O My, O Man, Oman! Country #30!

So, I was very excited that Thomas came back to the UAE to visit for 3 weeks. One of the things we said we wanted to do was go to Oman. So, we went shopping at Carrefour for a tent, and sleeping bags and stuff to go camping for 5 days.

We got all of our gear together and decided to take my little 1999 Honda Civic. I was pretty skeptical, but it saved us a few hundred dollars that we would have spent if we would have rented a car.

We set off on Tuesday morning with a basic outline of our plan. We were going to go to Alhoota Cave in Nizwa, then to Ras Al Jinz and Turtle Beach in Sur, head over to Muscat hitting some beaches and wadis along the way, then hit Jebel Shams on the way back.

After a few hours of driving and some fun at the border post, we made it to Al Hoota Cave. Al Hoota cave is located in the mountains near Jebel Shams, Oman's highest peak, near the city of Al Hamra. The system is a major subterranean wadi with Al Hoota cave as its inlet. There is a rare species of blind fish that dwell in the dark waters of t
he cave, as well as a system of interesting stalagmites and stalactites; one of which is even shaped like a roaring lion.

They only let a certain number of people to visit the cave each day, so we were lucky to get in right away without a reservation. There is a little tram that takes you from the visitor's center to the mouth of the cave. Beyond that, pictures aren't allowed. You get to walk around and there are guides there to point out the different geological formations.

The little tram that takes you to the cave.

A picture of the inside of the cave that I found online.

A picture of the roaring lion that I found online.

A picture of one of the blind fish that they keep in a tank at the visitor's center.

It was already getting dark when we made it to Nizwa and there didn't seem to be anywhere obvious to camp, so we ended up just grabbing a hotel and staying on town for the night.

The Honda!

You can never have enough sprinklers. Line up the holes? What for?

Apparently, you can never have too many locks either.