December 14-16, 2025 - Back to Muscat

In the end, we zoomed back to Muscat and returned the rental car. On December 15, we had another real highlight: We went on a snorkeling tour to the Daymaniyat Shells. These are nine small islands located about three-quarters of an hour by boat from Muscat. This is a great place for diving and watching various marine creatures swimming around :) We didn't have an underwater camera with us, but our guide did, so there are also some ‘guest shots’ included...

On the 16th, the adventure continued: via Abu Dhabi to Kuala Lumpur!

December 10-14, 2025: the city of Nizwa and its mountainous surroundings

After our time on Masirah, we drove back to the mainland and to Nizwa. Nizwa is a city in the northern interior, near mountains and many highlights.

December 11: The ruins of Birkat al Mouz and the historic Jabreen Castle

December 12: Al-Huta Cave and the small mountain town of Misfat al Abriyyin

December 13: Hajar Mountains with Jabal Shams and Wadi Shab

A small, less touristy island in the Gulf of Oman :)

4.12. Bimmah Sinkhole - a hole in the ground. With water inside. And doctor fish. With foot fetish.

5.12. Wadi Shab - an indescribably beautiful gorge. To reach the end, we had to hike, climb, and swim. At the end, you swim into a nice cave.

4.12.-6.12. Overnight stay in Sur - Sur is a historic port city in northeastern Oman. However, we didn't do much sightseeing here, just stayed overnight.

Muscat 30.11.25-03.12.25

Hello Oman!

We spent the first few days in the capital and were immediately captivated by the country. It has a wonderful aroma everywhere, the people we met were very helpful and friendly, and Muscat is a beautiful, historic, and diverse city, perfect for strolling around and trying food from all corners of the world.

30.11.: Arrival in the evening

01.12.: Wandering around without a plan

02.12.: Exploring the old town of Mutrah, including the Sultan’s Palace, the port, and Mutrah Souq (traditional market)…

03.12.: In the morning, visiting the Grand Sultan Qaboos Mosque, then picking up the car and off we go…

The END

On the last Omani morning, we have breakfast with a view of the goats in the rock face opposite the tent. We walk back to the main road and after a while we stop at Bimmah hole, a very famous and frequented by tourists depression, at the bottom of which is a salt lake. After 30 days, we meet a lot of tourists for the second time. There is a well-maintained park in the vicinity of the sinkhole, a staircase leads to the bottom of the hole, and for now you can swim here. I take a few steps in the salt water, and we continue, looking forward to the sea.

We choose a shortcut to the sea to Al Khiran, and if it's a shortcut, we're not driving on asphalt, we're driving through the mountains. First of all, it's a really nice and smooth Polňačka, it can go up to 80 km/h, it could be really faster here. There are beautiful mountains and valleys around us. Probably not enough adrenaline for Ota, we'll shorten the shortcut even more along the way, I'm sorry. This is where the real offroad begins, we drive through a beautiful valley, in the last third of the shortcut we prefer to look at the road and throw away larger boulders. The last part is probably under water when it rains, but it's dry here today. I want to go back, we are leaving today and I am afraid of complications, but Ota decides that it will be possible. We prefer to walk with the children. We attribute the first descent of this vádí to ourselves and continue on. (Okay, probably not the first descent, but this road won't be very busy.)

In a moment we are already looking at the Bandar Khiran reservation. There is a jagged coastline and a number of islets. We go down a very steep and bumpy road to a small rocky beach where a few boats are moored. The water is clear and the nearest island is within reach. We go snorkeling with the children and finally inflate a paddleboard for the first time, Lenka is afraid of fish, so she ends up riding it. We go to the island for the cache, the way to the top is steep and scree-like, but we are rewarded. From the top there is a wonderful circular view of the entire area. On the way back, we still snorkel with Aneta and David near the island, nobody wants to swim in the afternoon, so we dry off and pack for the plane. The local cats annoy us, when we find out that they want nothing more than plain water, so the children make bowls for them and make sure that they get to each one. Repacking after a month is endless, we also pack car seats and all camping equipment in bags. We still have to get rid of the local stove, which we will not bring back. A guy comes to the dustbin, greets us and looks for what he can find there, we give him a stove and some leftover dry food like rice, lentils, sugar and when I see his enthusiasm I add some cookies. We're leaving in the dark, we don't want to be the last ones here, some cars had trouble getting out, so we had to be pulled out. Although we swim a little, we leave on the first try.

It's a short distance to Muscat, first we stop in Old Muscat, where we walk to the Sultan's palace Al Alam and around, everything is nicely lit and it's a pleasant evening. The last stop is in busy Muttrah, we walk through the narrow streets of the old buildings and walk through the market, finally we have the last shawarma on the seaside promenade and we have to go to the airport. We pass familiar places, the children get to know the opera house and the Kábos Mosque.

We argue awkwardly for a while while handing over the car, the guy picked one of the hundreds of smudges on the car and claims we did it. There are a lot of smudges like that on a 5-year-old car, we don't know why he chose this one, it's not even possible to take a proper photo and it's not something we could have noticed when we took over the car. Finally, he calls the boss and says that the boss will look into it tomorrow and get back to us. However, we warn him that if they solve the invisible scratch, we will solve the fact that they gave us another car at the beginning, that we had to wait for them for over 2 hours and that the car they gave us had a punctured tire, which we had to solve ourselves.

It is 2 degrees lower than when we arrived (26°C) but it seems to us that it is much colder, we are already used to the heat, it will be -8°C in Prague. It's 10 pm and we have a night at the airport, we don't sleep at all, we have to move on every 2 hours. Baggage check-in, passport control, gate. The plane is delayed, but we don't know anything, we just sit at the gate an hour longer. Around four-thirty, children gradually drop out. David can't be woken up, so Ota has to take him to the plane, the girls have to wake up, there's nothing you can do. We are waiting on the plane for some more time before we finally get the green light, but it doesn't matter, we have a 4-hour transfer in Istanbul, so we will be there for a shorter time.

