Salalah, Oman

Salalah.....the land of frankincense and myrrh (and camels). It is a dry part of Oman but it is truly magnificent with its great sandy desert at the foot of souring mountains. Salalah’s population is approximately 165,000 and it is spread out over a vast area.  The Omani homes are quite splendid with most being two stories high.  There is a height restriction of two stories for residential and five stories for commercial.  Houses are placed well apart from each other and there are no gardens or greenery of any kind that I could see.  It would be hard to grow anything in such a harsh climate.
The tour we decided on today was Mughsail Beach and Job’s Tomb.  The drive to Mughsail beach took about 30 minutes.  As we drove along in our air conditioned bus I wondered at how people could survive in this harsh country but dotted everywhere were “farm” houses with their mandatory camels, goats, cattle and the occasional donkey.  I don’t know what the animals eat because it is so barren but they were certainly in good condition.

We also passed many boswellia tree plantations.  This slow growing tree was on the point of extintion because of the way the sap is harvested from the trees to make the frankincense.  The tree becomes weak and insects attack so it most often dies. Scientists have now come up with a different approach to the collection of the sap that does not endanger the health of the tree. Interesting.
When we arrived at the very picturesque Mughsail beach we set off along the cliff walk.  We walked under giant cavenous rocks that mother nature had carved over the centuries along the cliff edge to where a giant blowhole situated.  The noise that the blowhole made was quite loud and eerie.

Time for a quick photo shoot and we were back on the bus to head high into the mountains to Job’s Tomb.  Our very experienced bus driver took the bus almost 1000 metres along a windy treachorous road to reach the Tomb.  The tomb of the Prophet Job is set high on a rocky hill and the building that houses the tomb is quite small and unpretentious.  The tomb, almost 1000 kilometres from the Holy Land brings Christian, Jewish and Muslim followers from all over the world.

Our tour was almost over but not before a photo shoot with the local camels that stroll up and down the highway as if they own it!

Our last stop was at a Souq, an Arabic word for markets, where anyone who wanted to purchase Frankincense could do so here.  I purchased Frankincese oil that is meant to have incredible healing powers from cancer to acne to removing wrinkles!  Personally I just love the aroma and I will wear it sparingly as it is can be quite overpowering.

We ended our 4 hour tour back at our ship in the late afternoon.  We now have four days at sea.  We have been through a pirate drill because the threat is very real in this part of the ocean particularly around the Somalian coastline. However the pirate target seems to be oil tankers of late as they are very easy to board and to take control.  But the threat is still there and it is taken seriously as we have quite a few US Navy Seals on board for our security.
Next stop is Aqaba, Jordan where we will be visiting the magnificent Petra.