Two and a half weeks into our enforced and elongated stay in the desert country of Oman and I have yet to see a camel although I have eaten some! I have seen a sandstorm however. Everyone in this mooring spot here in Salalah was shaken awake by strong winds and boats bumping together at around 5am this morning. The boat alongside us, a 48’ Halberg Rassy with Italian owners away for a few days, broke free of her stern rope which had been chained to a rock(!) and tried to gallop off like a frightened horse…..but she reckoned without us and between three boatcrews, we managed to bring her under control after a bit of a tussle. The wind continued to blow and the dust got everywhere. My hair has never felt so stiff! This sand is very fine, made of limestone dust and it coats everything very easily. It’s a losing battle trying to keep it under control but after this morning’s episode, it was time to finally clean the decks etc with the saltwater pump. I had been quoting Quentin Crisp who said that the dust doesn’t get any worse after six months, but I think that after six months of this type of dust, the boat would be buried or sunk under the extra weight on the decks.
We were supposed to go off on a day trip with John from Fai Tira, a longish drive up over the mountains and into the desert proper, well the edge of it anyway, to the end of the macadam road at least, that is…. This has now been put off to another day. I think the desert has been trying to come to us! I was almost guaranteed to see wild camels on today’s drive but I will have to wait now.
The arrangements for our mass shipment out of here are well in hand and there should be a ship arriving in about a month that will transport all 20 yachts through GoA and the Red Sea, then Suez into the Med and finally Turkey. We all have to get to Turkey by other means and this is proving to be a bit of a nightmare as there are no direct routes from here. The plan we are currently working on is a 12 hour coach trip to Muscat which should be fantastic as long as it’s in daylight as it is supposed to be one of the best bus journeys in the world. After that, there might be a flight to Rhodes via Qatar and Athens and then finally a ferry ride to Marmaris, Turkey where we shall meet the boats a week later……….. Trouble is, we can’t book anything at all until we know exactly when the boats are going to be shipped and then there will suddenly be quite a lot of us who are all rather anxious to leave Salalah at the same time! It sounds very expensive.
I shall be sorry not to be able to visit Djibouti, Eritrea, Sudan and Egypt as well as missing the trip through Suez but in the end, I’d rather be safe. Other yachts have already made the journey through GoA safely including one Blue Water yacht, friends of ours with whom we spent Christmas, Spirit of Nina. We were very worried about them but they insisted on sailing through, along with a few other brave souls and they are now in the Red Sea having encountered no problems en route. From the websites we monitor closely, it looks as though most of the pirate action has moved north and east of here and we were lucky to get here without problems as our route was in the middle of current trouble areas. See most recent photo attached later for current activity.
In the meantime, we sit here day after day getting hot and dusty with periodic relief of a short trip to the Hilton Hotel for a swim (one has to pay 5rials or £8.00, for this) or another short trip to the hypermarket….. to stock up on dates mostly! The built up areas around here are strange. There are small groups of houses and shops scattered all over the place with nowhere that looks exactly like a town. In any one group of shops, you are guaranteed to see a laundry, a hairdresser (men only I think…women’s hair is never on show) and a restaurant. There are virtually no women on the streets though they are in abundance in the hypermarket. All the shops, including the restaurants and laundries are run by men. It’s all rather alien to our western way of life and I’m sure I’d never adjust to having to stay hidden away. I did discover why the women have such huge heads though! In the hypermarket the other day, I touched one of them on the back of the head very gently and asked what on earth it was she had under her enormous black headscarf. It was a sort of loose woven basket which must contain the hair in some way. It looks so strange though and I’ve not seen this style in other Muslim cultures. The other odd thing as I said before is that the mostly younger (?) women pencil in their eyebrows so that they meet in the middle. What for? I might get bold and ask to photograph one of them.... watch this space!
The big four.....men doing what they know best. Spearing fish and then BBQing the catch. This is from L to R... David (Angel), Gavin,(Sol Maria), Brian (Miss Tippy) and Pete(Fai Tira). The beach looks a little like a Guernsey one apart from the searing heat. 
Meanwhile, the ones who weren't BBQing were trying also not to fry! L to R Glenda and Ian (Lucy Alice), Dick and me. John (Fai Tira) took the photo so credit for it must go to him. 
The rest of us sat in the shade!
I know this is just a little sad...my collection of shells picked up on the beach...but they were such nice colours, purples and pinks mostly. I also never knew they had ormers here. Maybe this is where all the Guernsey ones have migrated to? Do they prefer the warmer waters of the Arabian Sea? Which migration route did they take?
