It's time to go!

All of us at some point or other have had to renew our Oman visas which ran out after 30 days. The renewal cost 20rial (£32) and lasted for, guess what?...30 days! So, that meant we had to get out of the country or get fined daily for being illegal. The more affluent among us took the opportunity to leave the country for a few days and enjoy the delights of such places as the snow dome in Dubai. Others, (and this included us) opted for the slightly less expensive option which was to get the bus across the border and back into Oman with new visas, another 20 rial (but the pound is on the way up!). Oman borders Yemen, Saudi Arabia and the UAE so the choice was made for us. The bus trip to Dubai was 16 hours, mostly overnight with stops for food etc. We had an overnighter in downtown Dubai to recover before facing another 16 hours back........ so this is what I saw of it. Did I miss anything?
One strange thing that happened there. We were walking down a road in "original" Dubai when I suddenly realised that I "knew" this place. I turned around and there was the hotel that I had very briefly stayed in when I was last here 35 years ago. There was nothing familiar about any of the buildings around or the hotel itself, apart from its name but it was the same place for sure. Odd.




This has been our "address" for the past 9 weeks, down the jagged rocks and across the green divide pulling ourselves along by the slimy green mooring ropes...unless we were able (and we often were!) to get ashore in another dinghy with an outboard attached whose hapless owners have had to endure the zillions of barnacles that grow on anything that is sitting in the water here.

Also hidden somewhere in this picture is my purse that dropped out of my bag and into the murky depths one night while I was negotiating the rocks.......a very difficult situation out here....no bank cards, no cash etc. Kindly resolved by friends and family across the globe so that I can get to "the" wedding without having to hitch and starve all the way.....


Just across the way from us is the huge container terminal and other various berths. The vessel traffic is continuous, brightly lit and very noisy on occasion and some of the ships have funny names....if you can read this ones. The ship that is coming here to transport all 20 of the yachts to Turkey will probably be berthed near here. The loading is going to be quite difficult and a lot of work for some because most of the boats will only have one person on board, Moonshiner included as I won't be there! The latest news from Dockwise, the supposedly experienced handlers of yacht transporting, is that yet another ship is due to arrive here at the end of next week to take the fleet to Turkey....but we have heard that one before. It's a bit of a headache for those crews still around as they can't confirm flights out of here to Turkey until they know that the boats are securely on board, but as I said before, it won't concern me as I am already booked out of here on May 5th.....5 days and counting down....

This Russian viking style vessel had been on the quayside near the yachts ever since we got here. I thought it had been abandonned but then the crew turned up and started getting her ready for sea. They are a nice bunch by all accounts and most speak good English. (I didn't dare try out my few sentences of Russian on them.)

They have been sailing her for five years now, starting from somewhere near St Petersburg and the intention is to get to Australia. They leave tomorrow, May 1st. I hope they have safe trip as they will be going through pirate territory and I doubt they will be able to outrun anyone! It's not funny really.....it's dangerous out there for boats on their own so let's hope the Russian navy are around...they take no prisoners. In our opinion, the Indian and Russian navies have the best record when dealing with the pirates who are for the most part complete savages......sink the lot of them!

I am spending my last few days here trying to organise stuff on the boat, deciding what to leave behind (in safe hands) and what to bring home. I ought to get another huge bag to put it all in but I'm going to be very disciplined and tough with myself and just wear the same clothes while back home until I can get back to ebay. Oh, how I have missed that!!!!!!

Knitting a wedding cake in the desert.

We ( Angel's David and Val, Fai Tira's John and me went on a 24 hour safari into the desert, also known as the "Empty Quarter", the largest area of sand dunes in the world at 650,000 sq km. We were to drive with an experienced guide, Suhail, in his wonderfully airconditioned 4x4 across the coastal plain of Oman, up into the Dhofari mountains, across the plateau which turns green with the rains after July, through the increasingly dry, rocky and dusty desert landscape and on into the sandy desert proper with nothing but dunes, dunes and more dunes as far as the eye can see. Fantastic! On the way, we stopped for lunch and had a huge meal at a roadside cafe for a whole rial (that's£1.60 to you), then stopped again to look at frankincense trees growing wild. I could put a photo in, but in the end, it's just a tree with some greenery at the top and you need to be there to experience it. Suhail cut into the bark to start it bleeding and showed us other cuts from earlier expeditions where the sap had oozed sufficiently over three weeks to enable "harvesting". It was incredibly sticky...sand is good for cleaning hands I found,.... and also strangely edible...we tried some...the frankincense I mean!