The children go to take a quick bath, the discovery of small honeydews gets them out of the water. We go to the port city of Sur, where the traditional manufacture of wooden dhows is still maintained. Only a handful of people already master this craft, one ship is built by hand without plans for 3-4 years. The Sultan himself orders ships to keep the craft alive. They have two ships under construction and it is possible to climb into both of them by ladder, we walk through the hull of the ship under construction and it is quite a challenge because there is no platform, we climb the ribs of the ship up to the tip. They are building an even smaller boat next to it, it already has a finished deck and you can also climb on it.

It is noon and the crowds are pouring into the mosques for the noon prayer and we say goodbye to Sur. We arrive at Wadi Shab at half past one, take a boat to the other side of the mouth of the wadi and continue along the concrete road, which turns into a road with smoothed cobblestones. Gradually, the footpath rises and leads along the balcony in the rock wall of the narrowed canyon. We come to the place from where people swim to the cave, it seems like a long swim from the map, so we continue along the path along the rock that is marked on the map. The terrain is not marked, but sometimes there is a concrete step or a paved part of the road, which assures us that we are going well, because otherwise it is quite exposed and high on the rock above the water. There are even steps as you descend back into the canyon. We are near the water, we can hear the voices of people bathing in the cave below us, but we are separated by several meters of height and a cave-in of huge boulders. We climb a floor lower, we are only about 10 m above the voices, but which way down. The way back doesn't appeal to us, we have to make it down. We see a waterfall disappearing under a rock in a hole. We don't have the guts to do that (but in retrospect we realize it was the easiest way). So we go around it from the left, there is a rock with the rest of the rope. I look around for a while and conclude that it will work, although the rope ends on a sloping rock above the water, but if one climbs into the crack, one will land safely in the cave. I climb first and it goes better than it seemed, we gradually feed the children. Phew! We repack dry things into the boat and water bottles into the backpack. We will definitely swim back. We are already a short way from the cave down the rock to the water and we are already swimming through a very narrow canal to the water cave. We are not afraid of that, all tourists go this way (unlike our goat trail). It's late, so we're almost alone in the cave at first. There is a rope hanging next to the waterfall, I climb up, it's going well and I realize that we could have gone down this way easier, at least with the current state of the water.

We make out in the cave and swim back. We meet 2 Egyptians who inform us that the last boat leaves in half an hour. We don't worry about it, there are still a lot of people here with us, and at worst we'll swim through it at the parking lot. (and the guy in the parking lot said that it runs until 5:00 p.m., but 5:10 p.m. is still ok). They warn us about the darkness and the slippery stones, they are obviously worried about us and then say goodbye as if they will not wait for us. We swim back, I pull David on the rope to go faster, we leave a number of people behind, including the Egyptians. We are back at the ferry in a surprising 3/4 hours including the swimming part, which was faster than we expected, it is still light and the ferryman does not look like he is about to pack it up.

We have an early evening snack and look on the map where we will go to sleep. 3/4 hour from here I find Wadi al Arabiyin, where, according to iOverlander, several groups slept and liked it very much. We are already leaving in the dark, the road is moderately difficult, we sense mountains and rocks around us. The chosen place is occupied, so we go one further, where there are small stones by the drying lake on which we camp. Compared to the reviews, the water is not very clean, apparently it is dry and the water has been standing there for a long time. It doesn't matter, tomorrow we plan to swim in the sea for the last time.

In the morning, the children and Ota go swimming in the sea, although our house is in the first row on the beach, but it is 1/2 km to the sea. As part of the acceleration, they drive a car. After a while, Ota calls that he managed to bury him. But the rescuers appear immediately, drop even more tires and explain to him the mystery of why we have two versions of the four-wheeler, then the car will drive off on its own. I follow them, Ota guides me back, let me drive, because they are wet. I haven't driven this car yet, moreover, in the sand where it got buried a while ago, but I'm going to bury it too. But I'm driving fine, so I'll get admiration from the children :-D.

We leave for the trip to Wádí later than planned and immediately after driving 10m we discover that our right rear wheel is completely empty. We hope it was just a glitch in the drop and that we didn't puncture. I WhatsApp the landlord to see if he has a compressor at home and he immediately sends a friend to inflate our bike. We go to the nearest pump to inflate all the tires, but their compressor is broken, they send us to the tire repair shop around the corner, which turns out to be a lucky solution. Without us saying anything, the guy discovers a loose valve on the right rear wheel and tightens it. Hopefully we have already chosen it today.

We go to Wadi Tiwi, the moment we get off the highway, Ota realizes that we don't have much gas. The nearest petrol station is 25km back and I have 6km ahead of us with steep ups and downs. We hesitate for a while and finally Ota decides to risk it. We haven't had an empty tank here yet... The road through the village is asphalt, but very steep and winding, I don't even enjoy it very much, I'm afraid that we won't get it on that slope and the children are inventing the worst scenarios. We stop in the village of Al Aqur. Ota asks the local men where the nearest gas station is, the guy looks at the gauge with a connoisseur's eye and first lets out a worried sigh and then asks if we need to go to Muscat, when we say to Sur, he definitely declares that we will go to Sur.

It should be about 3 km to the waterfall, we set off along a beautiful marked path, there is even a concrete footpath at the beginning. Right after the village, we turn off the road with Aneta and David and go along the falaj to look for a cache to a hidden lake. We walk through the gardens, then climb over and under some boulders and we are at a blue-green lake covered with a rock block. We find the cache and go back, a wonderful detour. The path continues along the rocks, the surface is almost stony, but the path is clearly visible and there are steps where needed. We pass to the village of Sooee and decide to go back along the falaji, after all we climbed quite a few meters in the rock wall. We meet a few villagers and continue along the falaji and then along the bottom of the wadi, where there are huge boulders, climbing them is more and more difficult, water appears between them and the waterfall is still 1/2 km away. Gradually we lose our way and it is too late, I declare swimming and going back, everyone is in favor. Later after zooming in on the map I find that the path is described as "Unmarked bouldering trail trough wadi", it fits, not that we would have been put off if we had known this before.

