A wadi by any other name...

We took off across the countryside yesterday, thinking we were going one place and ending up another, but it turned out to be a very serendipitous choice! We drove south out of Muscat, through the mountains, paralleling the sea coast. We came across two wadis, a dam with a park, an old castle, an ancient village, LOTS of goats, a couple of donkeys, a camel, and beautiful ocean and mountain scenery.

We traveled through the mountains first. This is just one of the many pictures we took. These
mountains are never the same color twice. It is a view that never grows old!

We came around a curve, and could see this magnificent view of the Oman Gulf.

Our first stop was at the Wadi Dayqah Dam. For those of you wondering what a wadi is: a dried up riverbed found in mountain valleys that fill with water from heavy rains. Some wadis are only full during the rainy season, some have water year-round to support the vegetation.

The dam holds water back from the Wadi Dayqah. The color of the water is simply inexpressibly beautiful. What an imagination our God has!

Driving around one mountain to reach the dam--straight ahead, even though we can't see it yet!

Don on the wadi side of the dam.

The wadi leading down between the mountains.

The water on the other side of the dam! Have you ever seen such a beautiful color of water?

Park at the top. Lots of families were out enjoying the beautiful vista. 

Don made a new friend who was very anxious to get his
picture taken while we were touring the dam!

We left the dam and continued on south. We made it as far as the town of Sur before turning around and heading back. A few surprises still awaited us!

We caught this herd of goats trying to scramble up the side of a small hill after running across the four-lane highway.

I called "Beauty" to this goat, who graciously paused, turned and posed for my camera while were pulled over at the side of the highway. Something tells me that these scrappy creatures have very interesting personalities!

Our next stop was a small village right on the gulf. The tourist attraction sign (brown, just like in the U.S. !!?) said "Ancient Village". We had to off-road it, but we drove up to some beach camping structures and nosed around a little bit. It was low tide, and so it was just a little stinky in spots, but the beach and ocean views were fantastic!

Beach structure behind the car. There were several along that area of beach. You can see today's village in the background. Can you imagine living here centuries ago?

We continued on down the road, saw this sign and thought, "why not?" 

This was at the back side of the castle. Obviously, not in the best shape.

We discovered as we drove around to the front of the structure that it is in the process of being renovated. Probably won't be here long enough to see it competed!

This was a section of very old wall in the village area around the castle. People are still living in and around here.

Heading on down the road on the return trip, we came around a bend and saw this camel running alongside the pick up truck. They were running inn an oval in an empty patch of land. What a hoot! I'm sure this is an every-day occurrence around here, just like a Texan seeing cowboys on horses and Texas Longhorn cattle, but it's new to us, so we found it fascinating!

Camel training. See where the camel is tethered to the truck?

Stopping to make an adjustment for the next part of the lesson.

 Okay, this is getting really long and I don't have nearly all the pictures loaded. I'm going to post this today and then post the rest of it in a few days. We still have another old village and wadi to share!