We stopped again just before the desert proper to have a look around the ruins of a lost city over 4000 years old. "Shisur" is just one of its names I believe. It used to be a very important watering hole on the frankincense route from Dhofar to the north. A huge sink hole there is now dry however because they are trying to grow grass for the camels and have sunk 40m wells all over the place to provide enough water. It does look a little odd to see huge areas of dusty brown dotted all over with squares of bright green. I hope the plan works. There is nothing else much around for the camels and there are thousands of them to feed. The camels out here are almost black by the way, a separate breed I read somewhere.

After about 5 hours, we found the true sandy desert, the fabled "Empty Quarter" which is the very same place that Wilfred Thesiger came to in 1950 when he crossed this vast area with the Bedouin, fell in love with one or two of the younger Arab boys (!) and eventually spent five years with them. I had no idea that he started his journey in Salalah, as I had read the book 40 years ago and forgotten all the details except that I wanted to go there too some day. I went through a patch when I was about 14 where I had a minor obsession with all things arab.......the horses of course, the Bedouin way of life ( it may have been those ads for Turkish Delight that hooked me?)........and Omar Sharif!! I have now started to re read this wonderful book seeing it all again with so much more insight.

We drove deep into the dune area until we were completely surrounded by huge mounds of tan coloured sand. I was looking for the classic shape, a barchan dune...the crescent shaped ones and the only name I could remember from geography lessons. I found thousands of them, varying in size from just a few feet across and about three feet high to some that were miles across and mountainous. These huge dunes were naturally the most spectacular with beautiful natural curves and wave patterns within them formed by wind changes over many years. We stopped briefly on our route to find a suitable campsite for the night and walked in the dunes for the first time. The sand was extremely hot, having been heating up in the fierce sun all day but very difficult to walk on with shoes. We tried to walk along the ridge of a huge dune that wound upwards into the distance and could only manage a couple of hundred yards. Practice needed. The photo above (by John) was taken in the morning when the top sand was delightfully cool. We were slipping and sliding down the steep slopes that form on the back edge of the dunes where the sand is really soft. Climbing up beforehand is very very hard work....excellent exercise for lots of under used leg muscles! I resisted the urge to roll down the slope...the sand is very fine and dusty...almost impossible to shake off I should think.

I know this is yet another picture of the sand but I have dozens more! The sand changed colour as the day wore on but my camera didn't really capture the true colours very well. It was almost blue on occasion in the shadows. I think Val is in this picture somewhere. She went off on a long trek for a call of nature.......it was quite difficult to get to a place out of sight, and very very hard work!

Suhail prepared a typical Arab meal for us of camel stew with rice, salad, cheese and bananas for later. One or two of us had brought a beer or two that had stayed just cool enough to drink and Suhail also gave us hot ginger tea which was quite nice (for a lifetime non tea drinker). Suhail, a muslim obviously, didn't mind thank goodness. He went off to pray at sunset.....at least we then knew in which direction Mecca lay! He must be one of very few people in the world who is able to navigate safely through this amazing terrain. There are tyre tracks all over the place but most of them were from previous treks like ours guided by Suhail. He said that the tracks can last for some time but usually get covered over by sand as the wind blows (hot by day and cool at night) and small dunes appear which eventually obscure all signs. It rains approximately every five years and then the small plants which are dotted around everywhere spring to life. The effects of the rain last a long time however and a lot of the plants were a lovely yellowy green. The dead" plants are still alive too, the roots just waiting for a rainy day.

We settled down for the night, having chosen sleeping spots all around the campsite. Suhail had provided mattresses, sleeping bags and pillows. The sand was surprisingly hard to sleep on though and I didn't get a lot of rest! The temperature dropped a fair amount as the night wore on and I put on another layer. When my feet got cold, I pushed them into the sand which had retained a lot of daytime heat. Very cosy! There was a full moon so the night started of quite brightly lit, not good for star gazing but later on, after it had set, the stars came out very nicely and scorpio dominated the sky. For a lot of people, this might be their best night of star gazing but for us yachties, it was quite normal. What was unusual for us, however, was the silence.....absolute stillness..... apart from our breathing, OK and just a little snoring too.......

Next morning I climbed higher up on the dune to have this photo taken and hopefully to fulfill my quest which is to have this come up on Google, if one types in the title of this piece.... I can't try it until I post this but I live in hope! We had a good breakfast of flat bread, eggs, cheese, yogurt, fruit and tea before packing up and setting off out across the dunes back onto the road. On the way, Suhail drove us across the flats which are littered with thousands and thousands of huge geodes. We got out and I picked up as many as I could carry. I learned which ones were likely to be good specimens. Excess baggage may be payable!

As we picked our way through new dunes, cleverly avoiding the soft sand that bogs the vehicles down, Suhail spotted a Bedouin camp in the distance...so we drove up, stopped, got out and were introduced to real nomads ( except for the 4x4). We sat outside their tent and drank hot sweet tea .... Val and I had to cover up a little and sit on the outer edge of the group...that was fine by us! They chatted away in arabic and passed us pieces of some weird local sweet...an acquired taste I think. We said goodbye and drove off to where their camels were kept. I tried some fresh camel's milk. Hmm!