We are going back, from the village we follow the Falaji as planned, the road is beautiful, it leads through gardens where palm trees, banana trees and citrus trees grow. The Tiwi wadi is greener than other wadis due to the water in the valley part. In the end, the falaj leads us back to the mountain road we came along, so we return the same way. But we pass through the village elsewhere and meet many natives, women and children sit outside and talk, men sit separately. While it is still daylight, we drive out of Wádí and reach the nearest gas station.

In the evening we go to see the beach at 20:30. At this time, the local tourist agency goes to observe the turtles. But we didn't want to go to the turtles with them, according to the reviews, the events are mass and disrespectful to the turtles laying their eggs. We walk along the beach and find only turtle tracks, car tracks lead through them, most likely someone is looking for them like this too. Even the footprints are interesting, and after a while the children disappear in the dark and trace where they lead, but do not find the turtle. But we find something else, the waves bring luminous plankton to the sand, we see this phenomenon for the first time and it looks very nice.

In the morning, a camel came to see us, he was more curious than us and again he had more courage than me. He stared at us long enough and wandered around. Meanwhile, the sun came out, but it was still pleasantly cold. Surprisingly colder than other places we slept. We took a little longer to pack, yesterday in the sandstorm we did a bit of hokey with things. On the way back we enjoy riding in the sand and on the way back to the first valley we choose a path that is almost like a ski slope. We like it, so we go around one more time.

Then we say goodbye to the desert and go to Wadi Bani Khalid. In the upper part there is a well-known and sought-after natural swimming pool, and in the lower part there is a canyon also called Wádí Hawer, and we go there first. The entire canyon is about 6 km long and it takes 4-6 hours + the round trip back. That's tempting, but we'd have to be here earlier and without the kids. We meet other groups who walked about 40 minutes there and back, we will do the same. Right behind the start are natural slides where children can have fun. Next, we climb boulders, wade and swim. We reach a high waterfall with a lake, we go around it to the right. We let Lenka and David rest under the waterfall and go for a little walk with Aneta and Ota. We go back in places by a different route and crawl under the rock.

At dusk, we still look at the tourist part of the river, nice, but quite civilized. The most beautiful is the way back along the falaji. At the parking lot, we decide to find accommodation for 2 nights. We are located via Airbnb in a house right by the beach in Ras al Hadd. In the evening, Ota and I go to the beach to see if we can find a turtle, because it goes to this beach to lay its eggs, but it's too late. At least we find turtle tracks.

First stop today is the abandoned village of Manizifat near the town of Ibra, we are here early so we have it to ourselves. The inhabitants left the village after 1990, when they received a better opportunity to live from Sultan Qaboos, the old mud houses are falling apart due to the rains, and it was easier to build new dwellings next to it than to repair the old ones. Until today, only a few old people remained here who did not want to move anymore, new people are not allowed to move here anymore. There are crumbling mud houses in the village, which we could climb at will, there were still stairs left, but most of the floors had already fallen. In one repaired house there is a museum, where we could see how such a traditional Omani house was furnished. The guide told us about the history of Oman and this village. 18 families lived here, the whole village was surrounded by walls, in which there were 7 gates, which were closed every evening. At each gate there was a mosque and a school to which children from the surrounding villages commuted. After the tour, we drive through narrow streets to the next, also defunct village, where there is a functioning mosque and an old marketplace.

Before the trip, we continue to replenish supplies and water, we enter the desert according to the map near the town of Al Mintirib. Guides who want to accompany us cling to us. It took a lot of work to shake off the other, he convinced us how difficult it was, but we prefer to discover on our own and at our own pace. We are going according to mapy.cz to the place where the 1000 nights camp is and we will see each other then. In this desert, there are longitudinal dunes from north to south, between which you can easily drive on hard sand. We pass several tourist camps surrounded by a high wall and suddenly we see other cars crossing the dune to the next valley, we watch where they are going for a while and then we follow them, there is even a sign for 1000 nights. Yes, and then we can't do it! The road is clear, paved, the car handles it well. At one point we take a wrong turn and go to a Bedouin's house, but in a moment we are back on the right track. We pass the 1000 nights camp and in front of us the road climbs to the dune again, we also go up, a Bedouin lives here again, but a little further on there is a nice place, there are several blown-out bonfires, tourists are obviously also brought here, but today there is no one, not even here not much trash either.

So we choose a flat place for tents. The children are going to play in the dunes, Ota is setting up the tents himself today and I am running to take advantage of the last bit of sunshine to take pictures. When we have everything done and almost cooked, at six o'clock with dusk, a strong wind comes up and destroys nothing. We hardly even have time to set up our tents. We quickly pack everything and anchor the tents alternatively. We still have sand in everything. The children crawl into the tent and have dinner inside. The wind died down almost by midnight, so we got some sleep. The only thing that disturbed me was the lizards, which were looking at the tents according to the tracks, but when I looked out of the tent, I never saw any. (And in the morning I had a slipper bitten by small teeth).

In the morning we observe flamingos on the lagoon through binoculars from the tent. When packing, the children compete with Ota, who will fold the tent first, so we are packed quickly. The children won, but they have breakfast all the longer, and we still leave faster than yesterday.

We stop in Duqm at a place called "rock garden". It is a group of smaller rocks of different shapes that they surrounded with a fence, made a parking lot and put an Indian there. The entrance is free, a pleasant stretch in the middle of the road, but otherwise we don't really understand it. It would probably be better to stand there in the evening, it will probably be lit up. Before leaving, we go to the toilet in the parking lot, so the Indian goes to turn on the generator to keep the water running. Heavy employment.

We continue further north to the area around Khalouf, where there are white sand dunes "sugar dunes" by the sea. We leave the road in the direction of the salt factory, there is a beaten sandy road, we hope that the road along the coast and the beach will be passable. At the salt factory there is a direction sign in Arabic, Ota takes a picture of it and finds out with the help of a translator that it says Khalouf, we interpret it to mean that it is passable. In addition, it is low tide in an hour, which is an ideal condition for a trip along the beach. We pass the salt factory and continue to the sea, the road goes along the beach and we look at the completely green waves of the sea, we go to look closer and we cannot recognize what makes the water so green. Snow-white sugar dunes begin to rise on the other side of the road. We go for a walk to them and the children run wild in the sand so much that we have to shower them before the next trip. We continue along the beaten sand between two hills to the next beach. Next, we drive 5 km straight along the beach and stay as far away from the sea as possible to be safe.

