... And So To Oman ....

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

After a frantic night in Dubai packing all our gear, for a week +, into two 4x4's we set off to the beautiful country of Oman.  It's an extraordinary thing but as soon as you cross the border the scenery changes completely, the houses change (the Omanis generally build their houses in enclosed compounds) and the whole "feel" is completely different - added to which the Omanis are quite possibly the friendliest people in the world (not saying that the Emirate's aren't (!)) but the Omanis are just delightful and incredibly helpful.

On our first day we drove up to Jebel Shams - the self-styled Grand Canyon of the Middle East and highest mountain in Oman:

We camped near the edge of the crater (although not too close!):

As ever in these kind of places, people appeared to we were able to buy wood for a bonfire (we were about 2,000m up so it was chilly!):

The next day we descended right down to the coast and crossed over to the island of Masirah - famous for its turtle laying beaches.  We had to reverse onto the ferry, which was fun (I was driving and all the men were looking on critically - I'm glad to say I did it perfectly!):

We arrived in the dark (which is never to be recommended) so camped "blind" and in the morning found that we were here:

I love the way that Mel's bright orange sun shade marks the spot!  Around the corner was a perfect little bay with, to our great joy, turtle tracks on the sand - at least one mother had come and laid her eggs that night:

Did you know that, for every 1,000 turtle eggs laid, only 1 hatchling will survive.  Many don't even make it to the water - picked off by crabs and birds.

It was so hot we strung up a tarpaulin between the cars:

 As well as turtles there were also camels on Masirah:

and after a couple of relaxing (but hot) nights we moved back to the mainland.  Back on the ferry a kindly dhow passed close by for photographers (!):

and, back on the mainland, we headed across another bleak desert (The Wahiba Sands) - I love the warning signs for Sand Dunes - just in case you hadn't noticed:

and camels:

and (no signs) but extraordinary Bedouin villages (complete with satellite dishes!):

That night we treated ourselves to a hotel on the turtle beach (showers - yay!) but, obviously, we couldn't take any photos of the turtle laying her eggs.

Next day we headed up the famous Wadi Shab:

which was incredibly beautiful but there's swimming involved if you want to get to the very top so we'd left our camera behind.  Fortunately our friends' son had brought his waterproof one!  At the very top of the Wadi you can swim through a tiny opening into the top pool fed by a waterfall.  Depending on the height of the water depends on whether you have to swim underwater or not.  Fortunately, a kindly Frenchman told me that I could sneak through without having to go right under so off I went - here I am coming through the other side - still not quite sure where I'm going!:

You can see the tiny gap that I'd just come through!  On the way out, the sunlight turned the water the most incredibly iridescent blue.

That night we camped on the beach overlooking the Indian Ocean:

and planned to spend half the day there - but, once the sun was up so were the flies so we had to beat a hasty retreat (although not before we'd had a morning dip in the warm sea).  From there we headed seriously off road:

Here we are the top of a monumental series of switchbacks - that beach by my right elbow is where we spent the night.  For those of you who are interested, my pink top if a Rip curl SPF50 top.  I have recently been treated for a number of minor skin cancers so was taking no risks - the top worked - I can thoroughly recommend them:

At the top of the massive climb we then traversed the plateau:

Even here there are people - who, presumably, traverse that road on a regular basis.  This is the village school:

and this is what children still do when they don't have phones, ipads and televisions to entertain them - they build miniature mud houses:

The plan had been to traverse the wadi at the top and then go back down the next road along.  However, when we got to the wadi we discovered that it was only traversible if "you don't mind getting your car bashed a bit"!!!:

Yeah - that's the "road".  As ours was a hire car and Sev and Mel's was their own, neither of us was in the mood for "getting our cars bashed a bit" so, sadly, we turned round and went down the way we'd come up:

 ... and headed for Muscat via Bibi Miriam's Tomb (which was closed for renovation but we walked up and photographed it and no-one seemed to mind):

and the extraordinary Bimmah sink hole (which the children swam in):

And so to Muscat - a delightful city, with a fantastic souk (yes, we went shopping!) and the Sultan had kindly left his yacht in the harbour for us to see:

The Corniche was beautiful:

as were the forts:

and the Sultan's Palace:

We were sad to leave Oman - a beautiful country with everything from glorious mountains to turtle beaches, endless deserts, extraordinary wadis and lovely, friendly people.  We plan to go back!

