Oman Part 3

Wadi Shab: On a trip full of riveting sights and sudden beauty, this wadi was probably the highlight for me. The hike had a little hiccup right from the beginning when our traveling buddies had a slight "run in" with a telephone pole in the parking lot. However, undaunted by something so minor like a shattered windshield, the dads took the two 2 year olds and headed into town to fix the problem, while Jess and I, along with Genevieve and Grandpa, decided to start the hike into the wadi with the other kids. We had to cross in this little boat to start our hike.

At the risk of sounding repetitive, the scenery was STUNNING!

Every time we came across deeper water, the boys wanted to jump in and play for a while. We were lucky to have Jessica as our guide though, and she kept us moving, assuring us that the swimming at the end was much better. Plus we were trying to beat some rain clouds we spotted moving in up ahead.

Genevieve with Colby. She and Grandpa hiked him in the WHOLE way. And he's never been called a slight little baby either : ) I couldn't have done it without them.

Here, we reached the end of the walking/boulder scrambling part. Now, just swimming to get to the end!

First though, we had a lunch break. Here, the dads caught up to us!

Each of the kids had some kind of flotation device for the end part. Owen opted to stay and play with his friend, so he didn't end up swimming with us.

These three considered themselves quite the explorers. You can't tell, but Tyler is holding a tiny little frog he caught. He carried it with him for quite a while, until it was necessary to use both hands for swimming!

This is my favorite picture - the three musketeers!

plus the Mighty Grandpa!

At times the adults could still stand, but most of the time we were just swimming.

In sight of our goal! Through these rocks is a little cavern with a waterfall. Unfortunately for the kids, the water was really high, and only left enough room for your head to fit above water through the rocks. That, combined with the strength of the current coming from the cavern meant they couldn't swim into it with us.

The view inside. The picture isn't amazing, but it was quite the feat to get it! Ken had to brace his body across the entrance, and I sat on his legs to keep the current from pushing me out and to keep the camera out of the water.

There were lots of perfect ledges for jumping off of, and since none of my children have inherited my fear of jumping into water, they had a great time jumping off anything they could!

Ready for the jump...

and here they go! (blurry, but still fun!)

Coming back went a lot quicker than going up. Plus, it started to rain on us, so we were a little more motivated to keep going. Between a Colby diaper change, and our general slowness, we lost the main part of the group for a while. The bonus was they took all the rest of the kids up ahead though : )

We caught up to the group here, where everyone was watching Dan and Jess jump off the ledge. This picture is too fun not to share : )

Inevitably, Will decided he too wanted to jump off this 25 foot ledge. What a champ! His jump ended in quite an impressive belly flop, but as soon as his tears dried up, he wanted to go again. Pretty sure he didn't inherit this craziness bravery from me!

The last stretch. Back to the car 6 hours after we started. Owen rocked his pink little water shoes borrowed from his sister, although he did insist on being carried for the final 15 minutes of the walk back. He is an impressive little 2 year old!

Bimmah Sinkhole: Even though we were exhausted, wet (the rain caught us hard right when we got to the cars) and hungry, we drove to the nearby sinkhole because we were due to arrive at our hotel in Muscat that night, which was a couple hours away. It was well worth our while! These are all Grandpa's pictures, since I didn't bring my camera.

The kids were thrilled to finally use their googles. This is saltwater from the ocean, and there were plenty of fish in there to see. Once again, they were pretty aggressive little fish, nibbling on you any chance they got!

The light was fading fast, since we got to the park right before sunset.

I jumped off a ledge into the sinkhole. Which is HUGE since I hate jumping into water - ask my mom, even the promise of a brand new barbie wasn't enough to get me to jump off the diving board during swim lessons when I was 7. With all my kids cheering me on, plus seeing little 2 year old Jesper being willing to do it, combined with the absolute assurance that Jessica would "help" me in with a push if I didn't do it before she swam over to me, I jumped. Now I can say I've done it, and never have to do it again.

Muscat: The rest of our trip was spent in Muscat, where we stayed at a super fancy resort. I had been looking forward to these particular accommodations since the beginning of the trip, and they did not disappoint! The food, the ocean, the pools, the view, the lazy river - it was all incredible. We spent the whole next day playing at the resort :)

Too much fun! Hailey crashed in the middle of dinner, and didn't even wake up when we set her down on the chair. The kids thought the buffet was a dream come true, so many choices! They were particularly excited about the crab, and once Genevieve taught them how to crack open the crab and get the meat out, they went to town on it : )

Bath time is always fun!

We did some kid swapping in the mornings so couples could take turns paddle boarding or going out for a swim.

Ken & I went out to explore the sea arch (we were dismal at paddle boarding, so we just walked as close as we could get : )

One of the other things I loved was that each morning, one of the kids would wake up early with me and go look for shells on the beach. We got some quality time AND found cool shells.

On our way out of Muscat, we stopped at the souq. Unfortunately, most of the shops were closing for lunch, but we got to see a few.

All Owen wanted to buy was this camel. He had to settle for a picture instead.

All the boys wanted was an Omani khanjar (kind of dagger), shown here in this picture Grandpa got of an Omani man who was walking around downtown. They were thrilled when Ken let them pick a couple out. They come home every day after school and go look for them, and there have been a steady stream of friends coming over to see the fabled daggers.

We still got to see some pretty sights on the way home.

If you want the rest of the story that describes some of our other "adventures," i.e. countless restroom stops on the sides of busy roads, smashed rear windshields, 2 hours lost in a tiny city we have vowed never to stop at again, crazy traffic barriers, a flat tire at the border that took 2 hours to fix, and a 13 hour road trip that was only supposed to last 6 hours, call me up and I'll convince you to come with next time!

 Travel is never dull with us :) It really was an amazing trip though, and after we've recovered, we'll be ready for something new!