weekly photo challenge: the sign says

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postaweek2013, weekly photo challenge

Saturday, June 1: This week’s WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge is The Sign Says.

Signs. Funny, poignant, symbolic, incorrect, informative, foreshadowing…there are so many signs in the world.

Like so many signs translated from another language into English, I can’t help but wonder if this one was done by Google Translator.  This sign is at the entrance to the village of Misfat Al Abriyyen in Oman.

I don’t know who translated this sign into English, but it’s a mess!

getting my green fix in the gardens of misfat al abriyyen

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Oman, Travel

Saturday, May 4:  This afternoon, I decide I need a green fix, so I go for a short walk through the gardens of Misfat Al Abriyyen.  I love the broad and lush green leaves of the banana plants, the date palms, and the papaya trees.

The falaj is flowing with water through the gardens and the tank that holds the water for the village is overflowing due to the abundant rain we’ve had over the last week.  It feels like a little slice of paradise.

the falaj flows at Misfat al Abriyyen

the holding tank for water in the village is overflowing

People still live in the old village, even though a lot of the houses and buildings look like ruins.

We come upon an old man singing a song while another Omani man takes a video of him. When I ask the man if I can take a picture of him he giggles like a child and gives me a wide toothless grin.

a friendly old man in the garden

a short trek along the ancient donkey path from misfat al abriyyin & encounters with tree-climbing goats

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Misfat Al Abriyyin, Oman, Travel

Thursday, March 21: This morning, I call Mario at 7 a.m.  “Are you up?”  Of course, I know he is up.  We share the annoying problem of waking up in the wee morning hours, no matter how late we have stayed up the night before.

heading out of Misfat al Abriyyin on the W9 trail

All day yesterday, we kept going around in circles trying to figure out a place we could go for a walk this weekend.  I personally am sick of the same old places, and I didn’t want to do something I have done 4-5 times already.  Neither did we want to drive a long distance.  This morning, when I get him on the phone, he says, “What about the upper path from Misfat Al Abriyyin?  We haven’t done that yet.”

grasses and a fallen date palm

We actually had this on our list of things to do before I leave Oman, but we had considered staying overnight at the B&B in Misfat and then getting a dawn start. However, there is really no need to spend the night, as we live only 45 minutes away.  We agree to go and head off to Misfat.

sunlight glows through the palms

Instead of heading down into the gardens and banana plantations of Misfat, which is where I always go, we head uphill on a steep village street and then down some steps toward a large falaj that leads out of the village and into a gorge.

the large falaj leading out of the village

one of many goats we encounter along the old donkey trail

We merge into the W9 trail which heads, after crossing a wadi, to the top of the Western Hajar Mountains.  It eventually meets up with the W8, which goes to Balad Sayt, and the W10, which goes to Sharaf Al Alamayn.  These two trails apparently give magnificent views of Wadi Bani Awf (a treacherous drive through wadi bani awf: a near-tragedy, the picturesque village of balad sayt & a glimpse of the infamous snake canyon).

the view from the shade of the date palms

a watchtower that looks over Misfat Al Abriyyin

Date palms and banana trees shade us until we get out of the village, where we find ourselves at the edge of a canyon open to the sun.  At least there is a lovely breeze this morning.

the ancient donkey trail (W9)

We encounter goats everywhere.  We also see lots of big lizards today, but most of them are too fast to capture by camera.  After walking on a good trail interspersed with stone steps along the edge of the canyon,  the path descends into the wadi and then up the other side, where it eventually meets up with the W8 and the W10 paths.

looking down into some farms in the wadi

views along the ancient donkey path

heading down into the wadi

another little goat friend we meet along the way

into the wadi

We have no plan to go that far today.  We just want a short walk, so we stop at a shady spot in the wadi after about an hour. A small slick-looking lizard and some wandering goats join us as we take a break.

a little companionable lizard

more goat friends

We get a kick out of some silly goats that are climbing trees and eating flowers off the uppermost branches.

a goat up in a tree nibbling furiously on flowers in the upper branches

another view of the tree-climbing goat

a silly goat in another tree

nibbling tree-climbing goat

Finally, we backtrack to Misfat al Abriyyin, where we meet on the trail some normal-looking ex-pats who work at a college in Muscat.  We are both surprised to find these unusual specimens in this part of our world.

glowing bush

On our way back along the falaj, Mario spots a male frog squeezing the eggs out of his female counterpart in the water of the  falaj.

frogs working together to lay eggs. That’s teamwork!

returning to the village of Misfat Al Abriyyin

We end up having a lunch topped off with fresh banana juice and orange juice at a little “restaurant and coffee shop” in Al Hamra.  We are done a little after noon and on our way back to Nizwa.

Click here to see my other posts on the lower half of Misfat Al Abriyyin.