We stop at another small beach behind the cliff, which is littered with miniature pink shells of small snails. We are going to explore the sea cave - Humrat cave, which is passable only at low tide. There are dozens of large crabs, we look at them until we find and scare them all, and also explore other hatches and caves. Apart from the ubiquitous garbage and one pensive Omani, we are alone here.

We decide to use the evening to cross north to Ibra. In Khalouf, we refill the water and have a shawarma (chicken kebab wrapped in a flatbread). We set off in the dark and after less than 300 km we pitch our tents among dry acacia trees.

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.

The road meanders between rocks that in some places drop down to the sea. We admire those who built this road, they were not afraid of anything, where necessary, they simply broke through the rock. Suddenly Aneta reports that she sees dolphins in the sea, we stop and go to observe them, there is a whole group of them and they drive back and forth on a stretch of several hundred meters. David writes down another animal he saw in nature in his imaginary diary. We stop in the only larger town we have along the route today, but it's even smaller than we expected. We fill up with gas and since we haven't eaten yet, I suggest trying a small local restaurant. They have a picture menu and that's the basics. In the end, for 8 OMR, we manage to order such a set of meals + fresh juice that even Lenka and David found something to eat.

Today's last stop is Wadi Suneik, we go down to Wadi to a palm grove, the kids want to sleep here, which seems like a good idea, it won't be windy here and it will be dark in an hour anyway, so we have a chance to camp early today and get up early tomorrow. The last sun shines nicely on the mountains, we still try to walk to the sea, but it's over half a kilometer and the path is difficult - rock climbing, so even though we took flashlights, we eventually return. Just before going to sleep, I still see two eyes on the road, Ota and I had a good look at it, and not far from us stood an animal the size of a cat and the appearance of a hyena, some kind of dog-like beast with big ears. There is no signal here, so a more accurate determination will be tomorrow...

The "Gravity point", sought after by tourists, awaits us on the way, where, thanks to an optical illusion, it is supposed to look like the cars are driving themselves up the hill. We stand there for a while at the sign, wondering which way the miracle is supposed to be, when an Omani carrying tourists stops, stops the car, turns off the engine and shows us that the car is now turned off and it's going wow! up the hill. This performance is the best part of the whole thing, because Lenka looks at it and says what we all think: "But it's downhill there, it's right". You probably shouldn't get out of the car for this parade, otherwise the perspective is different.

We continue along the switchbacks to the Baobab forest and don't expect much from it. We stop right at the parking lot on the main road, we passed the turnoff. The children do protest a bit, it's quite hot, but it's really only a few hundred meters and there are beautiful baobabs around the turn, so it's worth the walk. From the second parking lot, we continue through the forest along the path, there are more baobabs and the path ends at one huge one. The forest is very pleasant, there are also other types of deciduous trees and again lizards. Then we take a short walk to the stream, but swimming is prohibited, we don't know if it's because of Schistosomiasis, but we don't risk it.

David and I stayed at the lookout and I saw some movement in the distance, something was running and there was more. David talked me into going to see it. So we walked along the footpath under the rock and actually managed to see and photograph the animals, which we later identified as Rock Damans. We saw several and David even got very close to one. They had burrows in rock overhangs. We returned to the parking lot just as the sun was setting.

Since it is clear that we will be looking for a place to sleep in the dark, we decided to drive up to an hour away to a scenic beach (no one took my suggestion that we sleep in the mountains instead of on the beach, as it is quite cool here) . The beach is really beautiful, with rocks and surrounding mountains, but it was very windy, in the end we decided that our tents would hold up and we pitched our tents partially leeward of the rock rock and the car. At least we used the outdoor showers near the nearby waterworks. The children fell asleep in no time, I was woken up in the middle of the night by the wind blowing the tent and also by the light of the approaching full moon.

We decided to extend our stay by one night, we leave the children in the apartment in the morning and we go to see the city with Ota. Unfortunately, it's Friday, so everything is closed, but that doesn't matter too much. The city is quite vast and surprisingly green for Oman, but it obviously takes a lot of effort in the winter. We want to see the market (souq), no one is there, so every seller tries to prey on us, we end up buying rainbow cashmere scarves for the girls. Otherwise, tourists are sold incense (we already have that), scarves, perfumes and many other souvenirs.

We go to the main mosque in Salalah, which is Sultan Qaboos as usual, we are there 10 minutes before 12 o'clock, so we can't go inside, but we witness how people gather here from all over for the noon prayer. We walk round the garden.

In the afternoon, we go to the beach again with the children, this time we choose a place further from the city, the same beach, but a few km further. There is no one far and wide, only occasionally a car passes quite quickly along the beach. It didn't take long and one buried itself within sight of us. After a while, a friend comes to help him and fits in too. We have a rental car, weaker than they have, so it is unthinkable for us to pull out, but it is high tide and the first car is already starting to be in the water, so it won't let us and we go to ask if we can at least help them push. They say thank you, that it's cool, let's enjoy the day, that they'll fix it. We seem to be more unhappy about it than they are. So let's go swimming. In the end, several other off-roaders came to help and pulled out both cars, but it took them 3 hours, the first sunken one was already in the sea after daylight. Their rope kept snapping and the right strong car arrived too late. When the cars are saved and the sun has set, we can finally go to the accommodation.

In the morning we drive 40km north of Salalah to see the incense burners. There are several thousand trees in Wadi Dawkah. We meet the gardener who takes care of them, he has them divided into 4 sectors and he waters one every week. He shows us 40-year-old trees, 70-year-old trees and 10-year-old small trees (the frankincense tree grows very slowly). Frankincense is a bad luck that is collected 2-3 weeks after cutting the bark, the first batch is white, poor quality, in the following weeks clear yellow and prized green are harvested. The tree yields up to 10 kg per year and they live for 100-200 years with good care. The tree has beautiful yellow flowers, which we were lucky to see. In addition to incense burners, there are also a lot of lizards, so David enjoyed himself. Frankincense is a highly valued raw material, in ancient times there was an incense trail through Oman, along which it was exported. Today, the whole of Oman is perfumed with incense, which emits a typical aroma when burned.

