before returning to the car and driving south to see the tourism development, nothing of which was especially interesting or noteworthy.
I returned to Muscat along the new road which takes a route that follows the coastline more closely than the old road through Yiti I had used that morning. This route took me through Bandar Khairan, a district with a small town by the same name as well as interesting surrounds.
Like Sifah, the town of Bandar Khairan was a fairly sleepy place with goats wandering through the streets and a few people walking, mainly to and from the mosque. The coastal scenery nearby was certainly more spectacular, with the bare light brown surface rocks contrasting strongly with the deep azure blue of the sea water. A network of walking tracks gave great opportunities for seeing the landscape from various angles, and I wished I had known about these before arriving because I would have planned to spend more time there exploring these routes.
Upon returning to Muscat I changed hotels as I didn’t think it was fair for the school to be paying for my accommodation when I was spending entire days doing my own fieldwork. It seemed something of a paradox that I was parking the Principal’s car in the new hotel’s car park, such was the extraordinary generosity of my host school.