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lunch in al hamra & a walk through misfat al abriyyin

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Oman, Travel

Thursday, January 10:  We’re pretty exhausted after our week of activities and our walk through the hot Bahla Fort, so we stop in Al Hamra at the ubiquitous “Restaurant” for a lunch of vegetable biryani and rice.  Adam loves these restaurants in Oman, and today he decides he will eat like the Omanis, using his right hand to shovel rice and vegetables into his mouth.

“Restaurant” in Al Hamra

Alex and Mike

Adam eats like the Omanis

We then drive up to the village of Misfat Al Abriyyin, where we follow the flag-marked trail down the terraces deep into a jungle-like plantation.  We follow twisting lanes, covered passages like wind tunnels with cool air blowing through, gateways and serpentine flights of stairs.  We’re surrounded by terraces of date palms, banana palms, lemon trees, pomegranates, and Bougainvillea.

banana palms at misfat

Alex & Adam next to their favorite fruit: banana palms

Alex poses reaching for bananas

Adam

banana palm leaf

stone wall

terrace

the view to the valley

Alex and Adam on the path

Mike takes a rest

Alex and Adam strolling through

Alex the monkey

Alex and Adam, tired out from 9 days of being on the go!

We originally planned on taking a much longer hike, but I think our 9 days of being constantly on the go has finally gotten to us.  All of us are too tired to take another step.  We decide to head back to my flat to relax on this, their last night in Oman.

On the way back, we come across a small group of camels nibbling away at some trees.  The owner is sitting on a nearby rock and he doesn’t seem to mind us mingling with his animals.  Each camel has its four legs tied together with a rope, so it can’t move very quickly.  They all seem quite docile and friendly. We stop to check them out, along with about 10 other random passers-by.

a nibbling camel along the road home

Mike befriends a camel

camel encounter

Alex and Adam with their camel friend

Alex, Mike and Mr. Camel

a little kiss

an afternoon stroll through misfat al abriyyen: an oasis of green

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Oman, Travel

Thursday, November 29: This afternoon, my friend Tony and I go for a walk through Misfat Al Abriyyen.  This small village bursting with gardens, about a 40-minute drive from Nizwa, is a lovely place to walk and get my greenery fix.  The falaj is dry today, as is the reservoir of water used to irrigate all the gardens.  Banana trees, date palms, green banana bunches, emerald-green grass, beautiful sweeping views over the valley and village of al Hamra ~ these are a few of the things we encounter in this place.  Signs translated using an internet translation program, always funny and indecipherable, welcome us to the village.  Houses that should be ruins are fully inhabited behind colorful, but tightly closed, metal doors with peeling paint.   Yakoob Al-Abri and his uncle treat us to tea and dates on the patio of the Misfat Al-Abryeen Guest House.  As we are leaving, we encounter three elderly Omani villagers, who, when I ask if I can take their picture, answer, with a twinkle in their eyes, “maybe.”

Click on any of the images below for a full-sized slide show.

a morning walk through al hamra & misfat al abriyyen

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Oman, Travel

Friday, February 24:   This morning, my friend Kathy and I get up early and head to two adjacent villages about 40km northwest of Nizwa, Al Hamra and Misfat Al Abriyyen.  We’ve been trying to get more exercise lately, taking walks after or before work, just to get our bodies moving, to shake out our stiff & creaky joints and create some energy within ourselves.  We eat a big breakfast of eggs with tomatoes, onions and garlic (yummy), turkey sausages, and coffee, prepared by Kathy, and we head off into the horizon.

a carved door in the old village of Al Hamra

Al Hamra has one of Oman’s best-preserved old towns, with mudbrick houses in various states of disrepair and a maze of rubble-strewn alleyways spilling down a hillside to an oasis of date palms and banana trees below.

Hello, how ar-r-r-r-re you??

We park the car and are met by several small children who shyly greet us in chirpy voices: “How ar-r-r-r-e you???” They pose shyly for a picture and then we say “Ma’asalaama” and pick a random alley through which to enter the mostly abandoned town.

Purely by chance we come upon one of the two museums in Al Hamra, Bait al-Jabal Museum, billed as “the first museum in Oman presenting antiques and masterpieces in their traditional setting.  The house is more than 210 years old and is situated in old Al Hamra town which is over 500 years old.”  The museum contains artifacts between 300 and 2,000 years old, from Oman and other parts of the ancient world.

the engraved doors at Bait al-Jabal Museum in Al Hamra…and the kind curator

The entry fee is a steep 2 rials.  We poke our heads in the door but I tell the curator I can’t afford it since payday isn’t until Sunday.  (This has been an expensive month for me between my car service and my sons visiting!)  He kindly invites us to come in anyway.  I guess business is slow and he wants some company.

