Al Sifah

Today we drove south to visitAl Sifah beach. Once outside of Muscat, the traffic thinned to..nothing basically. Brand new roads , making driving very easy.

We stopped off at a little bay surrounded by hills where 2 Canadian ladies were sitting in the shade of an abandoned dhow. I suspected they were expats as they had their own chairs. (Next life, I shall come back as a detective). They were lovely and gave us lots of tips for the rest of our travels.

We drove through a village where goats probably out numbered the people. The goats were obviously hot and had found shade wherever they could – people’s porches, under cars. I noticed the ladies in the village wore colourful clothing unlike Muscat Black.

Arriving in Al Sifah, google directed us to Jebel Sifah, a posh complex with a harbour. That wasn’t where we wanted to be so we turned around and followed a dirt road which took us to the beach itself. And what a beach – a glorious crescent of golden sand with no one on it. We walked up to the fishing village and back again. Must have been about 3 miles there and back.

The sad thing was that where we parked was an abandoned beach hut, showers and toilets. Can’t help thinking that something more local had been squeezed out of business by the more swanky Jebel Shifah. I suspect more building is to come.

Slow journey back but no one at the pool so had a relaxing couple of hours reading and snoozing in splendid isolation.

Tomorrow we go to Jebel Shams to do some walking. And guess what? It’s going to bloody rain!