It took rather longer than expected to leave the hotel today, and not because of how much we had enjoyed the stay in our beautiful room with sea view, the friendly and efficient staff, the fully stocked club lounge that one can dip into at any time for free juices (including pineapple – yum!) snacks and free wireless Internet access, the great swimming pools, the fabulous breakfast, etc.
No, it’s just because we had unpacked quite a bit in the course of our four day stay, so it took a lot of time to get packed up again. We also had to arrange a trip into the desert on Thursday with Desert Discovery, which required a phone call. Last but not least, we didn’t bother setting an alarm, so we weren’t down to breakfast as early as we might have been.
Eloïse has been such a fantastic travel partner since we got here. In fact, she has always been great at travel. The least we can do in return is let her go to sleep and wake up as and when she pleases. Consequently, we rise (and occasionally crash) when she does.
Anyway, we finally made it onto the road by noon and were heading towards Quriyat, the town where the unsurfaced coastal road to Sur begins. 84 km later, we arrrived in Qurayyat. We made sure the car was full of petrol, cleaned the windscreeen and popped into a local eatery for some food.
One of the surprising things about Oman is that there are a lot of fast food type restaurants that, from the outside, look very unappealing. Sometimes, they remind one of the crud served in similar-looking establishments in the West; sometimes they just look drab and unappealing.
In Oman, however, one is constantly surprised by the quality of the food on offer inside such places. It’s not necessarily going to impress Gordon Ramsey, but it’s decent, filling and cheap. And when I say cheap, I mean really cheap. A filling meal can be had at many places for as little as rial or less.
And that reminds me: I have to mention the fabulous fruit drinks that can be had all over Oman. Wherever you go, small hole-in-the-wall shops, juice bars and restaurants conjure up large fruit drinks, smoothies, shakes, or any combination thereof. You can get everything from avocado shakes to fresh lime juice. Beware, however, of the surfeit of sugar that will invariably be deposited in your drink unless you instruct otherwise.
Anyway, after lunch, we hit the rocky road and began winding our way to Sur, a plume of dust being kicked up in our wake. I’m not an experienced driver on unsurfaced roads (in spite of years of driving up and down US 101 in California), but at no point during the trip did I start to become uncomfortable. There were a few steep gradients and some incredibly bone-jarring washboard patches, but nothing that made me wonder how I was going to navigate through it.
At just after 15:00, we reached Wadi Shab, immediately before the small town of Tiwi and just after an incredibly steep descent. There had been precious little to see on the way, save for a few other 4×4 vehicles carrying tourists, the occasional bird overhead, feral donkeys, straying goats and a dead camel at the side of the road.
If Eloïse weren’t in tow, this wadi would have been good for a day hike, but as it is, we walked for only an hour before turning back.
The wadi is lush and beautiful. Tall palms rise up on either side of the water, themselves dwarved by the towering cliff walls. Local girls beat tree branches with long sticks to make their berries fall, which they then collect. I’m not sure if they are eaten as is or used for cooking.
Alas, we could stay no longer, because we wanted to reach Sur by sunset. We could have spent a pleasant day wandering through the wadi.
We got back on the road and finally found our way back onto tarmac some 20 km or so outside of Sur. The road felt like velvet from that point forward, and the soles of my feet were tingling from all of the day’s unsurfaced jostling.
We overshot Sur and had to backtrack 5 km. Once we’d realised our mistake, we quickly located our hotel and checked in. We were given a room facing the sea. As I write this, I’m watching the waves break on the beach and listening to the roar of the ocean through our balcony doorway. The easternmost point of the Arabian peninsula lies just a few kilometres from here, at Ras al-Jinz, an important turtle-breeding site; sadly, we’re here out of turtle season.
There was just enough time before sunset to enjoy a walk on the beach. We found a partially decomposed turtle, a washed up blowfish and a dehydrated cuttlefish. Eloïse darted around in the sand, while Sarah collected rocks and shells.
It was now time for dinner. We opted for the hotel’s restaurant, as our guidebooks seemed to suggest there weren’t very many options in town. Once again, we were in for a surprise, as our totally unassuming hotel restaurant turned out to serve excellent food.
We plumped for the buffet and weren’t disappointed. There was even a choice of dessert, amongst other things fruit triffle (sic) and strewberry gareaux (sic). They tasted better than they were spelt.
Tomorrow morning, we’ll look around Sur. In the afternoon, we’re off to a desert camp somewhere in Wahiba Sands. I can’t wait!
Tonight’s hotel, by the way, is the Sur Beach Hotel. Its folder boasts that it is a world class hotel with “all amenities”. Presumably, this includes the undersized sink plug lagged with toilet-paper to make it fit, which was brought to our room when we complained that there was no way to make the water stay in the basin! Credit where credit’s due, though: the solution worked.