In the Mountains

The Sultan decided that the whole country has a week of holidays for the end of the holy month of Ramadan. An excellent occasion to explore the country and exchange the heat of Muscat for some cool mountain air! We rented a big 4X4 (our own car first needs to be paid before we can drive it...), and set off for Jabel Shams (mountain of the sun). All this with our friendly and loyal guides to Oman, Maartje and Ronald (a.k.a. The Ronnies).

On the way, we stopped to see the old village of Al Hamra. The mud brick houses were mostly in ruins, but some seemed to be inhabited. Hopefully, one day the village gets restored.

There is something about doors...

...and hats!

Some dramatic scenery on the climb up to Jabel Shams

Gideon sets up a tent, which is large enough to house a soccer team, while Matilda waits patiently.

 Matilda in her tent

The next day, we hiked up towards a ridge from where you can overlook Wadi an Nakhur or the 'Grand Canyon' of Oman. Thanks to Maartje and Ronald for looking after Matilda!

The canyon is 1000m deep, and the views are just astonishing. Hopefully, these pictures will inspire future visitors.....

On the way back, we saw a goat climbing a tree...Bizarre!

Father and daughter taking a nap.

After another nice evening with campfire under a starlit sky, we returned home the next day. We hope to make many more trips like this. Thanks to The Ronnies for the great company!

Matilda: Liquids and Solids

The swimming pool at PDO club was closed for Ramadan, fortunately, there is a second PDO pool close to the office. Gideon tries to go three times a week for a lunchtime swim with colleagues. It is wonderful to have these facilities so close to work and so easily accessible.

Matilda also likes the pool, in the weekends when it’s nice and quiet. A whole baby pool to herself!

Some things one is not supposed to do in a pool!

Which brings us to the second part of the title of this entry: Matilda and the Solids!
Today, we tried to feed Matilda some rice porridge and it did go down really well.

Of course she wanted to take the spoon, and quickly managed to ‘eat’ by herself!

Settling in

As the days go by quickly, we are slowly settling in. In these first three weeks we have learned how to get to work, where to do our groceries, and what to do to stay active despite the heat.

Commuting to work is worth an observation because it is exceedingly different from our habitual bike and train rides in the Netherlands. Gideon needs a five-minute drive along the coast to get to work, as the Camp where we live is adjacent to the offices and refinery area of PDO. Each morning he enjoys spectacular views of the ocean, the cliffs and the beach – what a way to start your day at the office! Marike needs 20 minutes by car to get to the university campus. Omani traffic is quite chaotic – you need five additional sets of eyes to watch in front, in the back and on the sides - as cars seem to pop up everywhere!

Grocery shopping is also an interesting observation, especially to study the origin of the products. As Oman’s climate is not very suitable for agriculture and other food production, most of what you find in the supermarket is imported from abroad. We will soon dedicate a special blog posting on our globalised kitchen cupboards!

We are very happy with our temporary accommodation. Our apartment is located opposite the golf course. In many countries this is considered a prime location, but here the ‘greens’ are ‘browns’, so you could easily confuse the golf course with wasteland. Here is a picture:

Looking to the left, we can see the PDO school (primary school) with behind it the recreational club:

And here is a picture of our apartment, on the first floor (with the balcony).

Due to a combination of heat and Ramadan, the options to explore our new home town are limited. Shops and restaurants are closed during the day. Drinking and eating in public is considered an offense, even a sip of water in the car is a no-go. Exploring the surroundings of Muscat is therefore not really much fun at the moment. The beach? Too hot. Instead, we enjoy going to the gym (Marike) and to the swimming pool during lunch break (Gideon) to stay active. The average daily temperature is around 35 degrees Celsius, but it’s mainly the high humidity which makes being outside pretty uncomfortable.

As for Matilda, she is doing great. We found a patient and responsible nanny for her, who even managed to finally get Matilda used to bottle feeding! After several weeks of refusing drinking from the bottle, this came right on time, as mommy has gone back to work! It seems that Nida, our nanny, and Matilda get along well, and Matilda is happy as always.