The Sharqiyah Region

Wadi

     After the conclusion of my classes, here in Oman, the completion of my Arabic final, and a long and heavy sigh, the group and I began our final excursion of the semester. The final excursion is actually a combination of two excursions, one to the Sharqiyah Region, the region on the eastern coast of Oman, and the other is to the interior city and formal capital, Nizwa. Wednesday, the 27^th of October, we left the World Learning Center at around midday and had a long drive ahead of us, which I was ok with because the Arabic final was an extremely exhausting activity. After a couple of hours on the bus we reached our first stop, which was a Wadi, of which I cannot remember the name. For all of you who do not know what a Wadi is, which is probably everyone, it is essentially a large canyon or valley with a river in it. Thanks to the lack of rain, and water in general, in this country the first mile or so of the valley was mostly dry and the red, rocky mountains that seems to characterize Oman towered on either side of the group as we walked.  Eventually we came upon deep water which was as blue as the water in the Caribbean and we had to walk along a relatively thin walkway which eventually turned into a cliff 30 feet or so above the water.  A bunch of the group went on to further explore but a couple of us never made it down the whole way because the lure of a bunch of cliffs 30 to 40 feet above the water was just too much to bear. We proceeded to spend the next hour and a half having the time of our lives finding new and creative ledges to jump off of into the sky blue water.

     After the Wadi and another hour and a half on the bus we made it to our first stop in the Sharqiyah Region, Ras al-Had. In this particular place we did not stay in a hotel, but at a camp ground. The grounds were interesting in that they consisted of a tent to eat dinner, a carpeted area with a fire place to relax, shower and toilet huts, and a bunch of other bedroom huts that resided in their own area.  The inside of the huts were filled with three small beds and no room for anything else. There was no air conditioning or things like that either, but it got fairly cool out there in the evening so it wasn’t too big of a deal. After we ate and got settled we headed off to the beaches because on most nights you can see turtles, which heavily populate the surrounding waters of Oman, laying their eggs. We went with a tour guide and we were lucky enough to spot some turtles. They two we saw were pretty huge, being about 3 or 4 feet from head to tail and having an even larger fin span. We even saw some recently hatched baby turtles making their way from the beach to the ocean.

Boat Being Built

     The following day we woke up early ate a quick breakfast and then left Ras al-Had. We spent the day in Sur, the second biggest Omani city. I would like to take this opportunity to apologize for my mistake. I have previously stated that Salalah is the second biggest Omani city, however, it is the third and Sur is the second. There are so many mosques in Sur it is actually known as Minaret City and it is right on the water giving the place a beautiful view of the Arabian Gulf. We visited a “factory” where they build what seemed like merchant vessels and a view boats were in the process of being built, which was really great to see. We then took a boat ride around the city, got something to eat, and made our way to our second destination in the Sharqiyah Region, The Wahiba Sands.

Sandboarding on Wahiba Sands

     The Wahiba Sands is a huge tourist destination for other people from the Middle East and Europe visiting Oman on vacation so when we arrived there were not many Omanis there but a lot of British and German people. This place is a camp ground located in the middle of the dessert and by dessert I don’t mean the red, rocky, jagged, semi-sandy mountains that populate most of Oman but I mean rolling sand dunes that go on a long, long way.  The campgrounds here were somewhat similar to Ras al-Had as in there were a bunch of huts where people resided as well as a bathroom and shower hut. The dinner/living area was a good amount larger, however, to accommodate the large amount of tourists. We got there in the mid after noon it was extremely hot. The huts were almost identical to those in Ras al-Had in that all there really was in them was three beds and a little bit of space to leave your bags. The electricity wasn’t even turned on till sun down. We spent our time that day sand boarding, playing American football, in the sand, and dune bugging, which is packing into a four-wheeler and speeding over and around the sand dunes. The night was actually very peaceful. It got pretty chilly there and I hung out by the fire and smoked hookah and relaxed. Eventually, I went to bed and the next day we were up, out and on our way to University of Nizwa.