He graciously shows us the old front doors, panels carved with Arabic decorations and script from the Quran.  He guides us through the atmospheric house with its rough-hewn mudbrick walls and rickety steps.  All the floors are wet as he has just watered down the house to “make it fresh” for the morning.  I’m sure without the watering down it gets very dusty.

Written Arabic documents

We see Moroccan silver kettles, a 400-year-old elephant leather kettle, and a traditional mill used to grind starch used to make Halwa, a traditional Omani dessert.  A 300-year-old dagger made of leather and wood and metal is labeled: “found in a desolate place.”  Old locks and keys, a pistol made in England, and handwritten old letters and books are showcased throughout the museum.

inside the museum

My favorite room has four models made of date palm who display old Omani handicrafts.  Another room has colorful Omani traditional costumes.

the date palm Omani craftsmen

The curator then invites us down the street to show us his small “factory” and shop for making and selling Halwa, the traditional Omani dessert made from starch, eggs, sugar, water, ghee, saffron, cardamom, nuts and rosewater from Jebel Akhdar. It is cooked here in Al Hamra in a large cooking pot called a mirjni over a wood fire for about 4-5 hours with constant stirring.

Omanis cooking halwa

Kathy and I leave our informative Omani guide and wander around Al Hamra’s alleyways, and then down into the oasis of date palms and banana trees.

Kathy in the gardens of Al Hamra

the village of Al Hamra

the view down to Al Hamra from the mountain road going to Misfat al Abriyyen

We then drive another 5 km up to the lovely mountainside village of Misfat al Abriyyin, where we wander through more winding alleyways between ochre-colored stone buildings.  This village could almost resemble a medieval French hill village if it were more restored.

the green oasis of Misfat al Abriyyen

It’s fun to wander through these twisting lanes through covered passages, gateways and steps.  We make our way down to the falaj which runs below the village and waters a huge tropical oasis which bursts in exclamation points of greenery: grasses, an abundance of date palms, banana palms, and Bougainvillea.

Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

We check out the Misfat Bed and Breakfast, where I think I will stay one weekend when I want to chill out and relax.  The proprietor takes us to the rooftop where breakfast and dinner are served and where the view over the mountains and the tropical oasis below is wonderfully peaceful.

A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in. ~ Greek Proverb

We follow the falaj back up the hill and then where it runs along a steep rocky gorge dotted with more date palms and miniature terraced fields. We come to a turret or some kind of watchtower sitting along the path and this is where we decide to turn around.

the end of our hike

It’s around 12:30 and the hottest part of the day is beginning.  We decide we’ve had a good walk, plenty of fresh air and exercise for one day.  We head back to Nizwa, where I lie down to read and end up taking a 2-hour nap.  A bit of heaven in the afternoon

me next to a waterfall tumbling through the falaj

a picnic with the goats in wadi tanuf…& a side trip to misfat al abriyyin

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Oman, Travel

Thursday, December 29:  Malcolm and Sandy, intrepid fellow explorers, accompany me this morning to Wadi Tanuf, which is only about 19 km west of Nizwa. We pass by the ruins of Old Tanuf at the mouth of the wadi, but we decide to visit these after we explore the wadi.  We are driving in my GMC Terrain, which we hope will take us to the deepest reaches of the wadi.

Sandy & Malcolm, my fellow travelers

As we go further into the wadi, we pass by the recharge dam, which is dry as parchment.  This dam serves the vital purpose of filling the local wells and aquifers after rainfall.  The main purpose of this recharge dam is to slowly release water over a period of one to two weeks so that it can sink into the ground and recharge the underground reservoirs.  This helps to supply the local falaj networks through intense periods of drought and intense heat, from which Oman is known to suffer.  The main goal is to store water underground, as evaporation from above-ground reservoirs would far exceed present rainfall.  The slow release from the dam significantly increases the amount of water that is stored underground.  Water normally accumulates only 3-5 times/year behind the recharge dam and lasts about a week.  Today there is no water to be seen.   Interestingly, most of the recharge from the dam occurs downstream from the dam and not behind it.

the road into wadi tanuf

We drive 4.2 km down a dirt road to the village of Al Far, which is actually on Wadi Qashah.  It’s so beautiful, this drive, through the wadi and the sheer canyon walls on either side of us.  Apparently, this canyon, which is very narrow, sometimes is prone to flash floods. The carpark at Al Far is the end of the line, so we get out and start a walk past terraced plantations toward the village. The terraced plantations are rich with banana trees, date palms and small fields of emerald grasses and other vegetation.

the date palm plantations along wadi tanuf

As we’re walking along, we encounter a herd of about 60 long-haired goats, who seem a little peeved that we’re blocking their trail.  I don’t know why they’re irritated as it seems no strain at all for them to bypass us on the rocky ledges above.  I’m surprised how much these cute little bleating goats look like miniature humans, giving us looks like we are such bothersome creatures.  Interrupting their daily walk like this… How dare we?

