Salalah Trip...Part 3

Posted: Saturday, August 16, 2008 by Stained in Labels: ,
11

Friday, 1st of August

Second part of Day 3

1) After our lunch from Burj Dubai fast food restaurant, we headed off to the east towards a spot me and my sister were really excited about. It's called Wadi Darbat that seemed to boast of so many scenic views of waterfalls, mountains etc. This was taken while we made our ascent up the mountain...
2) As usual, as we went deeper into the mountains, the number of trees around us would increase.
3) They are converting the area around the Wadi into something of a picnic spot. This worries me seeing how much damage people have already done. In this picture, I love the way these trees grow all together.
4) The Wadi Darbad was kinda disappointing as I couldn't see any waterfalls. Supposedly we have to trek deeper which was not possible at that time as we were not well equipped.
5) Another shot of the Wadi.
6) The tire marks in the greenery is the damage I was talking about earlier. People in 4WDs seemed to go anywhere and everywhere, never following the already created tracks. I don't know what pleasure they got from acting like complete idiots especially those who had turbo engined 4WDs.
7) We now headed back outside to make our way to another spot called Tawi Atayr.
8) On our way to Tawi Atayr. The fog was really thick on the way and we crawled forward at a maximum speed of 40kmph. Here is yet another 'tree in fog' picture
9) Somewhere below is Tawi Atayr. Unfortunately we couldn't go down a little further for a better view due to construction of the steps nor see anything from where we were, due to the thick fog. Tawi Atayr is a huge sink hole that is home for thousands of birds away from human contact. Don't know how long it will take humans to spoil that especially with the steps being made.
10) A cow grazing near Tawi Atayr.
11) A camel grazing near Tawi Atayr. It was so common to see camels in the mountains among the green which is such a huge contrast from the camels we get to see here.
12) I don't know why they use 'food stuff & luxuries' for shops that are literary groceries. I get the food stuff part but luxuries. What's that about??
13) This is a view of the Tayq cave/sink hole. The view was very cool and so was the echo created by it. I was really curious about those spots of green at the mouth of a few caves which meant there must be some water source somewhere though I didn't see a drop anywhere. The surrounding area was very dry and there was hardly any greenery to be seen. Only dried up bushes and cactus were scattered all over the place.
14) I like this shot due to the thorns in the back ground. Even in this dry weather, these plants managed to bear fruits. Very cool!!!
15) Our mode of transport. We put the poor Prado through a lot though the Trajet had its share of tough times too.
16) Another view of the Tayq Caves and Sink hole. I saw a bunch of people and a goat down there.
17) These trees made perfect picture shots...
18) Khawr Rawri archaeological site requires you to pay AED10 for entrance as it's a U.N.E.S.C.O protected site. Its importance lies in it being a important sea port about 2000 year ago. They have uncovered a few houses on the edge of the cliff that overlooked the water. Quite boring and I completely preferred the other archaeological site we visited (pictures later).
19) What was more interesting was Khawr Rawri itself. By that I mean the water and cliffs we could see from the archaeological site. We wondered if we could get down there but it was too late for any exploration as the sun had already gone down.
20) We headed back to where we were staying. We then made our way to the Heritage Village which is the centre for cultural and heritage activities during the Khareef season. Lots of stalls set up serving food, clothes, jewelry etc. I found it quite boring and reminded me of Global village which I prefer not visiting.

11 comments:

  1. Abid says:

    Good set overall. Couple have poor composition, but croppng can easily fix that.

    #1 has the wall, #2 has the tire and #4 has a shirt in the left.

    #8, #10 and #14 are very good.

    #12 is good for my reasons (I like pictures of signs and daily life, etc, which is wat made me read this blog in the first place).

    Although it's your decision, I would post larger shots, and not watermark them. Watermarking makes then annoying to the viewers, and if someone wants to steal your work, they can and will anyway.

    P.S. What camera was used??

  1. Stained says:

    Thanks...

    I know I could have cropped stuff out quite easily but I wanted to keep the pictures as they were (composition wise). Framing a shot is least of my concerns as I know cropping is possible with a 10mp camera. I use a Canon 400D.

    I don't want to put up larger shot due to uploading constraints (blogger has a limited amount of MB up for uploading). Watermarking is because I was advised to do so. So now I prefer having it on my pictures.

  1. OMG OMG OMG..!!

    That's so f***in amazing..!!

    I wanna go right now!

  1. Susan says:

    That first set of shots reminds me of autumn at home-nice job! It seems we have a common friend in Gautam!

  1. Harsha says:

    we had a guide who took us around. We drove past 'Khawr Rawri' but dint go there. he told us it was boring :p.

    We shopped at Khareef Festival - global village looking place. Very Dubai feel, only the food stalls were more local than the usual franchise and less bargaining at the stalls.

    Did you notice a huge part of land opp that shopping area covered with blue tents?

    It seems in the Khareef season, ppl put out tents there and live in that. They give out their houses on rent to tourits. Its a lovely weather to spend camping outside and the local population makes use of the tourists coming in.

  1. Neelofer says:

    Ok! You seriously need to stop making me jealous. You have shown Oman in a different light all together. I'm sending a select few images to my friends hoping that atleast that will entice them to resurrect the plan that died last year.

  1. Stained says:

    Gautam...I have still some 1000 more pictures to edit and atleast 2 more post to make... :D

    Auhgal....Thanks...and yes we do!!

    Harsha....we didn't need a guide cause my sister had been to salalah with her husband two year back. Though we'd be fine without them also as the maps are quite good that are available at the tourism offices..

    I did see the tents....renting it out at exuberant prices to us tourists...bloody rip offs...

    Wait till my next series of pictures, then you'll know what you missed at Khawr Rawri. :D

    Neel...jealous, nah...just trying to pursued some people to go to this wonderful place though you'd surely need a map (you can borrow mine) and some serious attention and car to drive in some not so favorable conditions...

  1. Neelofer says:

    I was kidding about the jealous part :oP
    By the way, illusion has been updated...if you know what I mean.

  1. Neelofer says:

    Mr. Photographer :o). Although your cam is professional, Im still going to ask you about this. I lost my camera charger (Sony DSC-W200). Would you know if there are stores that sell the charger separately?

  1. * says:

    Once again lovely pics
    I loved 5,8,14,18.
    I knew you wre young, but 21! and this level of work.
    MAshallah.
    Well done baccha.

  1. Stained says:

    thanks kaya....[p.s not 21 but 22 ;) ]

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