Babbling Brook: Jebel Shams and Wadi Nakkhar

We went with Uncle Latif and his wife to Jebel Shams and Wadi Nakkhar. Starting the day out, we thought we were going to a place that none of us had ever gone to before. Some discovery uncle had made on his flight to India sometime last year. His "discovery" of what he said was the Grand Canyon of Oman turned out to be the ever old Jebel Shams.

It has been years since I've visited, so though it didn't turned out to be a new spot, it was just as fulfilling. The drive up the mountains to reach Jebels Shams is just gorgeous. The stark beauty of the rocks is breathtaking. And once you reach the top, the gorge just entraps you. After walking along the edge and taking in the beauty for about half an hour, we drove back down to go to Wadi Nakkhar, which essentially is the bottom of the gorge we see from Jebel Shams.

Driving through the gorge with the sun roof open provided some brilliant views. At the very end of the drivable path is a little shop, of sorts. Here, an older Omani sells carpets woven from goat wool. Across the shop, is his house, hidden amongst date trees and almost camouflaged due to it's stone structure. Once could easily miss the presence of that house altogether. What a location to live in! In a wadi!

After visiting the store and purchasing some rugs, we found a flat spot along the wadi to eat our 'fabulous' (read: blech) lunch of meat and vegetables puffs and cheese sandwiches that we'd picked up last minute from Modern Bakery. I can't believe Modern Bakery turned out to be such a sore disappointment.

It was a fabulous Friday in Oman! :)