the goats aren’t pleased that we’re blocking their path

We continue along the trail until we reach the little village of Al Far, which is a working and living village.  Its occupants include women in black abayas hanging out their wash to dry, a vicious little dog who barks and bares his teeth as we walk past his territory, and women carrying buckets of water on their heads.  We see a kind of earthen building that looks like a large hut of some kind and we ask one of the villagers if it is the masjid or mosque.  He says no, it’s a majlis, or a meeting room for the men in the village, a community center of sorts.

the village of Al Far in Wadi Tanuf

We try several trails to get through this village perched on the side of the wadi walls, but we can’t find a clear path through.  We decide we will turn around and take a drive back to find a picnic spot as it’s getting close to lunchtime. Some other time I will have to go back to do the hour and a half hike to the abandoned village of Ar Rahbah.  Today we are all tired so we decide we’re just not up for a long hike.

the majlis, or meeting room, in Al Far

We drive back down to the wider part of the wadi and find a large rock where we set up the picnic lunch that Malcolm and Sandy have brought: feta cheese, black olives, bread, cheese samosas, spring rolls, nectarines and orange juice.  Yummy.  As we’re standing around our big rock, some goats come over to sniff around and try to steal some of our olives.  I take a video of these little goats and try to get one to bleat for us by making some bleating noises myself.

the terraced plantations of Al Far in Wadi Tanuf

Later, I find another group of very large goats all standing, literally, on their hind legs, munching on leaves off of the trees.  It’s so weird how they stand up to eat.  Again, they remind me of oddly deformed human beings, or aliens from another planet.

After our picnic, we drive out of the wadi and make a brief stop at Old Tanuf.  This town was bombed extensively during the mid-1950s by the British RAF under the orders of Sultan Sa’id bin Taymur, father of the present-day sultan of Oman, Sultan Qaboos.  The town was bombed as a reprisal against the “Lords of the Green Mountain” (Al Jabal al Akhdar) and the dissident Beni Riyam tribe under Shaikh Suleyman.

me at the bombed-out village of Old Tanuf

Old Tanuf was demolished with several 1,000-pound bombs, but the tribesmen escaped using routes through the wadi behind.  They gained temporary respite on the Sayq Plateau, but were later rooted out during the Al Jabal al Akhdar War in 1958-1959.

Malcolm and I climb about on the ruins for a bit.  It’s quite scenic really with Wadi Tanuf as the backdrop and the town’s mangled, yet proud, ruins in the foreground.

a painted door in the village of misfat

Finally, we take another drive past Al Hoota Cave and Al Hamra to Misfat al Abriyyin.  This is a charming ancient village about 5 km up the road from Al Hamra.  “Hamra” means “red” in Arabic, and as we drive up the mountain from Al Hamra to Misfat, we see the surrounding mountains and soil painted a deep rich red.  The village is set in a stunning landscape above terraced plantations of date palms. This is a sight rarely seen as date palms are usually grown on the plains and not on mountain terraces.  Ancient houses, colorfully painted metal doors and a watchtower perched on a rocky mountain complete the scene.

the lush plantations of Misfat al Abriyyan

As we walk down into the village, we come to cool water running in a falaj that snakes past banana, lemon and date trees.  It’s soothing to stand in the midst of this lush greenery listening to the sound of running water.  It’s funny, I’ve only been in Oman for 3 1/2 months, but I’ve come to appreciate the rare gems of greenery and water found in the hidden wadis.  Oman is a brown and parched land, so when I come upon these little oases, I am captivated.  These spots are refreshment for the soul.

the hidden bed & breakfast in misfat

Malcolm wants to show us a bed & breakfast, Layali Shahrazad, where our friend James stayed over the National Holiday.  We finally find it hidden away among the date palms and banana trees.  We walk around the grounds, poking into the rooms and the common areas.  We come across two Omani men who run the B&B sitting on a kind of terrace.  They invite us to sit with them and have coffee and fresh dates and doughnuts.  One of the men, Ahmed Al-Abri, a peaceful and gentle man, is the owner of this place as well as a desert camp, Desert Palm Oman, in Sharqiya Sands near Al Areesh, where I stayed over the National Holiday and again with Guido.  Ahmed says his family is spread over 40 houses throughout the town of Misfat.

two omani men who own the bed and breakfast in misfat

Finally we climb back up through the village amidst the music of running water, until we arrive back to our car.  I was sleepy driving here but now on this warm afternoon, I am really about to drop off into the Land of Nod. We drive back to Nizwa and I retreat to my little villa to take a long-awaited nap.

lush misfat