At noon we are back in the apartment and spend the afternoon on the beach, we choose the beach right on the edge of the city and it is not a bad choice at all, we are there in 7 minutes, the sea has a sandy bottom and big waves. Right next to it is a lagoon full of birds. There are not many people here, but they come in the evening, the evening on the beach is obviously popular here, but few people bathe, they come here to watch the sunset.

Today we have a big trip to the Yemeni border, we drive past the beautiful Mughsail beach and climb the mountains, the road here is in perfect condition, but we overcome a big gradient, we go to the secluded last seaside village before the Dhalqut border, where there is a subtropical forest on the slopes of the mountains. On the way we pass two police checks, they take our passports and we have to wait, they are strict but kind.

In the village we look at the beach with the wreckage of an old Russian helicopter. There is one very old baobab tree near the sea cliff lookout and again camels. We drive through the forest on the road, which is quite rare here, and we meet small camel farms. We get back to the main road and 6km from the border with Yemen we turn back.

For swimming, we choose Fizayah beach, where a serpentine path leads with wonderful views and again camels graze here. The beach is nice, surrounded by rocks, but it is not deserted, there are several groups who apparently also came to look for a deserted beach. The waves here are the same as in Salalah, but there are rocks at the bottom, so it's not ideal for children, but they lasted many times longer than me. We're going back after dark.

In the afternoon we go to Wadi Darbat, without a doubt the biggest attraction around Salalah, but especially in the rainy season, there are crowds of people here, as evidenced by the huge parking lots. Today we are practically alone here, we walk a small circuit of dry wadis to the waterfalls, there are only a few lakes/puddles. In the place where there is a waterfall, calcium carbonate deposits are clearly visible, which are deposited on the surface of the rock through which the water flows, creating a kind of curtains. Only after the biggest waterfall a little water flows. We observe lizards and huge spiders, some spiders have a web right in the parking lot and another stretched across the road. Later I google that they belong to the genus Nephila, their body is up to 4cm, their legs span up to 12cm and their webs up to 1m.

We go to look above the waterfalls and further to Wadi Darbat. At one viewpoint we meet a herd of camels, they want to look at us even more closely than we do them, in the end I lose and I flinch first, he would have poked me with his snout. There are several smaller steps above the falls and there is water here, it reminds me of Croatian rivers. We drive to the end, as far as you can go by car, on the way we meet a lot of camels who just walk along the road and give way only reluctantly, they have the absolute right of way. At the end, we go for a short walk along a path above a flowing wadi, which resembles a Polish floodplain river, we observe birds, lizards, flowers and insects, the influence of the summer humidity can be seen, there are even trees and herbs. We end the early evening on the beach, the children swim until sunset.

In the morning, we are again drawn by the penetrating light from the tent, the children are already playing in the sand again. We pack and try to have breakfast, but a cloud of flies discovered us, so we try to go somewhere else. But it turns out that they are everywhere, especially where there is any civilization or people nearby. So we choose the tactic of stopping, taking food from the trunk to the front, driving (flies can be quite decently blown out the windows while driving) and then eat in the car.

On iOverlander, I found the place where the nearest dunes are, so we go back a bit and turn onto another path. There is road work going on there, so we get stuck for a while because we probably won't get there, but then we remember that no road work here means closure, either we wait until the machine clears the road in a while and drive through the construction site (in the mountains) or it just goes around. We look for footprints and fearlessly throw ourselves into the sand. Road workers lay asphalt. To our surprise, after a while the road begins and according to the tracks, it is already being driven, so we go too. After a few km, there is a section without asphalt, which is being worked on, and after another detour, the asphalt road continues again. We drive past a place where there is a giant empty parking lot, we don't understand why, but there is a sign "Festival Oasis". A little further on is a road sign: "Tourism experiment area", I don't understand it and it sounds a bit scary.

We drive on and soon the road ends and the compacted desert road continues and it ends after a while and there are only tracks rutted in the sand. Ota lets the children make fun of him for a while and finally throws himself into the sand with determination. We kind of swim in it, it's like driving in the mud, but we keep going, we haven't gotten stuck once. We arrive at a nice dune and think that's enough, we stand under it and have breakfast. After a while, a group of cars with tourists arrives and without hesitation they drive to the dune, that's how it's done! In a few minutes, a car with two guides stops by to see if we need help and if we should go up. In fact, we say we dare not. "Do you want to export there?". Ota goes to the next car and the fighter takes him up over the dune, they are there in a moment. The second fighter sits behind our steering wheel, it can be seen that he is not driving in the sand for the first time, the ride is like on Matějská in the hills under the dune, we drive several times because he is unable to drive on the dune, he tries to turn off everything he can, he turns off the air conditioning (it saves the car ), ABS and all the other features, will eventually drop the tires (also recommended in sand), but it still won't help. He says that there is something with the traction, that it will block it, that we have a very smart car full of electricity, that they have simple ones. Even so, he takes us halfway to the dune. It's a great experience, not only riding in the sand, but also how nice and sympathetic the people of Omania behave. So far, the tourists have seen the dune and when they leave, the guy makes sure that everything is ok and that we can leave. We also go for a walk on the dune, the children slide down their butts and eventually their bellies. On the way back, we stop and look at the local flora and try to find the fauna, but we only find different kinds of footprints and holes in the sand overhangs, there are also beautiful blooming thick-leaved tall flowers and several types of bushes.

