Our one and only Frankincense tree - in the distance, the black spot is a military group, training
Tuesday April 14 2009 - Is it Salalah or Salalah, we were up early for a 07.15am start to our tour ‘Jobs Tomb and Frankincense Trees’, Salim, our guide, met us dockside and we were soon underway in this second largest town in Oman and birthplace of the Sultan, Qaboos Bin Said. The countryside around the dock was scrubby desert in all directions and soon we were at our first stop, the Frankincense trees, or I should say the Frankincense tree, as we only ever saw one. We had only stepped from the bus a few seconds when he sound of automatic gunfire startled everyone, the guide was quick to explain that the area was also a training ground for the military and about 200 yards across the wadi, a large black vehicle with several black clad individuals, could be seen. I kept one eye on them, one eye on our bus and one eye on the guide as he explained how Frankincense is collected.
Mughsail Beach
This rock outcropping reminded me of wee Spammy
We piled back onto the bus and headed to our next stop, Mughsail Beach, a picturesque 2 mile stretch of beach with interesting cliffs and rock formations, I walked down to the blowholes while Izzy took a shady seat, it was 85 degF and still only 08.15am. Unfortunately since it was low tide, the only thing coming out of the blowholes was air.
The mosque at Job's tomb
Izzy makes friends with a camel, we called him big Spammy
Next we drove a long distance into the mountains to the site of the tomb of the prophet, Job, or one of the tombs as our guide told us 2 other countries also claim to have Job’s tomb. After visiting the tomb, we made friends with a local camel, who allowed Izzy to approach him, then we took the long trip down the mountainside avoiding stray camels on the road. In town, we stopped at the souk and Izzy bought two Arabian style robes before we returned to the ship, just in time for lunch. After dinner, we watched a comedian, Jack Wilks, he’d missed the ship in Dubai and just joined us today at lunch. I realised after a few minutes, I’d seen him before about 15 years ago and he was still doing the same act, still funny even the second time.
