Last week, on or about the 10th of December, we discovered that Annette’s visa was nearing its expiry date. Previously, Canadians used to get a 60 day visa, however in the years since we left Dubai the visa term has been reduced to 30 days. Fortunately, the border with Oman and the Musandam Peninsula is only about 25 minutes away. So, we packed a picnic lunch, threw a few ice coffee cans and some Pocari Sweat into the Pathfinder, topped up with gas, or petrol for you non-North Americans, and headed north. Once past the border check point and about $CAD 30 later, we were in Oman marvelling at the lovely coast line and spectacular beaches snuggled up against the mountains.

(Don’t mind the clouds – shockingly, it actually rained for three days straight)

Off through Khasab, the main city (or rather small town) in the Musandam and up into the mountains. We didn’t actually climb very high in altitude before we came to a fork and decided to go left. The odd thing was that the sign post on the left was for the fork on the right and the sign on the right was for the fork on the left. After a consultation in our “Offroad Emirates” map book, we quickly chose the right, which is to say the left, road.

After about 9 KM, we came to the road towards Khor Najd, a spectacular, isolated, fjord-like inlet from the Gulf of Oman. Down at the water’s edge is a small collection of boats, shed and a lanching point for the local fishermen.

While we were there a number of local Omanis came, launched their boats and raced off around the bend out of sight.

The bay supports a teeming wildlife from goats roaming along the shore line to schools of small fish feeding cranes and other long-legged birds to this colourful crab, and many other not so colourful crabs.

I felt compelled to add a photo of the Pathfinder since it has been performing admirably. Climbing the steep drive out of of the inlet and over the mountain pass earned it a place in the blog.

At the end of the valley, where there seems to be extra ground water, is an Acacia forest. For those of you who have been in ‘real’ forests, I may be loosely applying the term here however the guide book called saw fit to call it a forest. It will serve as a lovely camping spot sometime in the future for us.