Palms and the Empty Quarter



As I said in the end of this post, we left the high mountains (the highest in Oman 3000 meters) to stay in the desert.
We stopped in a village called, Misfat al Abriyyin.  It is a very old town with thousands of date palm irrigated by a gushing spring.  We had some coffee (arabica) and delicious dates.  The winding narrow streets reminded me of some villages on the french coast near us.
 










There were signs about the pest, the red palm beetle that is destroying soothe date palms and this is a real disaster when it is the only product you export.


On the way to our next stop I was looking at the many minarets and admiring the variety of styles.



Sunset of our first night on the dunes. I thought of Maria Muldar’s song “Midnight at the oasis”. 
The sand was sand blasting because the wind was up. I do understand the wearing of veils for wind and sun only if you want to.


A view from near the bottom of the dune. I couldn’t make it to the top. It was like walking on ball bearings. There was just us in this camp. Tourism is down because of Ramadan. Things haven’t ramped up to the pre pandemic business.
He also said that half of the people in Oman are temporary workers of Indian origin.  We saw them on the plane from Dehli to Muscat. They don’t make much but more than in India. We gave the two Indian workers a big tip.

We asked the Omani owner what type of wildlife there was at night he said the desert fox, fennec and lizards and gerbils.  Here is Yves with the gerbil that was peeking in and out of the divan.








Special chairs for the desert.  Below the stark arid landscape with our tent.

This should be at the top of this post but it’s too difficult to change so deal with it.

 We left the mountains and headed to the desert but on the way we stopped ima lovely village that is built up around a gushing spring that nourished a large date palm garden.  We met this guy on our path.

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