Tom is now finishing his gap year in Jordan, Guy is back at Uni and we ..... well, we're back at work!!!

New Yarns and Holiday Snaps!

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

Sorry for radio silence - I've been away - of which, more later in this post.  Whilst I was away life chez Knit Wits carried on its normal course and no less than two new yarns arrived.    I've been back for 2 weeks now (which really doesn't seem possible) so both yarns and patterns have now been uploaded onto our site.

The first is Stylecraft's first outing into the Lace market with their lovely mohair blend yarn, "Senses":

There are loads of patterns to go with Senses - everything from lacey shawls and wraps:

to cardigans:

sweaters:

and accessories:

Some really lovely projects for summer cover-ups - who can resist?!

Stylecraft's second new yarn is "Stars" - a sparkly blend of both sparkle and sequins in muted, summery colours - I strongly suspect that darker "winter" colours will be joining this range in the autumn months:

Again, a wide range of patterns, including sweaters:

and cardigans:

and some very pretty sweaters and cardigans for little girls:

And, so, for those of you who are interested - to my holiday!  As you may remember, youngest son (Tom) has been away on his gap year since June last year when we saw him off in Phnom Penh, Cambodia (with many tears from his mother {I tried, unsuccessfully, to hide them!}).  Since then he's travelled through Vietnam and Thailand with his brother, spent 7 months in New Zealand working on building sites helping to re-build Christchurch after the catastrophic earthquakes, travelled through Australia where he visited a tribe he'd studied for 2 years for Anthropology IB and, finally, made it to Dubai as he is hoping to study Arabic alongside Anthropology at University.  

So - as per a long-term plan - we flew out and met him in Dubai, where we have friends who have been urging us to visit for many years!  Dubai is a fascinating place - the first gulf state to run out of oil, it's success is built on the vision of their very enigmatic sheik  - and what a vision he had (and has).  We visited the Burj Al Arab (although didn't go in for a drink - possibly the most expensive place to have a drink in the world!) {Afternoon tea starts from £60 per person}:

We walked along the old Dubai Creek and its "historic" area:

we shopped in the souks:

and, of course, we went up the tallest building in the world - The Burj Khalifa (£20 per person if you book in advance online, £80 if you turn up on the day {which I wouldn't recommend as it was fully booked on the day we went up}):

The lift up to the viewing platform travels at 10m per second and, yes, our ears popped several times on the way up!  It was windy on the (outside) viewing platform!:

And it's a long way up:

The boys have a collection of shot glasses from around the world and, amazingly (for a "dry" country), there was a Burj Khalifa shot glass for sale at the (inevitable) shop at the top - we had to buy one!:

From Dubai we hired a car and went to Abu Dhabi (about 2 hours along the coast).  The driving in Dubai is insane, the signposting is a nightmare/non-existent and they change the roads and road layout so frequently that neither maps or sat-nav can keep up - we had a few "interesting" detours!  In Abu Dhabi we met up with an old school friend of FB's, who took us to the Masdar Institute - the world's first graduate-level university dedicated to providing real-world solutions to sustainability.  We travelled in driver-less cars - which was extremely bizarre!:

Our second port of call was Abu Dhabi's quite extraordinary Shaikh Zayed Grand Mosque.  It's an incredible building, very reminiscent of the Taj Mahal, and one of the very few mosques which allows encourages visitors of any nation, religion and sex.  As a woman I borrowed an abaya, which was far too big for me (!) but was, in itself, an experience.

The Mosque is big enough to take 40,000 worshippers at one time and contains the biggest carpet in the world - stunningly beautiful:

From Abu Dhabi we drove down into the desert for 3 unforgettable days in a hotel surrounded by sand dunes:

We posed on the sand!:

We struggled to comprehend how people live out there (it was HOT!):

and we went sand-boarding (which was a disaster - apparently the boards needed to be polished to a shine with furniture polish - ours weren't - and the climb back up the dune after the hilariously slow descent was exhausting!):

On the way back to Dubai we visited the crazy Rainbow Sheik's car museum - here is his "camper van" (spot the boys standing by the back wheel!):

I would LOVE to have gone inside but, sadly, we couldn't.

Coming next: our week's camping in Oman - incredible scenery, amazing experiences and, above all, the friendliest people in the world ..........