The next stop is Shisr, a place 170 km north of Salalah in the desert, where in 1990 NASA discovered a place using a satellite that could be the mythical rich city of Ubar, which is written about in the Bible and the Koran. No one knows whether it really is, but an archaeological survey has shown that the place was inhabited as early as 5000 years BC. This legend is more interesting than reality. For an entrance fee, you can see a small fenced area with the remains of restored walls. But we have it on the way, so it's a nice diversion. We arrive in Salalah in the early evening, staying in the hotel we found through booking.com for 4 nights. As Ota says, we will make a vacation within a vacation. This time we are lucky, the apartment is large, clean, there is a washing machine and working wifi.

Suddenly we see several cars standing by the road. Is there something there? Ota asks. I look at mapy.cz, there is a road to the border with Saudi, I quickly look at iOverlander, nothing there, then geocaching.cz. There is a cache near a hole and there are also dunes in the photos, so we turn it around (it's not a problem here even on the highway, you just need to cross a strip of sand) and we're rolling along the sandy road, it's 35 km. I read the listing that the water table is high in this area, so some bushes and trees are thriving here, and we will see the first bushes and trees soon.

On wp we find a small lake, but rather a puddle, and there is a salt crust here and there on the sand around it, which only confirms to us that the water in the lake is also salty. Towards the end of the road, we are already driving through sand, we are careful at first, but small mounds of blown sand cannot always be bypassed, so we slowly find out the possibilities of the car. So far so good. We stop at a large fenced hole, which is a sinkhole, at the bottom of which there is also water, we believe that it is salty. On the way back, we stop at a large sand dune and the children climb to the top of it at lightning speed. They like it so much that they ignore the heat and want to be here all day. It's beautiful here, but we continue back. We are grateful for this unexpected detour, because without it the crossing of the desert would have been quite boring.

The next night we want to sleep in the dunes near Ubar, ideally we would like to be there before it is still light to enjoy the sunset. It has a few catches. The first is that the path, which is shorter and chosen by google, has an absolutely horribly wavy surface, so it's like driving on corrugated iron. Instead of 1 hour, we drive for 3 hours at a speed of 25 km/h, it's really hell. The second catch is that the dunes, which seemed to be right next to the road on the map, turn out to be desert after a 3km offroad drive from the road, so we end up camping right next to the "road" around 10pm. Fortunately, only 2 cars pass by during the night, one stops, he asks if we need help or if we need to sleep at his house, very nice, but we are happy here and the children are already in the tent.

I wake up around 5 o'clock in the morning, there is a beautiful starry sky above the river, and the Big Dipper, which we search for in vain in the evening, is standing on the reins in a position in which it cannot be seen here. I would like to take a picture of it, but I still want to sleep. In the morning we pack and go on a trip to the Wádi Damm canyon. The character of the canyon is completely different from what we have seen in other canyons, the walls are rocky, but there are distinct terraces that you can walk on. At first you can walk along the water, but then it flows more and more often between the rocks, so we walk along the rocks and stony shores. Finally, we come to a beautiful lake with a waterfall, where we swim.

On the way back, I walk the last part of the way from the dam to the falaja, there is an Omani family under the overhang, the children cowardly jump off the falaja earlier so that they don't have to pass them, it's stupid to me, so I continue and greet them. So I become a victim of Omani hospitality, I immediately receive coffee, lots of dates, papaya, bananas, they ask if I've had breakfast yet and if I say yes, then they say I can have lunch. The only thing that saves me is saying that I have to see my family. I try to at least reduce the amount of dates they give me, but they are adamant "Oman full of dates". In addition to fruit, I also get a traditional Omani dessert, I guess it is made of date paste, spices and nuts. At the car, we share the supply with a pair of Czech tourists who we met in the wadi and they explain to us that yesterday they passed an Omani wedding and were also invited as special guests and brought them so much food that it was impossible to eat it.

Today we want to head south, but there are still a few points of interest. Just a little further in the same valley, there is a group of beehive tombs dated to the Bronze Age 3000 years BC (Beehive tombs Al Ayn) on a small hill. We got this place and the next stop as a tip from Tomáš (the former head of the section where we used to go), the place is on the Unesco list, but it doesn't have much advertising or good access.

After a short stop, we continue to Ibri, on its edge are the ruins of the clay castle As Sulayf. We get off at the parking lot and immediately a local Omani appears by the car, waits for us and immediately leads us to the complex and starts explaining in bad English. We're a bit embarrassed about it, but we have no choice anyway. He still wants to take my camera and take pictures of us without exaggeration with absolutely everything. We don't like that, so after he greases the lens with my fingers, I don't lend him the camera anymore and we only take pictures of children (and only occasionally, otherwise we would still be there today). We walk through the castle grounds and at the main gate he explains that the castle closes at 2:30 p.m. and doesn't open until 7:30 a.m. in the morning. But that outside of this time... one goes in through that hole in the tower. We climb through a hole, a tower and at the end there is a big step where we have to pull the children up. I wonder if the pensioners who travel here the most also come here. We're starting to be really glad he caught us because we wouldn't have gotten here otherwise. The castle is under reconstruction, some places have already been repaired and illuminated, but a lot of work still awaits them here. Our guide also worked on repairs here. He obviously knows it well here, he shows us every inscription carved on the stone, every bat and explains what it was used for. And he makes us take pictures of everything :-D, he has exactly selected places from which to take pictures. However, if we don't want to take pictures of everything, he doesn't take it personally, he says welcome! and we move on. We are at the castle for over an hour, it gets dark again when we arrive at the parking lot, we ask the guide how much he wants, he says 10 OMR, we are all satisfied.

We will rinse the children a little from the camping shower, put on clean clothes and go to the desert for the night, we have to cross about 900 km, so we will go as far as we can and then we will camp. We don't want to waste time cooking, so we think about where to get something to eat. We already had the popular trio of rolls, laban, and ice cream for lunch, and the children don't eat much other local food (they even put spices in the packaging of the chicken strips). Finally we discover a pizza place and a simple Margarita saves it.

The kids fall asleep almost immediately and we drive along the straight road imagining the desert in the dark. Somewhere before the halfway point around midnight, we turn onto a side road (sand) perpendicular to the main road and after a few km we pitch our tents right next to the road. Nothing passed by all night.

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.

