27.11. Wadi Shuwaymiyah

We get up at 7 a.m. and it's still a pleasant temperature, yesterday we skipped dinner after a late lunch, so we cook a proper breakfast - oatmeal. We identified yesterday's animal as a Blanford fox.

Ota wants to explore the other side of the road from the bridge, but the road is bad, so we convince him that he can see the same thing from the main road. He lets himself be persuaded, so in a while we admire the deep canyon, at least from the viewpoint.

We drive through the most beautiful mountainous part of the road between north and south, the road leads between high rocky peaks, where it more than once cuts the mountain uncompromisingly in the middle, we admire the magnificent concept of this building.

We arrive at the town of Ash Shuwaymiyah, which stands at the mouth of the wadi of the same name, which is supposed to be nice, and so we turn off the main road past several poor houses onto a dirt road. The wadi is wide at first and gradually narrows, the road is always nice for a while, although dusty, but smooth, this entices Ota to continue, so that soon we cross the dry bottom of the wadi full of rattling boulders. Oddly enough, there is a house or farm here and there. We arrive at an almost dry waterfall, we go to look closer along the dry falay, and surprisingly there is a nice lake below it. We are debating whether to go on or return, but Ota is obviously enjoying the terrain, so we continue, the canyon walls get closer and water appears at its bottom, so we occasionally wade. We also meet camels and enjoy views of the rocks. A few kilometers before the end, we agree that we've come really far and it's time to turn it around.

We are going north, we need to start getting closer to Muscat, the road goes away from the coast for a while, there is dust and sand around and sometimes low acacia trees. We stop to replenish supplies and in the early evening we find a place to sleep by the lagoon with flamingos at the mouth of the dry wadi into the sea.