Salalah ~ July 2

Camels, camels, camels, we see lots of camels today. At first sighting we all want to stop, pile off the bus, and have a photo moment. By the end of the day however, there is only a murmur – oh, another camel. While the camels are fun to watch, for me the birds are incredible. After Muscat, where I had seen so few, the lagoon around the Khor Rori excavation is filled with flamingoes, cranes, herons, ducks, and other water birds I need to identify. I am glad to have high power binoculars as the excavation site commands a hill far above the lagoon. Like old Salafah, Khor Rori is strategically located on another one of the three natural harbors on the Omani coast and was a major thoroughfare inland. Juris and Lynne explain that the trading center transhipped goods from China and South Asia for passage on caravan routes into the interior and sent frankincense and prized Arabian horses, among other things, to India.

We then drive up Wadi Darbat to the great natural travertine Dam which has cascading waterfalls during the monsoon and wonderfully eroded cliffs during the dry season. Many Jabali people farm the area keeping cattle and camels. The camels, we are told, have changed with the habitat. Because of over-grazing they forage less, are now fed expensive grass, and seldom travel long distances. Since the Park has both water and someone to feed them there are camels in abundance.

Before returning from our excursion to the hotel we stop at one of the many roadside Coconut kiosks to enjoy some coconut juice. We are each provided with a split fresh coconut and straw, then the shell is split so we can have a bit of the white meat – refreshing.

In the late afternoon we join a car/van caravan of others leaving the city. In large fields beyond the urban area tents are set up on carefully marked lots where families keep house until August to escape the coastal heat and humidity. As we enter the mountains all along the verges of the highway and surrounding hillsides families and groups of young men set up chairs, tables, or just spread a blanket to picnic and enjoy the cool rising mist of the Khareef. Our destination is the tomb of the Prophet Job, sacred to Jewish, Christian, and Muslim people of “the book.” The tomb is adjacent to a mosque and garden filled with colorful bougainvillea, hibiscus and other flowering plants and trees where colorful weaver birds suspend their nests.