We have big plans today, but in the morning I'm still playing with the laundry, so we're not the fastest. We go to the village of Misfat al Abryieen. First, we walk through the old historic center, where there are narrow streets and passages between mud houses. We peek into the backyards and the passage and I admire the variously decorated wooden and metal doors. Then we descend the stairs to the gardens below the city.

First of all, we head towards the wádi. We follow the main falaj, which brings water from the wadi, along which the W9 hiking trail also runs. All the time I admire the various branches and tributaries of other aflajas, gardens with date palms and other trees and here also banana trees. We go to the place where the falaj flows out of the rock and explore it a bit into the cave, but we haven't reached the end. We discovered about 5 geckos, 2 frogs (so far so good), a small spider (well...) and a large spider with a leg span of about 10cm (um... kids, I think we've seen enough and turn it back). We sit on the falaji in the shade and think about what to do in the next few days (for accommodation we only have H+ signal and it's even worse, so there's not much to plan), meanwhile the children catch tadpoles from the water in different stages of development into frogs and put them in ponds made of hat. We could be here until the evening, but we're getting up eventually. We continue back, there are clouds of tourists below the city, but probably only for a few tens of meters, as soon as we go behind the restaurant, we are alone again, we walk through the gardens and through the deep canyon to the parking lot in the new part of Misfat, where Ota parked the car. I really like it here everywhere, this is a spectacle for my gardening heart. We replenish our supplies again in Al Hamra and drive back in the dark.

We reach the parking lot, where the goats are especially interested in us, we try to pack so that we have everything and don't have a goat in the car, and we set off. The footpath winds in the middle of the steep wall of the canyon, every time I look ahead it seems to me that a difficult passage awaits us, but where we are it is always cool. Next to the footpath, there is almost always a sloping rock, and the cliff starts to go down further, so if you trip, you won't fall all the way to the valley. Even so, I lead David by the hand, mainly so that he won't be afraid of Oto. I talk to the kids about everything and the trip goes by quickly, we stop at viewpoints and I also have to keep taking pictures of the incredible views. About 3/4 of the way through, Ota decides that it's enough. According to the map, the entire route is 4.5 km in one direction. I think it was not more than 4km, but x2 and in difficult terrain.

Of course, Aneta and I have to go to the end, so Ota, Lenka and David take a long rest in the presence of a scalded goat, and we continue to the place where the village of Sap Bani Khamis was until the middle of the 20th century. Truly an incredible place to live, but they had that water from a seasonal waterfall and in the rock wall of the garden fed by an aflaji system. Today you can see the remains of gardens and houses stuck to the rock, built of mud bricks. We are exploring this wonderful lost village, I would explore more, but we have to go back, so that there are no more pitfalls waiting for us.

The sun has already set, so the way back is mostly in the shade. We meet other Czechs, this time from CK Periskop, and we talk for a while with their guide. We return back to the accommodation, the children do school and write diaries, Ota cooks and I wash my hands until the evening in buckets made from 18l water canisters. There is no washing machine and after 10 days it is needed.

In the morning there is pleasant shade between the mountains, we pack and at 9 a.m. when we leave there is no sun. We scramble up the hills and stop every now and then to look at the views, it's a nice low sun, so it's worth it. Even the traffic is less today.

We go to the mountain village of Bilad Sayt, in the valley they have beautiful gardens, watered from aflaj. While passing through the village, we wait for an old man to pass through the narrow place, who is obviously returning from somewhere with his morning coffee. When we greet him from the window, he lights up and offers us dates and coffee.

The road through the mountains is long and full of switchbacks, but there is always something to look at. Finally, we go up to the ridge at an altitude of 2000 m.m., where we again meet the asphalt road that leads here from Al Hamra. We say goodbye to the views on the other side and down the asphalt like a stomp.

We are going to the cave of Al Hoota, it is recommended to order a tour in advance, so we will see. There are not many people here and the guided tour in English starts in 5 minutes, we're catching up. Unfortunately, the train doesn't run, so we walk half a kilometer along the stove. The cave is 4.5 km long, but only part of it is accessible to the public, there is a metal walkway with hundreds of steps, the stalactite decoration is nice, but who has visited several caves in the Moravian Karst... it is drier here and the stalactites grow the most there , where it is humid and has a lot of CO2. It is interesting that the space is flooded during the rains, so the lighting and stairs have to be repaired frequently and expensively. At the lowest point of the tour is a lake where blind cave fish live, from here you can continue on a special full-day tour of another part of the cave, which is connected with swimming, climbing and crawling. After the tour of the cave, we look at a small interactive museum on the floor of the visitor center, there is also an aquarium with blind fish from the caves.

On the way to the accommodation, we stop in Al Hamra to do some shopping, we slowly realize that it is normal here that half of the goods do not have a price written on them. When asked how much it costs, the seller takes the goods and goes to beep it at the cash register. The owner's brother gives us the accommodation and immediately offers guide services, which we gratefully decline. The accommodation is nice, with a large outdoor space, but the bathrooms are dirty and the kitchen even more so, so we clean first. Then we find out that there are small cockroach-like bugs crawling around and when the water stops running in the middle of the children's shower, Ota wants to leave in the morning. We wash the children from the camping shower, in the meantime my brother comes and turns on the pump, so finally the water is flowing, I convince Ota that we can leave the decision to leave until the morning. The bugs will probably be everywhere and we have already cleaned it up here. The children also like the swing here and we can be outside as much as possible.

The morning is beautiful again, I wash a few things in the washing machine and the children bathe, so we don't leave until around 11 a.m. We are headed to Wadi Bani Awf, which should be used to reach the other side of the mountains to Al Hamra. Google even tracks the way there, so we want to try it. We buy an extra supply of water in case we get stuck there. At the very beginning, we drive between high mountains, at the point where the asphalt road ends, there is a warning that whoever brought Google here should rather go around it, that this road to Al Hamra is very "bumpy" and only for experienced 4WD drivers. To our delight, we interpret this to mean that it is passable. We turn on the quad bike and set off on an adventurous journey. There's a lot of traffic, so we're riding in a line and it's terribly dusty. We stop to get some distance, eventually we make it. The road twists and turns, new and new vistas open up for us.

