Salalah Oman

 

We opted for a half day tour today.  Southern Oman  is a rocky desert with mountains surrounding the city of Salalah, which is located in the region of Dhofar.  The land is barren and the trees looked all dried out; but apparently in June the monsoons begin, which in this part of Oman is more like a continuous drizzle.  Then the scenery transforms into a green oasis.  It is hard to imagine given what we saw today.  After looking at a Frankincense tree which was covered by insects that are slowly killing it, we drove by the world heritage site which is a fenced off area of Frankincense trees.   Frankincense trees only grow in three countries, Oman, Yemen and Somalia and are decreasing in numbers.  At one time the value of frankincense was equal to gold but no more.   We next explored the blowholes at Mughsail beach.  It is a lovely looking beach about two miles long; however it is prone to strong rip currents and, apart from a few scattered picnic gazebos, there are no facilities.  The Marneef Cave lies above the blowholes which were not blowing much as it was not high tide.  It is not really a cave but rather an interesting rock formation.  The rock along the beach was interesting as it had the appearance of hundreds mini hoodoos about six inches in height.  Our next stop was at the Al-Husn souk, which contained many frankincense and perfume shops as well clothing shops, shoe shops and barbers.  The Cel  was asked a few times if he wanted a shave and haircut, but being the barber-starver that he is, he declined.  After the souk we went to the prophet Job's tomb, a small building on the top of a mountain.  Job is a major figure in all three religions, Islam, Christianity and Judaism so this is apparently a holy site.  Inside there was an area covered in cloth with what appeared to be a short covered headstone and foot-stone.  Apparently, Job was about 12 feet tall.  Outside was a well that supposedly had the footprint of Job on the bottom.  It would seem, from this supposed footprint that Job was also a Sasquatch.  Each "toe-pad" impression was about the size of a baseball, and at some point in his life, he must have lost a toe!  A very plain and frankly incredible site, but the view from the mountain is worth seeing. As we drove around we were constantly stopping to avoid the camels grazing along with cattle on the mountain slopes.  If you have an accident and collide with a camel, the insurance only pays for the loss of the camel.  Camels that wander all have owners and are branded.  They always wander home at night as they are fed by the owners morning and night as there just is not enough grass for them to survive in the desert.  In May and June Salalah beaches are filled with sardines so now a staple meal for camels and cattle include sardines.  

Cruise tip:  there really is not a lot to do here so a tour might be the best option.  We heard unpleasant tales of renting a cab with rip off schemes and poor english so we opted for the safe route.