A few hours of driving later and we were back at the port. On the way, I continued trying to speak just a few words of arabic with Suhail's help. Not very successful! I had thought that I had done well by being able to read the "Stop" sign, the word I believed being pronounced "khif". Suhail had us in stitches over this one. The correct pronunciation goes a bit like this....gather up all the "stuff" in the back of your throat and start as if you mean to cough it all up, really fiercely, but don't. Instead, sort of bark out the sound "kh" and then add "rruffff" as loudly as you can. Very very difficult. I'm still practising just that one word. I have a long way to go.

This has been a long piece but then , it was a very full 24 hours we spent out there so no apologies. I loved it.

No camels this time!

A fairly large group of us squashed into three cars and travelled Eastwards along the coast to visit the Queen of Sheba's palace. So here it is, well a part of it anyway. It used to be quite a big port before the sand bar that you can see in the distance dried it all up. I'm not sure how they arrived at the Q of Sheba being here as she was around 1000BC and the palace is only 300BC but if they keep on digging, they may find her underneath! The men working on the site were shovelling dust into wonky barrows, then wheeling them to the seaward side and tipping them out over the edge where most of the dust was blown back onto the site. A little bit Sisyphean? OK, another part of the palace that has been faithfully restored I believe. Who can say? Some writing........ if your computer screen is big enough. Mine isn't. Many of the artefacts have been removed and sent elsewhere but there are quite a few arranged in a gallery nearby which was free to visit. Oman is relatively tourist free which is quite refreshing. There was just one other car visiting this site on the day. I'd google it for more information. It may yet reveal great treasure. Those dust shovellers have a very long way to go! And later on that day....a short visit to the suq where Angel David was definitely not persuaded to buy a turban though he modelled it very well. They wouldn't let Val wear one though. I suppose it's forbidden. Women don't get to do much out here. They sit around the swimming pool at the hotel, swathed in black from top to toe and watch their husbands and children happily swimming. It's bizarre and not fair I think.

Progress is slow but still progress.

Forty five days into our “stuck in Salalah” and counting…… Time for a few details about what is going on to get us out of here! There are twenty boats here ranging in size from 39’ to 62’ and all are going to be shipped in purpose built cradles on the deck of a designated vessel through GoA, the Red Sea and Suez to Turkey. This is all very difficult to arrange and very expensive but there are some extremely competent people among the yachts who are used to doing complicated and expensive things and so we have elected to leave the arrangements to them and make the most of being here, hence the trips to the gym at the Hilton Hotel and all the camel photos taken on daytrips when we are not at the hotel! There have been a few hiccups along the way however that have delayed our leaving including a shipping company going bankrupt and the cradles somehow “missing the boat” somewhere en route. At least the mooring here is free because having to pay £20 or £30 a night would add enormously to the costs though there are drawbacks such as having no electricity or water and having to get ashore via dinghy which also usually means a dodgy scramble over the rocks, very difficult especially in the dark. It is also a long dusty walk to the nearest hostelry, the Oasis Club and much too far to walk to the Hilton or supermarket meaning lifts from kind fellow yachtsmen who have enough spare cash for hire cars! There is also a fairly serious problem looming…our visas, which we have already extended for a month and which are now due to run out again. The Omani “powers that be” have steadfastly refused to re-renew them and so those of us who have not been able to leave the country for a short visit home will actually have to leave whether we like it or not in a few days! In other times, we could have just driven across the border into Yemen, had the passports stamped and then driven back. This would have been a little adventure and do-able within a day. Times have changed however and travelling into Yemen might mean not being able to get back because of the troubles there. So……the only viable option is to somehow get to Dubai which is 18 hours drive away (by coach, driving cars across Oman at night is very dangerous apparently……..camels!) or fly there which costs quite a bit of money and will mean having to stay overnight too. Bother! Dubai doesn’t appeal even for a day and I really resent having to pay to get there and back just to have another stamp in the passport. The alternative so they say is to be fined daily for overstaying in Oman which would be fine(!) if it was only a day or two but if things don’t go according to plan (and they quite often don’t!), we could end up paying a small fortune. Catch 22?

Still, we are being treated very well here at the Oasis and the Hilton and, subject to the women obeying a dress code (covering shoulders and knees in public), we don't get any problems out and about. In fact, it has been one or two of the men who have fallen foul of local dress codes where they have been ticked off for wearing "short shorts"! Men's knees are also too much of a temptation it would seem.

We have become minor celebrities in places, well, a couple of articles about us have appeared in the Oman Daily....read it online. There have also been a few pieces in the UK yachting mags but I'm sure there will be many more in the coming months as news takes at least 3 months to appear in these publications.

