In the heat and the dust

Events have overtaken us. We are not now sailing on into GoA and must now try to find a solution. Luckily, we have some excellent yacht skippers among us who are used to dealing with big expensive problems and the current plan is to charter a large ship that will carry all the boats on its deck into the Med while we fly out of here to somewhere safe. Various embassies are now involved too. In the meantime, we must wait here as arrangements are made. It may take a few weeks and we hope the Omani authorities allow us to stay here if and when our visas run out in three weeks. Otherwise, the yachts will have to be left here with little or no on board security and who knows what may happen to them?

Several other, mostly smaller boats, not with the Rally made the brave decision to sail through Pirate Alley last week. They are not quite through yet but it looks as though they will make it safely…. There is a multitude of multinational naval vessels out with them so they are probably quite protected but I’m glad we’re not with them. The pirates have come a lot closer to the Omani coast and had we left Mumbai a week later, we may not have been so lucky.

So, we sit in the sunshine and dust of Salalah trying to entertain ourselves! There is a local club that serves alcohol and is a Mecca for all the sailors who come to this port. It is a few minutes walk up the hill from here but not a bad place to spend an evening or two. Otherwise, during the daytime, we can shop at the hypermarket which is very new and shiny and sells the most incredible selection of dates….we ate two pounds of them last week! Upstairs is a clothing section where Angel Val and I spent quite some time buying traditional Omani clothes, both for men and women.

The men look rather cool, or so I think anyway, in their long cotton robes called “dish dasha” that are whiter than white or occasionally grey, blue or cream. They mostly seem to carry themselves very well, even the chubby ones and they wear the “Omani cap” which is like a little pillbox hat and finishes off the look rather well in my opinion. Lots of the Rally men must think so too because a fair few of them have bought one or two to wear. I have yet to see one being worn though…. They are really cheap to buy at about £5.00 and the rather intricately embroidered caps are only about £4.00. The alternative head gear is the shamag (the Yasser Arafat turban style, mostly red or black checked) which they wear in a very casual style. So much for the men……

The women are something else! They are mostly completely swathed in black from top to toe in an ensemble called an abaya…it’s just a very long (scrapes along the ground) loose, shapeless black dress with the odd hint of a sequin…but the head gear! They wear a long wrap around black scarf which covers the hair and usually the face apart from the eyes but it’s not a burkha. Some wear this scarf as a veil. I have no idea how they can see out. The weirdest thing is the huge lumps they all have at the back of their heads which I can only assume is the long hair curled up into some intricate style. The rally men say that they look mysterious and alluring but I think they look like Darth Vader or vampires…creatures of the night that glide across the floor because you can’t see the feet…..Creepy! I managed to get a distance photo of a couple of them.

And a few of the younger ones don’t have their faces covered but are instead smothered in skin lightening make up and eyebrows that are joined together by a thick black pencil line. Er….not terribly attractive to my mind but it takes all sorts. At least they are tolerant towards us westerners and we females mostly respect their wishes and cover arms and legs if possible. It’s hot but it’s been a lot worse in other places so I don’t mind.
Most speak more than adequate English which is very useful too.

So, the negotiations to organize a yacht transport ship go on… We must simply be patient and find things to do. We can’t clean the boats of salt etc because the water supply is very limited and there is no point in dusting because it’s just the same the next day (hooray!).

Things to do and see include a must do visit to the tomb of Job…. Well I never! Who would have believed that his tomb would have survived all these centuries? Think I’d better have a peek at the bible to find out what he did that was so special! Excuse my ignorance.

The most interesting potential trip for me apart from seeing the Omani ophiolites which are several hundred miles away to the north and therefore a no no (shame that), will be a trip to the Royal Stables and Stud farm. We have our consular contact working on it at the moment and I am hopeful. It was always a bit of a dream for me to see Arabian horses on their native soil and so I’m keeping fingers crossed… Next blog then….