Oman 3: Hiking Jabal Akhdar and the mud village of Misfat Al Abriyeen

  That night, I stayed by the hotels balcony, hoping for a nice sunset.  My photos didn't end up so well, so I am posting this cell phone picture instead.

  The next day we walked a short distance from our hotel to begin a hike connected three villages, Alaqr, Al Ain, and Alshuraijah.  There were only a handful of impressive views, and the villages were nothing new to us by this point.  We did catch a beautiful cat sitting by a pond, however.

We reached the far end of the trail, where it unceremoniously ended in front of a construction site.  We somehow began down the wrong path, but realized that we were no longer seeing the Omani flag symbol, so had to retrace our way to the final village and begin our journey home again.   On the way back, I decided to keep an eye out for insects.  Miles was an excellent spotter of insects, and also caught sight of a lizard from a distance, allowing me to slowly approach.

  That night I was so busy writing the previous blog that I forgot to go out for the sunset again.  Whoops!

  The next day, we first drove to the abandoned old town of Al Hamra, on the way to our final desination of Misfat Al Abriyeen.  This old town was left behind, to crumble.  Some Omani decided to restore a handful of buildings and create a culture experience within.  I chose to have us visit one of these, Bait Al Safah.

  A large tour group arrived just before us, so we went along with them.  After a short description of the house, we were brought into a large room where one woman demonstrated how the people of Oman used to grind coffee.  The other showed us the process of creating Omani bread, and then invited a woman up to try her hand at it.  I would not have wanted to eat the bread that this volunteer had made.

  We were all given samples of the bread just made.  Miles commented that he liked it and would have had more.  It was explained to us beforehand that photography of the women were allowed.  Normally, I would have had to ask permission.

  We were led upstairs, to a room where the guide gave some background on the traditional clothes of men and women.  I asked if they always chose to go to a tailor rather than buying them premade.  He said that it can go either way, and sometimes shops will have different sizes, but that being tailored was preferred.  

The final room had us sampling Omani coffee, while sitting with the hosts.  Before the bulk of the group arrived, I asked, in Arabic, if I may take a picture of them.  They happily obliged.

  The coffee was very aromatic.  A fragrant smell, which is exactly how it tasted.  It is served in a tiny cup, without sugar or milk options.  Afterwards, we wandered around the streets some more, on the way back to our car.

  Misfat Al Abriyeen was just ten minutes up the hill from Al Hamra.  We parked in the small car park, just before the village.  The village is traversed entirely on foot.  Our hotel was near the bottom of the vlilage, so we walked down many steps with our luggage.  We were warned about the distance, so we condensed our luggage some in preparation.

  We passed a cafe that served ice cream, but when we returned, it was closed.  We chose to go to Rogan's Cafe, a multi storied terrace cafe.  I ordered a crepe, not knowing what was inside, Omani coffee, and Miles ordered waffles.  What we received was unexpected, but delicious.

  The next day, after breakfast, Miles complained of being tired, wanting to sleep, and not wanting to hike around town with me.  I told him that he could take the day off, and ventured out on my own.  I climbed upward, through the village, with my eye set on making my up as close as I could to Rogan Castle.  Just now, as I am writing this, I see the connection between the tower name and the cafe.  I hadn't noticed this earlier. 

  Steps brought me to the top of town, and to the roof of the highest building.  From there were further rock steps that led me upward.  It was fairly easy to navigate upward, until I reached a spot around the same height as the tower.  There was no way to reach it though, as there were huge gaps downwards all around the tower.  I had anticipated this, as the reviews online had suggested as such.  There were magnificent views, and some nearby flowers caught my eyes.

  As I began my descent toward town, I spotted some goats, so I decided to go in their direction.

  I found what I assume was a family of goats, in a slightly different direction than I had come up.  No goats that I have seen in Oman are tagged, so I am unsure which are owned by others and which, if any, are free.  As I watched the goats, a young man in Omani dress and sandals, nonchalantly climbed up near the goats.  

This insect had a strange mouth.