Surviving driving in Oman

Surviving driving Oman  (but it's a dry heat)
We step off the plane in Oman into warm evening air - and no humidity!  And not raining!
Our bus takes us to the hotel in the dark. It's near midnight, and we can make out rugged hills all around us as we come down a long and winding but wide paved road to the opulent resort that will be our home for 3 nights (or about 15 hours, as it turns out). It is actually a complex of 3 hotels on the coast outside Muscat. We are to meet at 9:00 a.m. to find out what we will be hunting for, so we try to sleep fast.  An interesting rule change for this leg is the unusual, although not unprecedented, option of renting a car while in Oman. We soon discover that without a car, one can see nothing here, so we happily join up with fellow dirt-trackers Shane and Scott to do our scavenges. First stop is the old port of Muscat with its 2 forts guarding the harbour, and the Sultan's palace in between them, Sadly, the forts are not accessible to the public (the first of MANY forts we will visit in Oman that can only be viewed from the exterior). Still, they are highly photogenic. We pick up the requisite stamps for sending postcards to the Dictator`s Director's children (they will arrive by the truckload at this rate), then head south to the town of Sur, stopping at another closed fort in Quryat on the way. The motorway is an engineering marvel, although the Humvees (bristling with machine guns ) under camoflage nets  at the toll booths give us pause. I guess they take toll-dodging seriously? But after a quick passport check we are on our way again. Seems that traffic accidents pose a greater risk to us here than the army. We're told that the highway death toll here is astronomical, and in fact later read that a family of 7 was killed on the same highway that day. The highway passes through rugged mountain passes, then along the ocean to Sur, a sleepy fishing village. Quaint, but not worth the points for a 2 hour (each way) drive.To help pass the time, our chauffeurs purchase CD`s at a gas station and we listen to disco music in heavy rotation until our ears bleed (just joking, Shane ; )   We get back to Muscat (crossing the Tropic of Cancer en route) and head to the Mutrah corniche for a sunset stroll. We explore the Mutrah souk, pricing frankincense, ouds, khanjars, arsaas,and kumas. We eat some halwa and lokhemat and buy a do-it-yourself henna tattoo kit.
The plan for the next day is to drive inland for 2 hours to catch the live animal market in Nizwa, so "wheels up"  at 6 am. Sadly, the breakfast buffet opens at 6:30 a.m.  We reach Nizwa just in time for the goat auction. There's an arena filled with men (mostly) and their goats, all milling around while the "black moving objects" (the wives in full burkah) sit in the shade around the walls. The scene looks like it hasn't changed in hundreds of years, except for ubiquitous cell phones. Much easier for checking the going price (about 200 R) per goat. Several pickup trucks have small herds of goats in the back -we aren't sure if they are recently purchased or yet to be sold and the goats seem similarly unsure, but unperturbed. We roam the souk, visit the date market and sample 4 varieties to find the best, then head to the fort to admire the slots used for pouring boiling date syrup on attacking infidels. Good to know that you're being scalded by only the finest variety of date juice.
Onward to Al Hamra, the oldest Omani village, just one of several ancient towns that we will visit in this area. Mud brick construction (unlike the modern ornate concrete buildings of the newer towns here). These towns seem to survive now on tourism. A new resort is being built nearby to accommodate trekkers and 4x4-wheelers who come to explore giant caves and climb in  the rugged terrain. We head up into exactly that wild country as we drive up Wadi Ghul. Before long the pavement ends and we continue for 2 hours on gravel, climbing steadily to over 2000 m in a wide expanse of barren lava-like rock. Tall angular peaks surround us on all sides, with a massive gorge (deeper than Grand Canyon??) waiting for us to fall into. Our gutless Suzuki baby 4x4 makes steady, if hard, progress up one S curve after another until we reach Jabel Shans (aka The Mountains of the Sun) and Oman's highest peak. Ther route down is significantly quicker.  One team allegedly made the drive in a 2 wheel drive car: Bravo!
On to the village of Balad Sayt, although through a miscommunication (?) with the locals (everybody lies), we miss the actual site that we are supposed to find. More specific clues would have helped here (and elsewhere in Oman): we later learn that other teams also failed to find this remarkable location which we hear requires a lengthy hike to reach. Really disappointing after all that driving.  At least gas is cheap, about $.30/litre.  Guess we'll have to come back some day? We're not sure that this giant hilly gravel pit of a country is one we will rush back to, although it does have a certain stark beauty. The people are immensely friendly and hospitable, but women are CLEARLY second class. Certain locations are off limits to Kit and me, and the locals direct all questions/answers to our male "protectors". Even when we order food, it comes to the guys first, and the ladies room is often an outside shed, rather than the indoor gents. They all stink, though.
We visit another fort, this one at Bahla, and on the Unesco World Heritage list. Again, not open to the public, as it's being refurbished, but the adjacent 10 km long city wall is public. And then, the 2 hour drive back to the coast, with Kit behind the wheel.  Astoundingly it is only about 2 pm as we get back to our hotel after what feels like a long day. We could revisit Muscat, but as it is Friday, many sites are closed to us, including the Grand Mosque (recently built, it can accommodate 15,000 and boasts the world's largest carpet and chandelier). So we do the unthinkable, and goof off for a few hours. We complete our henna tattoos, dip our toes in the  Sea of Oman, stroll the grounds, write up our score sheets and catch up on laundry. We find a hotel happy-hour and even have a (mediocre) sit-down dinner of tapas. It all seems so wrong, but as the hotel is an isolated self-contained resort far from town, dining in Muscat seems pointless. We know that the serious contenders are still out there battling for every point since this year the outcome is not (yet) a given. At 9 we all reconvene. Some happy teams have driven the sand dunes, some have ridden camels and others have gone dolphin watching. Some have completed their scavenges successfully, others....?   Let's just say it will be an interesting finale if let to take its course. A lot will depend on the next 2 or 3 legs.  We will depart at 4:45 am tomorrow - no breakfast, again   : (    -  and are off to Bahrain (stop-over only)and then to......
Cyprus