We have more day trips planned to visit such places as Job's Tomb and the frankincense museum and what I hope will be a highlight for me this weekend; a trip out into the desert proper, "The Empty Quarter" which includes a night in the desert sleeping under the stars and in the sand. We hope to meet Bedouin too and camel curry is on the menu for dinner after we have collected enough material to build a fire. They say to bring warm clothing for the night. OK!

We had another lovely day out with Jersey Jane and husband Andy. This is the famous baobab tree of which there are very few in Oman. Finding it was a bit of a trek up the dusty valley but it was very pleasant in the shade and we collected seed pods on the way back...in the vain hope that someone might be able to grow one?

Camels are just so photogenic, I can't stop taking photos of them and some are such posers like this one. One of the expats told me that the locals have camel "beauty contests" in which they dress them up and apply make up....though he may have just been pulling my leg!

We have been told that it won't be possible to see the local horses at the stud because of the increased state of alert around here.....Yemen is less then 100 miles away....so I shall have to be content with beautiful camels instead!!!!

Jane and Andy also drove us through the Dhofar mountains to the SW of here and down the dirt track onto the beach. A slightly exhilarating drive and not one to do when it's wet or dark. The beach at the bottom was lovely, very soft carbonate sands. Other Rally crews have been here and caught lots of rock lobster which they BBQed. Found out later that such fishing is illegal here apart from Dec and Jan. Oops! We don't want to upset the authorities who are being quite kind to us!

OK. So this is what happens when you fly home and abandon your boat for a month. The Italian Halberg Rassy next to us has squatters. A real "crow's nest" no less. I wonder how they will get rid of it? I don't think there are any eggs. I'll keep you posted!

Five weeks and counting..

Here we sit, twenty yachts side by side, each secured by one or more anchors from the bow and two or more ropes from the stern to the shore, which is about fifty metres away and made up of a rough slope of large crumbly limestone rocks..quite difficult to negotiate especially in the dark after a glass or two at our "local", the Oasis Club. Our days are spent mostly with a slow start, apart from those who have gone completely mad and feel the need to do power walks or even run, first thing in the morning! The most I am prepared to do is some rowing on the machine in the gym at the Hilton Hotel, where it's cool and then sprawl around near the pool but in the shade for a couple of hours until lunchtime when the waiters bring us (expensive) drinks and food. After that, we may go to the hypermarket which is now very familiar to us and the strange purple faced women at the tills etc no longer startling to come across. It is a very nice supermarket as these places go...and we've seen a fair few on our travels....apart from the fact that you can't buy alcohol! I can get onto the internet most days for a little while with my dongle (which must be the best thing since the last best thing they brought out) so I try to keep up with what is happening around us as regards piracy etc. The latest news on the Danish family from the yacht Ing, is that they are being kept in very poor, cramped conditions on a boat off the Somali coast. The ransom being demanded is huge, $5million I believe. We heard that the head of the tribe holding the family offered to waive the ransom if the family allowed him to wed the thirteen year old daughter. Unbelievable. Several yachts have arrived and stayed here for a few days, then headed out in groups into the Gulf of Aden and, so far, they have all arrived safely through into the Red Sea. A yacht left yesterday on its own however and we feel that this was not a wise decision. The two pirated yachts, Quest and Ing were both alone and were no match for the attackers at all. We are going out this afternoon with CTV Jane and her husband Andy to see the baobab forest and the strange "anti gravity" spot where vehicles appear to be travelling uphill down a slope (Or is it the other way round?). In any case, it should be impossible to get a photo to illustrate the phenomenon so you will have to be content with pictures of trees in the next post!

I'm feeling the urge to get those needles out again!!

I know this isn't remotely nautical but it's the only way I can send photos out at the moment as my hotmail won't let me upload images anymore for some reason and besides, this little mouse was just sooooooooooooo sweet! Katharine owns her now and Mark has the gentleman mouse. One of Alan Dart's brilliant Beatrix Potter designs and I had to really fight them off on EBay to buy the original pattern!

And here is "Abigail and The Captain" more Alan Dart patterns who have accompanied us on our travels around the world. I doctored the patterns slightly to more resemble the crew of Moonshiner!

More nautical news soon.

We have spent the last few days in the unavoidable company of 2500 US servicemen (Marines and Seamen) aboard the US Boxer, a helicopter and Harrier carrier. They swarmed into the only places they could buy beer, namely te Hilton Hotel and the Oasis Club. The poor staff were doing non stop shifts I think but everyone seemed to be quite happy.

We spent yesterday evening at the Oasis with some of them, watching the Cricket World Cup and trying to explain the rules! They left early this morning and with quite a few hangovers I should think. We reckon they must be bound for Libya but they didn't know where they were going. Some real characters among them. Tom Cruise (Maverick) eat your heart out!