We arrive at a place where several cars are parked, we stop, there must be something here, and yes, Little snake canyon. We put on our sandals and go for a short walk, Lenka makes a scene in the car that she doesn't want to go anywhere, that she wants to read, but we insist that she go to read in the shade. Finally she goes and after 50 meters she is already jumping with enthusiasm, as she likes it. We only want to walk a short distance, so we don't take anything with us, but the children enjoy climbing over rocks, so we continue on, we meet the Czechs from Adventure, who are walking from below, they say they walk for about 30-40 minutes, but at the beginning they swam and there was no way around it. The children want to continue, so we climb down the big boulders of the canyon and occasionally wade lightly to the place where there is really deep water and vertical walls of the gorge. We don't have a camera bag and documents, and David doesn't swim that well, so we go back to the car. We are already thirsty and hungry, so we take a watermelon to the edge of the gorge, which falls completely.

We continue through the valley, it's about 2 hours into the dark, so we'll look around for a place to stay. Finally, we climb and cross into another valley, where the big Snake canyon begins. We meet a native on a motorbike, he talks to us cordially, shows us videos of French tourists and laughs at everything, he wants to take a picture of us too, so we take his picture in return. He confirms to us that there is a campsite in Bima, which is at the beginning of the simpler branch of the Snake canyon.

We arrive in Bimah, someone is already camping at the beginning of the canyon right in the wadi. We go to the canyon to see if we can find a lake to swim in, but it's too dry, we walk a little way to a rock that we might put down, but certainly not up, so we return. To sleep, we go a short distance to a terraced campsite next to the road, it's quite nice and in the end we're alone here, we make a fire and cook dinner, it's pleasant in the mountains, even for a sweatshirt.

The way back doesn't seem so scary to us anymore, I guess we're getting used to it. We are going to the village of Wakan, which is on the slope above the valley, I don't know what to expect here, but I have it on the list of places where Kudrna goes, so there will be something there, according to the map, there is a lookout point above the town. We park in the parking lot, all alone. There is an information sign with hiking routes around the area, most of which are difficult beyond our capabilities. We head up the hill along the marked path through the center of the village. There are signs everywhere telling us to be respectful and not to litter, which is especially funny when you consider that Omanis litter everywhere. Wherever they picnic, they leave a horrible mess. We go up the stairs, there are closed stalls around, obviously we are here before the season, we don't meet a single tourist (and not a single piece of garbage) the whole way up. Around us are terraced gardens with trees and vegetables, they are irrigated by an ingenious system of aflaji - water channels, which distributes water from top to bottom. Canals branch off from the main artery into the gardens, where the water flows is regulated by sacks and stones blocking the connectors. We return back down from the viewpoint. We are going to Nakhal, Lenka has been looking forward to the hot spring for 2 days. It's a weekday, so there are a few locals, a bunch of Germans are just leaving. A warm stream flows here from the river, and a hot spring of about 40 degrees Celsius flows into it. The children bathe in the spring and in the river, we just need to rinse our feet in the water and let the little fish lick them.

The next stop is the Nakhal Fort, according to reviews, it was under repair for several years and they opened it recently. There is almost no one in the parking lot and they bring projection equipment into the castle, obviously something is going on here, but they let us in without any comments (from 7 years 2 OMR/person). We walk through the extensive complex, the low early evening sun illuminates the castle nicely, there is not much in the interiors, ceramics on display, David is interested in the cannons. One tower can be climbed using an unconventional ladder. We don't know what's going on here, but Lenka would really like to see it.

Dusk is approaching, so we decide to return to our camp in the wadi, it's the way and we don't have to look for anything new in the dark. We buy bread, water and laban (local kefir), Ota goes to refuel the tank. Next to the pump, the tire service is having the tire checked, which has been a bit of a problem since the beginning. There really is a small hole, Bangadéšan is fixing it, the whole event costs an incredible 1 OMR (CZK 60), we give him two, he is visibly happy. On the way, we stop at the water tower to fill up the water for the shower, from which we mostly wash the dishes (we bathe in the water), there are 6 taps and we meet a lot of locals with canisters. Our place in the wadi is free, so we set up tents. The children already know what is needed, so they set up the tent themselves, while I cook rice for dinner.

After driving through the entire wadi, I have to say that we discovered the best spot in the entire valley yesterday in the dark. We continue through the wadi, at every shade where there is a car parked and a family having a picnic, we drive across several fords to the end of the road, only crazy people drive further, we didn't meet anyone there, but according to the tracks, sometimes cars drive there.

We continue on foot for 2 km through the water and along the rocky shores, we have wonderful views of the surrounding rocks and the children bathe in each deeper pool. The water, although flowing, is incredibly warm and full of small fish. After 2 km we take a break in the shade, the children don't last long and go to play in the water again. David saw the first snake that crawled under the stone in the water on which Lenka was sitting. The way back is faster, but just as nice. We occasionally meet a local, a tourist in the whole wadi.

On the iOverlander, we found a place to sleep on the hill in wadi Mistal on the opposite side of the road, so we go, we want to get there before daylight. The road through the valley is asphalt, but as we turn aside, we drive again on a stony dirt track, towards the end of the road it rises up a steep hill with steep switchbacks, the road looks as if it had been rolled up by a skunk, it is not at all dangerous, but still commands respect. After a few km we are at the marked place. The transmitter is above us and there is a rocky patch, it is windy and cold (21 degrees Celsius, we are used to it). We throw our down jackets and soon we are setting up our tents, the wind dies down, the dark peaks of the surrounding mountains are everywhere and the stars are coming out. We are looking forward to the beautiful views in the morning. A car passes by when it sees us, so it has to stop to greet us, the Omani doesn't know any English, but he smiles kindly and drives on again. When we herd the children into the tent, we go for a walk a little further down the road, we are curious where the village is that this road is supposed to lead to (which is not even on maps.cz), we see a valley with 3 lights, so maybe it is that one, see you in the morning