Frankincense, Sinbad and the Queen of Sheba

What do Frankincense, Sinbad and the Queen of Sheba all have in common? They all come from Oman. While we didn’t see much of the Queen or Sinbad, we did visit a Frankincense farm where the Pakistani caretaker was happy to let us in to the main area and show us how the frankincense is collected from the trees.

Frankincense

This trip spanned about 10 days, during which we camped, stayed at a hotel, and then camped some more. I will try to take you chronologically through the trip.

Our first day involved driving as far as we could, which was pretty far! Look at the map to see just how far.

Lunch anyone?

Which way? We are heading to Salalah.

Gast station in the middle of nowhere.

Mirage

Sand dunes in the desert? Not every desert has dunes.

Camping

Nothing like a good sunset

The next day, we drove and drove again. We were up before dawn, mainly because we went to bed just after sunset. It is pretty dark and spooky in the desert.

Watch the gas tank

No room at the restaurant

The restaurant

We made very good time at about 140KM/hr down the wonderful Omani highway. On the way to Salalah, and not too far from the city, we found the Frankincense farm, possibly the very farm where the Queen of Sheba got her Frankincense.

The tree

The frankincense

Finally, after about 12-1300 KM, we arrived in Salalah for a few days at the Hilton.

View from the Rooftop bar

Salalah may be off the beaten track, but I highly recommend it as a launching point for some great day trips.

downtown Salalah

In the market

Sunset from the Hilton

Crab on Mughsail Beach

Rock crab

Mughsail Beach

Awesome birds

Fishing boat

Driving is not for the faint-hearted

View from the mountain

Friendly cow

Fisherman’s humble abode

Camel

Way stop

Canyon

Goat herder

After buying gas from a gas station that was literally in somebody’s shed – they had the gas in 20 liter jugs. You had to buy a jug – we headed back up north.

Jebel Samhan

Camping view

Camping

We stopped at a very small, middle-of-nowhere way station to get some supplies. We were relieved to see that we could get our sweet form typed. What is camping without sweets.

Typing the sweet form

We headed east to the coast. At Ras Markaz, we found a stunning beach, with stunning scenery and a very helpful fisherman.

Ras Markaz

Whale

Fisherman

Another night’s camping on the beach gave us some beautiful sights.

Another sunset

A bit further north, we found the village of Khaluf, a great fishing village absolutely in the middle of nowhere.

Birds indicate a fresh catch

Fishing boats

What happens if you park too close to the ocean

Our last leg of the trip took us through the wadis at the base of Jebel Shams, the highest point on the Arabian peninsula. Spectacular. Of course, we camped there too!