wanderingquilter

I have loved my little car … a Nissan Tiida hatchback (that’s a Versa in North America) .. here in Muscat.  We were a bit uncertain about getting one so small – in Kuwait you wanted as much metal (do they make them with metal anymore, or is it just plastic?)) as possible around you, but here, the driving is much more relaxed. It was perfect – easy to park, held 4 people comfortably, lots of room for cargo – especially with the back seats down….. and I have had my freedom to go where I wanted when I wanted, and take friends with me.

David was worried that it would take a long time to sell my car so last week he put an ad in the PDO newsletter.  PDO is the national petroleum company here in Oman, and they have a lot of employees – and lots of expats.  We put his phone number on the ad, as he’s the one that knows the technical details and was going to negotiate the final selling price.  My job – to be ready to show the car, and also to place posters on the bulletin boards of the local grocery stores.

Tuesday the newsletter came out – and he must have taken 50 calls before he turned off his mobile!  I was out shopping when he called to say Khalid would be by at 2:15 to see the car.  then he called again to say I needed to meet Dave at the Shell by the McDonalds at 4.  Then I needed to meet Mohammed at the Sultan Centre at 5 ……..  So much for doing any quilting that afternoon!

Khalid came – liked the car but said the price was way too high and the tires needed to be replaced.  Dave brought his 4-yr-old daughter Julia, who doesn’t speak much English yet (from the Netherlands) but she and I had a great game with her stuffed spotted dog while Dad was looking under the hood.  Tires need to be replaced.

Then Mohammed begged me to just take a deposit and sell him the car so he could go back to Sur to a happy wife. …but the price was higher than he wanted to pay, and, you guessed it – the tires were ready to be replaced.

That evening, Achmed and Nassert both arrived at the same time to see the Tiida.  Fortunately, this time, David could do the showing and talk price in person.  I took the dog for a walk and stayed out of it.

Bottom line – Achmed bought the car for his younger brother, asking price minus the cost of new tires.  One day on the market – and sold.

So, here I sit, with a sold vehicle, and things to do! and you know as well as I do that NOW is when I’d be in an accident. So I made one very quick, very careful trip to the travel agent for our Kenya tour information.

Wednesday, Achmed went to transfer the insurance, and then David was to meet Mahmood at the Vehicle Registration Office in the afternoon to transfer the plates.  He arrived just after 3 – they weren’t handing out numbers yet.  When they did, a very nice Omani gentleman gave him his number, as he saw that David had been standing around longer than he had.

Then I get a phone call – David has just realized that he had forgotten the car registration card – he was still waiting for Mahmood to arrive.  so I hopped into my “sold almost” car and gingerly drove out to the registry and back – safely.

David and Mahmood got a chance to sit and visit while waiting their turn at the counter.  Mahmood is a younger brother (14 kids in the family) from out past Nizwa, is 21, and attending university here in Muscat. He is one of the growing number of young people here who understand the importance of getting an education.   they are the ones that will make this country continue to grow and to prosper.

David is very good at talking to people – or more to the point – at listening to people.  He can ask a few questions and get almost anyone’s life story. So Mahmood got a really good chance to use his English and get to know a Westerner.

Thursday morning, this friendly young man arrived to take ownership of his new wheels.  David wanted a photo of him with the Tiida, and he insisted that I take one of him and David as well. “You are my friend”, he said.

He had really appreciated the time he and David had spent together.  I think that hour at the Registry will make a difference in that young man’s ideas and view of the world. I think that it was equally as important for David, who has opportunities through work, but not with a random  Omani. What an amazing opportunity when he least expected it!

And, here I sit without a car.  But we’ll rent one as soon as we return from Kenya.

Oh yes – and David continued to receive calls and emails about the car for three days.  and he thought it would be hard to sell.  Guess the price really wasn’t too high.

from Riyam Park, between Old Muscat and Muttrah, that goes up through the mountains – for a long time, this was the only way to get between Muttrah and Muscat unless you went by sea.

Today (Friday morning) we decided to give it a try.  We arrived in the car park about 7:15….the sun was still musty behind the clouds.  Even though it is Ramadan, we carried water and my camera…. and of course, Snoopy came along too.  It is nice to go places where he can run off-leash and really get some exercise. And we really need the exercise as well. I took a photo of the trail map, but without my regular glasses, I couldn’t read it.  Really dumb!

Straight up!  Or, almost, with giant stairs that were almost as high as my knees in some places. This old, rusty pipe carried diesel oil from Muttrah harbour back when the only power station was at Riyam.  Snoopy loved being off leash and he sniffed and snooped to his heart’s content. He kept us in his sights most of the time, however.

