3 days weekend with C. (part 1 : day 1 and day 2)

 

I took 2 days off from work (Thursday and Saturday) and C. came to visit me. This was the perfect opportunity to travel around a little. The good thing is that you don't have to worry about the weather... It's always blue sky and warm weather.

Day 1 : Muscat

On Wednesday, I picked up C. at the airport at 4:40am. I had not much sleep the night before. Indeed, I looked up the flight status on he web and it was said to be 4 hours late (for the first leg CDG-DOHA). That meant missing the connecting flight to Muscat. I called up Qatar Air, they told me to call back at 3am since they had no update.

However, C. sent me an SMS stating that the flight was not delayed. Therefore, I woke up at 4 and picked her up and we went back to the apartment. Soon after I had to go to work. C. slept through the day and I came back at about 6pm after a difficult day at work mainly due to my short night.

I wanted to bring C. to the Sushi bar (she loves Sushi) but they had a seafood buffet, way overpriced (27RO pp). Therefore, we went to the Turkish house, which was nice and more typical than the previous place. C. had grilled shrimp, I took grilled seafood mix. The shrimp here actually tastes like fresh shrimp. As appetizers, we had mezzes (olives, hommos, eggplant purée,...) with arabic bread.

Day 2 : the coastal road from Muscat to Sur

In the morning, we had bagels and cream cheese. Then we hit the road to Sur, using the coastal highway (there are 2 main ways to get from Muscat to Sur : along the coast or the inner road). The highway is nice (dual carriageway) but is not finished yet. There is a funny sign at the entrance of the highway : "the highway is under construction, motorists use it at their own risk". However, you can drive from Quriyat to Sur with a regular car (no 4WD needed).

 The Didab Lake Park Sinkhole

On our way to Sur, we stopped to the sinkhole. It's a really nice place surrounded by a park. It's kind of tricky to find though.

The sinkhole is about 15m deep and 50m wide. There is crystal clear green water at the bottom. it's salty and warm, the perfect spot to take a break on the road.

We met couple of Omani over there, one of them told us he drives everyday on the nearby highway but never got a chance to stop by. He asked us if the water was warm because his son wanted to jump in the water. He also told us the place is known as "the hole of the fallen star", as it is believed that the hole was created after a star fell from the skies. I like this story though geology might not agree with it.

Enough talking, here are the pictures :

 

 

Wadi Tiwi

Second stop on our way to Sur : Wadi Tiwi. Once again, we had a hard time finding it and my brave Tiida (that's my car) had to show some SUV abilities to get to the wadi.

After that we reached Sur and Raj Al Sad where we spent the night. I'll tell you more in the part 2.