Salalah

It's raining in Muscat this morning! This reminded me that I have yet to post about our 3 day trip a few weeks ago to Salalah in the South of Oman, bordering Yemen and Saudi Arabia. 

Each summer between mid June-September Salalah, Oman's second city, catches the tail end of the Indian monsoons bringing with it mist and rain. Al khareef as it is known locally, turns the area into a beautiful green oasis and people flock in their 1000s from all over the Middle East to escape the stifling heat of the summer elsewhere in the region. We didn't quite make it for the khareef but travelled during half term at the beginning of October when the crowds had quietened down but the greenery had not. 

Salalah is over 1000 km from Muscat, a very, very long car journey with two impatient kids so we made it easy for ourselves and took a flight with Oman Air, arriving in Salalah 11/2 hours after leaving Muscat. We picked up a car up at the airport and drove to the relatively new Juweira (not to be confused with Jumeira) Boutique Hotel which is situated in the new marina area. Construction is still taking place to build a Club Med resort as well as another high end hotel but this was very unobtrusive and we barely noticed the diggers, lorries and piles of sand in the distance. The hotel is contemporary and small and seemed very quiet compared to our experience of Muscat hotels, in fact we pretty much had the pool to ourselves during the day time. 

                                     

On our first afternoon we ventured out to Wadi Dharbat, an estuary that joins the Khour Rouri and during the rainy season waterfalls can be seen spilling over the cliff face. Unfortnately we missed these and as you are unable to swim in the wadi due to potential bilharzia bacteria this made our trip slightly disappointing (not to mention the mini pedalos, rubbish and popcorn sellers). It was however great to experience the greenery but at the same time it seemed strange to see a field full of camels! 

King of the Castle! Looking at the views from on the way down form Wadi Dharbat

On day 2, after a lazy morning around the pool, we visited Mughsayl beach, about 45 km from Salalah. This is a beautiful and rugged beach where during rough seas water shoots up through blow holes caused by the water having eroding the rock and formed caverns. The natural rock face of the cliffs are also covered in part by different coloured seaweeds, forming a layered effect which is quite dramatic. The seas here however can be quite unpredictable though and during the week we were visiting 2 people had gone missing after swimming in this stretch of water so we contented ourselves with walking along the long sandy beach and stone skimming.

On the way back to the airport we stopped off for some local small and sweet bananas, coconuts and coconut water, drunk straight from the coconut through a straw. I loved this part of Salalah, with it's banana plantations and coconut palms and streets lined with stalls all selling exactly the same things. The colours and atmosphere reminded me of Sri Lanka. 

Our trip to Salalah was long enough to enjoy but not so long that the kids grew bored of sight seeing and of this small, quiet but beautiful part of Oman.