Wadi Madbah, Part II

We have been in the states since mid-June and I have lots of photos to post about that as soon as I can. But first, one more story from our overseas adventures:

As promised, a few weeks after our first visit to Wadi Madbah, we returned with a few of Hannah's friends to celebrate her birthday. We left for Oman on Friday the Thirteenth of June. While John was driving us there I read an article in The National (an Abu Dhabi newspaper) about superstitions. Apparently one local superstition is it's a bad omen to accidentally kill a bird. This was a little disconcerting as we had just killed a bird that flew into the front of car a few minutes before. But we're not superstitious and, aside for feeling sorry for the bird, we laughed it off. Perhaps we should have worried.

The trip began much like the first: a few hours of driving, a quick passport check at the border, and a few rough kilometers on a very rocky road.

Goats still do roam on the road to the wadi.

We picnicked at a small not so shady orchard at the top of the plateau near the wadis. There was a group of perhaps a dozen Omani nationals picnicking nearby, all guys.

Always full of energy, even in the heat, the girls climbed both a nearby bluff and a tree. After lunch, we drove just a few minutes to the top of the trail. After a ten minute hike down, we were at the wadi.

More jumping at our favorite wadi.

We were completely surrounded by rugged cliffs.

The narrow canyon.

It turns out that the wadi is full of little fish that like to nibble at your toes. This helps to clean off dead skin and is in fact an expensive service at fancy salons. We got it for free.

Here's where the bad omen strikes. We drove back to Al Ain, an oasis town just over the border in the UAE. We had decided to spend the night at the Mercure Hotel in Al Ain instead of driving all the way back to the city of Abu Dhabi. The hotel is located on top of Jebel Hafeet, a dramatic lone mountain that stands 1,240 Meters tall. The road up has many hairpin turns. John tried to honk the horn at a rather inattentive driver on the way up, but the horn did not work. This is not something you want to find out on such a steep road. But we made it to the hotel safely. Once we checked in, a bellboy helped us with our luggage. When we arrived at our rooms, John reached for his wallet and discovered that the cash he had just pulled out of an ATM the day before was gone. 1000 Arabian Emirate Dirham, about $300. Since the guys near the wadi were the only people we had seen that day, it didn't take long to figure out what happened: while we were at the wadi, someone must have taken the money hidden in the armrest console from our locked car. They probably unhooked our horn (through the car's front grill) so the alarm wouldn't go off when they jimmied our door lock. At least they didn't take the credit cards, the i-pod players, or the loose dvd player in the back. Just the cash. For that we are thankful. Somehow I'm glad that it didn't happen in the UAE. Crime is in fact very low in the UAE because most Emirati are well to do, punishments are severe, and Ex-Pats would just be deported after serving time in jail. Oman is less wealthy and apparently this type of theft is fairly common in the area. We were upset for about an hour, but then we moved on, not wanting to put a damper on an otherwise fun weekend. I guess the moral is don't leave valuables in your car no matter where you are, especially if it's on a Friday the Thirteenth and you've just accidentally killed a bird.

Back at the hotel, the girls jumping in the pool.

The view from the pool at the top of the mountain.

Miles and miles of desert.

The next day we went to the Green Mubazzarah in Al Ain, the only source of fresh water in the Abu Dhabi emirate, with natural springs used for both swimming and drinking. The girls took lots of pictures of the resident cats.

A view of the valley surrounding the springs.

The girls at Green Mubazzarah. So we lost a little cash, but the weekend was still lots of fun!