By 7 this morning, our ship was pulling into the Port of Sultan Qaboos, near Muscat. There were numerous round stone towers on top of the hills nearby, plus a hundreds year old walled castle. There was one other ship in port, we found out later is the Sultan’s personal ship, and nearly as large as Oceania’s Nautica!
I had made reservations for a private tour with Muscat Nature Tours. Mustafa picked us up at the Port Gate at 8:10 this morning and we headed immediately for the Wahiba Sands, 240 km southeast of Port of Sultan Qaboos, near Muscat. We drove through rough rocky mountains close to 2.5 hours before we saw the Wahiba Sands, named for the Bedouin Bani Wahiba tribe, and covering over 4800 square miles. Full of color, the soft sand was rippled from the wind, and amazingly beautiful!
Mustafa drove us back to Muscat, stopping at the Sultan Qaboos Mosque, the largest in Oman. He drove us through the oldest part of Muscat, where the first Sultan’s Palace was located, before dropping us at the Port Gate. It was an interesting day! Like UAE, Oman has negligible crime, no visible trash anywhere, dramatic terrain, and unlike UAE, much more modest architecture. Building above 10 stories is forbidden, so the scale is smaller, yet quite elegant. We liked Oman!
