17.11. Nizwa, Jabal Akhdar, Jabrin

There is a cattle market in Nizwa in the morning, so we get up at 6am. We are in Nizwa after eight o'clock, goats and cows are being led around at the goat market, interested parties offer how much they would like to buy for, if the amount is to the seller's liking, the animal is sold. We're just getting to the end, the market started around half past seven in the morning. We are looking at other parts of the market, fruit, ceramics, souvenirs and others.

In the parking lot, which is in the wadi (on the map it looks like in the middle of the river), we have a late breakfast and papaya that we bought in the market. We go for a walk in old Nizwa, there are old crumbling mud houses and narrow streets, we walk through some really secluded passages. An old woman comes out of one house, in front of which the children and I stood for a while, and gives the children candies. He gestures animatedly and tries to tell us something, we try to guess what, maybe David looks like Ota and Aneta like me, but it's probably not accurate. He gives up after a while. There is still a famous fortress in Nizwa, but we still want to see Jabrin Castle today, so we mustn't boil the children in the morning.

We go to the mountains to Jabal Akhdar, the "Green Mountain", at an altitude of around 2000 m above sea level, it is about 15 degrees lower than in the valley and they have enough water, which is ideal for growing fruits, vegetables and spices. Even today, it's below 20 degrees, cloudy and sometimes raining, we even need jackets, but we'll warm up in no time on the way full of stairs. In the mountains on the steep slopes there are villages and terraced gardens that cover the hills like stairs deep into the valley. We walk from one village to another, part of the way we walk along a functional falay, there is even a "falajofall". I admire the care with which some of the gardens are managed, lower down in the valley the fields are already abandoned, it must have been a lot of work to walk with everything so far down the slope.

The next stop is Jabrin, today is a long day, we stop at a shop and traditionally buy labany (kefir drink), ice cream and "rolls" - white sweet pastries, something between our roll and a Christmas cake for lunch. Again, I realize how lucky we are to have baked goods here and I don't understand how it is possible that they don't have something like this almost all over the world. We arrive at Jabrin Castle an hour before dark, it is already a pleasant early evening, nice light and there are only about 3 cars in the parking lot, we look around the castle practically by ourselves. It is supposed to have the most beautiful interior and there are actually significantly more interior spaces here than in Nakhal, the castle is also made of adobe, but otherwise they are very different in layout. The most interesting is the date warehouse, there are grooves on the ground through which the date syrup drained, which was pressed from the dates by their own weight when stored in bags. Date syrup was also used in battle, when it was poured boiling over the heads of enemies capturing the main gate. At the top of the castle there are several viewing platforms where we watch the sunset. It gets dark again in a few minutes as if with a wave of a wand, we still take photos at the castle under the lights and we leave the parking lot in the dark.

We go to Wadi Damm, where we have selected a campsite according to iOverlander. We arrive around seven o'clock and someone is already camping here, but Ota takes it as far as he can, and we stop at a rock overhang through which flows a stream flowing from a nearby dam. We set up our tents at the bottom of the wadi in small stones, cook dinner and go to bed early.