From the Sharqiya region to Dakhiliya Region

The Hajar mountain range naturally divides into the East and West Hajars. It runs through the country from Ras al Had, down by Sur, in the South East to Musandam in the North at the tip. This range divides the coastal plain from the interior and gets as high as 3000m. 82% of the country is sand and gravel so although we saw plenty of coastline and interior, we were not able to see a huge and vast area of wide of desert. This romantic and classic desert is known as the Empty Quarter and the Wahiba Sands. The South of the country attracts monsoons and gives a whole different climate and feel to the country. People say they absolutely love it down in Salalah, next to the Yemen border and a mere 1200km. away from Muscat. A well paved road will get you there in 12 hours! This is where frankincense grows and is considered the best in the world. I was hoping to get some for my oil collection, but noone in the North seemed to understand what I was asking for.
From Sur we headed North for Nizwa. Nizwas is famous for its fort which the town is centered around. We pulled into town around 5:30pm with lovely soft light bouncing off the large fort walls. This fort took 12 years to build and was completed in 1668. This fort is considered one of the more important historical sites in Oman. A traditional style souk was built inside the fort using the remaining old fort walls and mixing in new sand coloured walls. Everything is inside this souk. We parked at the fish entrance unknowingly and quickly made our way into the center of the souk area. There is a meat and vegetable section, and of course handicraft area where they sell a lot of silver, khanjars (Omani knives), rugs, copper, pottery etc. It was pretty quiet when we strolled through looking for our frankenscence and maybe a khanjar. The vendors were not interested in bartering and didn't seem to concerned about selling anything. We ended up buying some dates and cardamon, nothing we were looking for. The Omani dishdasha is a slightly different style than the Kuwaiti one and Geoff was looking to buy one for himself. We couldn't find any made up and realized after talking to someone that only the tailor's make them up custom to fit you.
We were tired from the long day and decided to find a hotel room and stay in Nizwa as we didn't know how far out of town we'd have to drive before we could stop. As it turned out, all of the 4 hotels in the area were full except for the Falaj Daris, the most expensive one. Oh well, we took it tired and dirty, happy to have a bed to fall into and stretch out on, we plugged in all of our tech stuff to recharge for the night. Oddly enough the movie on TV was an old Russell Crowe made for TV show about a small Northern hockey town, they said was in Alaska, but looked much more like Smithers. We got a hit of B.C.'s densely forested mountainsides, snowy winter, and outdoor pond skating.
The next morning was our last real day to explore as we were bound for Dubai the next day so we headed for Wadi Ghul and Jabel Shams. Wadi Ghul is an incredibly deep canyon in the mountain range where Jabel Shams rises to 3000m. We eventually reached the plateau where you can look down into the canyon 1500m. below. It is quite a site to see in the middle of nowhere. Other sites that come out of nowhere are mountain women with their small children selling slippers and small woven crafts they've made out of goat hair. Goats are a familiar site up here as well and roam freely. I bought a few of the goathair 'keychains' and offered away our few chocolate bars and biscuits we had on hand to the women. They live up on this huge mountain where there is nothing growing except for Acacia trees. It is dirt rubble and more crumbling rock. They walk around in barefeet, their hands are as rough as sandpaper with deep cracks in them, tougher than anything I've ever felt. There are tiny towns off in all directions as we drive up the mountain. It will have a sign that says 1 or 2 km. in a direction pointing towards the village. There is absolutely nothing around. Only a 1/2hour away from these villages are the paved roads and cosmopolitan lives of city folk. What a stark contrast and massive separation between worlds just minutes away from each other. Jabel Shams was beautiful and offered tons of camping, but of course wrong time of day for us so we pushed on towards Al Ain, the border town into the Emirates.