It didn’t take long before the roundabout and the giant incense burner were a long way off.  It was an incredible view, with crumbly-looking brown mountains and deep wadis on every side.We turned the corner, and it was hard to believe that the city was so close.  Around another bend, and there, in the distance, lay the Muttrah harbour, with Muttrah fort in the foreground.We didn’t see any more trail markers, and as we were heading to Muttrah, we decided this must be the way. The trail down was mostly loose dirt and rocks, and quite steep – not a whole lot of fun going down.  We could see a dam at the bottom of the wadi, and hoped once we got there that there would be an easy path around.

Well, there wasn’t.  We did find a way, but the slope was too steep and slippery for Snoopy, and there was no way her would come. There were dogs on the mountains near the dams, and they made a non-stop racket.l  I think they are half goat…. Snoopy is NOT.

This black cat poked his head out of the hole in drainage hole in the dam….. and Snoopy didn’t even know he was there.  Some dog!Anyway, we headed back the way we had come.  It was a long haul up, and I was very tired.  When we got to the top, the path down seemed much shorter.When we got home, I googled the wadi walk, and discovered that we had gone the wrong way at the top- – we should have gone farther south into a different wadi, by old falaj (irrigation canals) and an abandoned village, and then meandered along a wadi bottom all the way to Muttrah. If you look back at the map, we turned at the second camera icon.

I guess we’ll have to try it again in September, and go the right way this time.  Still, we had some amazing views and the fresh air we needed.

Jebel Akhdar – not the highest mountain in Oman, but what an incredible place! It sounds pretty far-fetched for a mountain in the desert to be called green.  It is not so much a mountain, as two plateaus, the lowest being around 2000 meters above sea level.  Up there, even in the desert,  it is much cooler, with around 12″ precipitation per year.  Winter temperatures can get down to 0C degrees, and lower than that on the high plateau. Even in the height of summer, it is around 30 C, without the humidity that makes it uncomfortable in Muscat.

The road up the mountain is very steep and winding.  There is a checkpoint near the bottom, and they only allow 4 wheel drive vehicles to proceed, as there have been accidents with cars burning the brakes out on the trip down, with disastrous results.  There are  high barriers along many of the outside curves, so you don’t get to see just how high you are and how steeply you have ascended.

When we arrived at the Saiq Plateau, we drove through the town, past the new hotel, and went first to Diana’s Viewpoint – where Princess Diana stood when she visited Oman. The rocks we were standing on were full of fossils.Robert had been talking about gardens and terraces, but I surely was not prepared for what I saw.These tiny villages are hanging by their toenails on this cliff, and the terraces go all the way down hundreds of meters. Each one of those tiny lines on the photo is a terrace where they grow fruits and vegetables, both to eat and to sell.  Can you imagine walking DOWN to the bottom garden to pick, and climbing all the way up for lunch?

The green bushes at the top, where it is nearly level, are a type of rose bush that only grows here.  In the spring, they are heavy with sweetly perfumed pink flowers, which are distilled locally to make rose water.  Lower down there are pomegranates, apricots, peaches and walnuts.

After viewing the gardens from across the canyon, we drove to the nearest of the three villages and began our walk.  The houses are old and poor…. they have electricity now (every village in the whole country has) but the people still live quite a primitive existence. Some of the doors are quite amazing…And look at this prickly pear – it is a tree!  I’m glad we don’t have cactus this big in Saskatchewan.This is a look back at the first village – notice the terraces below.At one point we went along a fairly narrow path (well fenced on the down side) to the village that is at the top of the rose garden.  Just before it, there is a spring and pond.  See the cave at the back?And this small goat found us there, and just loved Robert.When we went down near the top of the hanging gardens, we discovered this electric pulley system, used to carry things down to the midpoint of the gardens.  I was glad to find that they don’t have to carry everything up and down on their backs.

We didn’t go all the way to the third village as it was getting late.It was just after sunset when we were returning to the car and passed some girls coming back from prayer.  I thought it was interesting that they have the sign in English – probably to keep curious male tourists from going down.

After our hike, we went to the new hotel for dinner – and sat out on the very edge of the back patio, overlooking the canyon.  The walk was paved with fossil rocks, and there were some embedded in the walls in the lobby as well.

What a fascinating day trip – only a couple of hours from Muscat…. and you’d think you were in another world.  I would love to go again before we leave.

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I want to make sure that everyone knows that I didn’t design and piece this quilt myself. it was made by Corinne Boucher and myself for her sister. Isabelle had some very definite ideas about what she wanted – especially the goldfish and lotuses. She also wanted it to have an asymmetrical setting.

Corinne and I spent many hours both in November of 2009 and March of 2011 working on the design and assembly. It was “out-of-the-box” for both of us.

When I returned to Muscat, I quilted it, after having it hung on my design wall for almost 2 months.

