Middle-aged flash packers

We set off with the intent of completing walk W6a. I know, that doesn’t give you a lot to go on does it? Basically you walk along the west flank of the An Nakhur gorge to Wadi Ghul and back again. Should take about 7 hours.

The terrain is very stony and not at all easy to walk on. Lots of water is required so our packs were heavy which didn’t help. Going downhill meant being very careful when placing feet so our pace was slow. Most of the view was basically rubble.

At first it was fine and we chatted away as we picked our way through the stony ground but after a couple of hours of hard work and very little reward in terms of views, I suggested we abandon ship and do the balcony walk around the inside of the canyon instead. Now these “suggestions “ aren’t easily made as neither of us likes giving up on anything and neither of us wants to be the first to capitulate but luckily Steve felt the same as me so we about turned and climbed all the way back to where we started. Took us 4 hours in total and 1000 metres of ascent.

We then found the balcony path which was much more scenic (and easier). Far more people though. We sat down about half way through to have a snack and that’s when we met Billy.

Billy the goat popped his head up from behind a rock when we sat down. He stared at us for a while until I waved my tin foil pack at him and over he trotted. What a gorgeous goat! Long coated, white silky goatee and a fringe to die for.

He was very well behaved and waited for us to throw food to him although he did get a little close at times. After he ate anything, he licked his lips several times, as if it was the most divine thing he had ever had and he wanted it to last forever. (I guess anything is amazing after a diet of prickles). He struggled a bit with Steve’s apple core as he was not going to let it out of his mouth and drop onto the floor. I was a bit concerned he was going to choke and we’d have to perform artificial respiration on a goat but after a bit of a struggle he managed to swallow it.

But the real reason I’m in love with Billy is that he didn’t like the dog that had earlier growled at me. Dogs never growl at me, they love me so there must have been something seriously wrong with it. Billy knew. He watched it with an unblinking stare then swore at the dog in goat language. It was the weirdest noise. It wasn’t “meh” like run of the mill goats , he blew through his nose and kind of reverse snorted. He carried on staring and snorting until the dog was out of sight. Then he looked at me. What a goat.

Parting is such sweet sorrow but we had to leave. We made good time getting back and literally as we got in the car it started to rain! What timing! It doesn’t rain much in Oman, it is as dry as a bone so I think we were quite privileged to get to see some rainfall. Felt a bit sorry for the people we saw going the other way on the track though. They will be very wet indeed.

Home meant a fabulous hot shower while listening to the rain pelt the tin roof – happy Days.