Together we assisted this miracle birth – and we are both pleased and proud of the result.

Thank you for all your amazing comments.

Jebel Shams – the highest point in Oman.  We hadn’t been there, and Robert planned to go into the mountains, and was quite happy for the company.  He loves the mountains – every rock and crag – but he enjoys someone to talk to as well.  He has a wealth of knowledge to share about the history and geology of Oman, and he finds us willing companions.

We headed out by way of Bahla in order to avoid driving through Niswa. Bahla fort is huge, and supposedly really interesting – have to look it up online, however, as it is closed for renovations, and has been for a long, long time  It is very old, dating back to the Persian occupation, and has an incredible wall system surrounding it.  Story has it that the Persian would mud prisoners into the wall alive to torture and kill them.  Gruesome, eh?

Near the fort, there are several of the old well structures – they lifted skins of water by pulling them up with with donkeys and cattle.We drove by this marble mine – there are quite a f – I didn’t realize.  we saw several trucks carrying blocks of white marble on the way into Muscat.You reach Jebel Shams by way of Wadi Ghul.  Here is the old town.  It is connected to a fort high on the hill by a long wall.  They seemed to really like building walls.  You used to drive along the bottom of the wadi, but, Omani style, there is now a paved road for most of the route. There is a long anticline with many small wadis cut through by centuries of flooding.

When we finally arrived at the top of the driving path, the view took our breath away.  This is Wadi Ghul – the Grand Canyon of Oman.  It’s not as long as the one in the USA, but pretty spectacular.  Across the way, you will see a series of terraces – yes, they are really terraces, with retaining wall up to 6 feet tall.  That little black spot on the top terrace is a goat.  There is a pool and cave nearby, and out of sight, some houses.  Can you imagine living way up on this cliff?I sure can’t.

This is the Bedouin stall where the locals sell woven carpets and key rings, etc.  the kids selling were very sharp – spoke good English, and had great math skills.  We bough a carpet, similar in style to the Sadu of Kuwait. but done with a finely spun wool so the patterns are very distinct.

There were a couple of goats running loose, and they came looking for food when we went back to the car – here an I feeling one paper – it was actually standing up on its hind feet to get the treats. We went a ways down the road to a deserted location to look at the view and eat our lunch (it is Ramadan, so one doesn’t eat in public during daylight hours) and they followed us.

After they had helped Robert and David finish their sandwiches, Robert treated them to a few caramels – the female took them, wrapping and all, but the male waited for them to be unwrapped.

We stopped at a few other lookouts before going back, and then headed to Jebel Aktar and it’s hanging gardens……. but that’s another story.

Hope you enjoy some of the photos I took.

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We slept in this morning, much to Snoopy’s disgust.  He feels that breakfast should be at 5:30 am, with a walk immediately thereafter.

I had him fed, oatmeal simmering merrily away, and was washing last night’s dishes when it happened.  A drinking glass broke and I got a long, deep gash at the base of my little finger.  Bleeding profusely!  I wrapped the wet dish cloth around it and applied pressure immediately.  A minute later it was still pouring blood, so I broke it to David that he would have a good reason to be late for work. I needed to head for the hospital for stitches.

Breakfast was pretty well ready, and it being Ramadan, there would be no food or drink available in public until sunset, so we ate breakfast before we left.  I had the bleeding under control, and did a passable job of feeding myself with my left hand.  Then we were off – leaving poor Snoopy still without his walk or bathroom break.  Thank goodness for big dogs’ large bladders.

Due to the abbreviated work hours during Ramadan. there were very few cars on the roads, and we made it to the hospital in record time. No one in Emergency either, so I was taken right in.  I had a lovely South African nurse do the triage reporting, and after the doctor came and had a look, she sewed me up. At this point, David had to leave – his choice. She did a nice job, too – 7 stitches in all.

I was surprised at just how long the whole thing took – it was about 7:15 when we arrived, and after 8:30 by the time all was finished and we had the ointment from the pharmacy.  And it cost almost 100 RO – about $250.00.  I have a tensor bandage on my hand to keep pressure on the wound for today, and need to go in in a day or two to have it checked.  Then, just before I leave for France on Aug 7, I will get the stitches out, hopefully, and they will just tape it together to finish healing.

So, here I am – back home.  Snoopy and I had our walk – 36 C and 54% humidity when we returned at 9:20- and I am enjoying the AC.  I can still use my thumb and two of my fingers for typing, and will still be able to operate my quilting machine.  But I have to keep it dry, so won’t be able to wash dishes for the next week.  Boo hoo hoo.

Funny thing – 39 years ago I did the same thing, only cut my thumb, and had to drive myself to the hospital with my hand under my leg to stem the bleeding.  Much luckier this time.